Although the Sega GiGO Akihabara Building is long gone, Namco has taken over the space to open its own collective of products for gamers to enjoy. This six-floor game centre simply known as Namco Akihabara opened March 1st, and we are fortunate to have a friend who’s in Japan right now, willing to take snaps for us.
Special thanks go to Gerald Parkin for providing info and some insight to this new operation. He’s living an otaku’s dream in this trip and reported that not every floor here was open during opening week. These dedicated levels are for (collectable) trading card games on the fifth floor, capsule toys on the fourth, music based video games on the third, lots of claw machines for the second and first and your traditional arcade cabinets in the basement.
This arrangement is terrific for those wanting something specific, and for the capsule toys, they are all officially licensed Bandai Namco products. And the fact these gashapons are a floor onto itself says a lot for those addicted to this chaser product line to find a collectable keychain or mini figure. They’re in Japan town on Robsten Street too in Vancouver, but not in the scale as shown in these images.
According to Timeout.com, the centre has 46 consoles dedicated just to Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs 2X Boost, and Gerald confirmed that was the most occupied space during his visit here. The building looks sort of space-age by day, but it truly shines at night with the colours to show they are up and running. They also report that because they own Gundam, Ultraman and Pac-Man, gamers can expect more of those IPs to populate the space. The fact there are Taiko no Tatsujin drumming installations has me intrigued for what’s to come, since competitions are planned.
The following is a gallery of what our intrepid board and role playing gamer found. Anyone planning on a visit to Japan with visiting this new attraction in mind now knows what to expect.
