Back streets of Tokyo: the retro alley

(tags game, retro, purchase, ECsite, failure)

Before that Tokyo trip, I found my Yar's Revenge / Asteroids / Pong GBA cartridge. On the bus I played Yar's Revenge, game type 3 and it was really fun until the stupid difficulty level ramped up too high. Hitting the fast moving tempest thing with the dumb missle thing is pretty cool, especially with game type 3 because your "fly" has to collect enough "nectar" and then go all the way back to its base (left side) in order to make the tempest-destroying missle. When I really think about it, Yar's Revenge was the best game on the Atari 2600 for me. I can't recall the others that I wanted to play. (Maybe Vanguard, ooh, shmup).

Then I got to Akihabara and checked out the import shops. I bought the Capcom Collection 2 for the Xbox at Messe Sanoh Chaos. I'm finding that the Capcom Collection 2 just isn't as much fun. I wanted that side-scrolling fighting fun but Captain Commando has cheap difficulty. I wanna play those other Capcom side scrollers like Alien vs Predator, or even the Konami-made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ah, arcade memories. There are a bunch of games I never heard of, so it's not likely I'll even try them. Heh.

I only know two import stores in Akihabara, Messe Sanoh Chaos and Game Hollywood. Perhaps there are more, I want to know. The latter has the selection but also has the outrageous prices. It seems the former took over Trader's turf. In fact, MSC is on the first floor while Game Hollywood in the next building but on the 5th floor and less visible. I did buy the Gamecube (after-market modded) VGA cable from GH though, no problems there. That little alley is just retro in my mind.

I almost bought a gang load of retro titles on GBA re-release such as the Legend of Zelda (US), Zelda II (US), Activision Atari Anthology (US) and Spy Hunter / Super Sprint (US). There was also the Unreal anthology, the PC FPS collection of Unreal, Unreal 2, Unreal Tournament, and Unreal Tournament 2004 in one box (2 DVDs). OMG OMG hyperventilating. There was even Starcraft there so I could do my own research. Luckily I exited the store to think about all of this (because shoot, I probably have a version or two of each game already) and I promptly forgot. I swear I would have probably have 5 minutes of fun with River Raid and Pitfall before giving up and putting back the Sudoku.

Seriously, going retro is only fun for the fumes of nostalgia.