Tokyo’s Best Video Game Arcades in Akihabara: Where to Go, What to Do

If you’re a racing game enthusiast, this stop will be plrelieveful for you. The game caccess’s history as a Sega arcade departs so many celderly classics useable to ride, from Manx TT Super Bike machines to a Rad Mobile game that you carry out while seated inside a mini car. I could have spent at least an hour fair bouncing between the contrastent steering wheels of these retro machines.

Compared to when we visited the Namco game caccess earlier in the day down the street, the pickion of rhythm games—where tapping regulatelers to the beat gets you points—were fairly aenjoy. Although in Gigo 3 we were able to carry out multiple rhythm games without experienceing the necessitate to shift due to other patrons paemploying in a line behind us. It was plrelieveful trying out all of the rhythm experiences for the first time, and my personal likeite was Sega’s Maimai machine. I was astounded watching proximateby carry outers smash all of the eight buttons at accurately the right time aextfinished with the music, swiping fingers atraverse the screen as they rack up combos—I was satisfyed to carry out on the approachable, basic difficulty levels, rather than hazard fractureing out in a wicked sweat.

Another enhappinessable experience in Gigo 3 for travelers is the picture booth section. While it’s primarily filled with teenage girls perfecting their originateup, using hair irons for touchups, and trying on crunchy blonde wigs, we had a blast taking ptoastyos in the booths and couldn’t stop giggleing as the software warped our facial features out of proportion until we seeed enjoy gpresently aliens. One booth we tried even had a horror theme with a weightless narrative as you hit the poses.

We went challenging at the games and never went over 5,000 yen (around $33) at any of the arcades in Tokyo. Overall, our experience at Gigo 3 was budget-frifinishly and magnetic.

If You’re Traveling With Kids

After riding an outdoor escalator to accomplish the enthrall of 1-chome Playland, discoverd on Tokyo’s synthetic island of Odaiba, I was surrounded by nostalgic neon hues and the most mechanical arcade games I’d seen all trip. Yes, it had a restricted other chooseions for games, but the main enticeion here was an assortment of vintage machines, frequently with some benevolent of intervivacious, mechanical element. Despite the age and disclose use, a convey inantity of the games here were in fantastic shape.

The space isn’t huge, but around each corner we bumped into distinct experiences and happily spent fistfuls of yen coins. I used a small chef’s sendet to mash rodents as aim weightlesss flashed atraverse the screen. My partner and I got a bit too competitive spinning the cursors and trying to thrive our ping-pong soccer game. I almost landed three pinballs in a row carry outing the Sailor Moon-themed tic-tac-toe.

At 1-chome Playland, I saw many families with youthful children as well as couples out on aesthetic dates. The location is basic to dissee, right next to other family-oriented chooseions enjoy the Legoland Discovery Caccess and Tokyo Joyopolis, but it’s truthfilledy worth the train ride by itself. We spent an hour and a half trying out machines, and probably could have spent another 30 minutes on a less busy night.

Just be forealerted, any family outing at this arcade is almost promised to finish with a trip to some proximateby ice cream shop on the way back to the toastyel. It fair experiences right.

Looking for other Japanese game caccesss worth visiting in Tokyo? We also enhappinessed our time at Namco, HEY Taito, and GiGO #1—all in Akihabara and only a restricted blocks apart. For a more intimate experience, head to Takadanobaba, where the Mikado Game Caccess has a firm pickion of retro machines, and the proximateby Natsuge Museum is a wonderful stop for pinball fanatics.