Shooting Live 2019 – Vertical Shooting Night: An Event Packed With Shooting Love

Magazine Translations

Shooting Live 2019 - Vertical Shooting Night was held on 02/21/2019 at AREA in Tokyo's Takadanobaba. This event was the second in Famitsu's series of concerts (following the first one that was centered around pixel-drawn RPGs), and was centered around vertical scrolling shooters. There was a live music section featuring performances by two bands that know the sounds of an arcade better than anyone, a DJ set featuring wonderful composers, and a talk segment featuring some shooting game-loving celebrities. We're bringing you coverage of this event that was packed full of shooting love. Continue Reading

The Holy Land Of The Darius Series: Hey Staff Interview

Magazine Translations

Store Manager M - The 6th store manager for the Hey arcade. They've been making great efforts to spread word of Hey since taking over, sending out information and exclusive goods that are for sale their via social media. Store Employee S - A senior staff member that has been around since the arcade opened, who is in charge of the maintenance of various games. Their skills are indispensable to the continued functioning of retro games.

Until We're The Holy Land Of The Darius Series

Today we'll be speaking with some staff members of the Hey arcade, which has many different entries in the series setup, and is known as the holy land of the Darius series. (M) We opened the arcade in 2001, amidst the last vestiges of "electric town". At that time the home electronics stores were beginning to leave the area. Continue Reading

Game Center CX 15th Anniversary – Special Long Interview With Shinya Arino

Interview - Kiyoshi Tane Photography - Hiroyuki Matsuzaki Shinya Arino was born in Osaka on 02/25/1972. In 1990 he formed a comedy duo called Yoiko with Masaru Hamaguchi, a friend since middle school. In addition to his activities as a part of said comedy duo, he also regularly appears on Game Center CX (aired on CS Fuji TV One), as well as a wide variety of other things.

The Kacho's Skills Have Actually Improved?

Congratulations on the 15th anniversary of Game Center CX! You've had many hard challenges in recent seasons, haven't you? Like Chou Aniki (Episodes 220-221) (Arino) Hard? As in difficult? Well my techniques have improved, after all! (Laughs) The ADs said that you've been keeping a good eye on enemies lately. They even say that you're getting better at shoot'em ups, which you're known to be not very good at. (Arino) I get complimented on that from the youngest person on the production staff. I wonder if it's because I've been backing off when it's time to back off, since my feelings of not wanting to die have been coming out. Continue Reading

8 and 16 Bit Rhythm Land

Reviews

Hardware: Famicom, Mega Drive
02/21/2019 (Japan)
8ビットリズムランド/16ビットリズムランド

Columbus Circle has been responsible for both brand new and revivals of unreleased and out of print software titles on the Famicom and Super Famicom for a little while now. The Rhythm Land series of games marks their entry into the world of brand new Mega Drive releases, which is something that the console has not seen in a very long time (if you're not counting home-brew stuff). Rhythm Land are retro rhythm games released in two distinct versions: 8 Bit Rhythm Land and 16 Bit Rhythm Land. The first for the Famicom, the second for the Mega Drive. Continue Reading

How to Buy Japanese Concert Tickets Overseas

Blog

Since I've been doing a lot of buying of concert tickets in preparation for my next trip to Japan in April, I thought it might be helpful to share some of the ways I use to get tickets to Japanese concerts from overseas. I'm sure there are a good amount of people who want to do this for their own trips, but are just too intimidated by the process. It does seem very complicated on the outside, but once you know the ins and outs, it can be surprisingly straightforward. Though as you'll see, it really all depends on how the ticket sales are structured! I'll cover as many different scenarios as I've run into, but that isn't to say there aren't other possibilities as well. Continue Reading