« GRINDIN' JAPAN: BIG BOX ARCADE & GODS GARDEN »
haunts | Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 5:21PM | in GodsGarden, arcade, daigo, street fighter, street fighter 4, street fighter IV, tournaments 
So I somehow survived the first week here in Japan and still have another week and a half to go. So far the trip has been insanely fun, playing at a number of different arcades trying to boost my BP on my battle card (12k BP with ~55% win percentage). With that being said, it's a bit difficult to update the blog on a daily basis since there is so much going on!
Anywho, as I mentioned in the last post, BIG BOX arcade is the spot for Street Fighter 4 competition so we have been hitting it up on a daily basis, playing some of the best players in the country such as Daigo, Ojisanboy, Bonchan, AC Revenger, Shiro, Nemo, Nuki, Kanbara and Booya. These are just the big names too -- there are just as many solid unnamed players all trying to get their SF4 fix each day as well.
The arcade located on the 6th or so floor of this shopping complex called BIG BOX that has a mix of different shops and attractions on each floor. This is hands down the nicest and largest arcade I've ever seen with virtually every fighting game known to man available to play. It's not just fighting games either -- they have the Gundam games, some crazy Square-Enix RPG game, music games.. the list goes on and on.
The set up for Street Fighter 4 is really nice: a row of 6 head to head cabs, divided up into the "big boys section" and the, well, "scrubs section". The scrub section still has really solid players but I was able to rack up 5-8 win streaks fairly easily. The "big boys section" is a different story though-- I could get a handful of wins here and there but no serious streaks. This is no surprise considering many of the players are ranked top 50 in the country.
My most memorable match at BIG BOX so far was against Daigo, considering I got him to the last round in a 3/5 match. It seemed close to me but truth be told I think he was in control of the match the whole time and could just go into beast mode when he needed a win. This is how it feels against many of the top players here, where even if you are doing well, they can seemingly clutch out a win anytime they need to.
Overall, the biggest problem character in Japan has to be Akuma. Anytime I play a decent Akuma here I just feel tottally helpless. I'm either caught in some 50/50 demon flip situation, some sort of 20+ hit far standing roundhouse loop combo or simply just stunned after a couple mix ups. As a friend mentioned to me recently, once the US Akumas get on Japans level, people will be begging to play against Sagats.
Speaking of Sagat, the best Sagat player I've seen and played so far is Bonchan who is ranked 8th in total BP. I watched him defeat a number of top players fairly easily, including Daigo, and make his way to a 15-20 win streak on the "Big Boys" cab. He uses Kara-Tiger Shots very effectively and kara's any special whenever he has the chance. I usually do well in the Tiger Shot exchanges, but his timing was amazing, making it very difficult hit him with any of my Tiger Shots from full screen.
So as you can imagine, BIG BOX arcade has really spoiled me when it comes to the competition. We've travelled to a number of different arcades such as Shibuya Sports Land and Mi Ka Do and nothing really compares to BIG BOX.
I will say that Shibuya Sports Land is a nice joint though, with 6 SF4 cabs and just as many Street Fighter III cabs. Its pretty small but the atmosphere is great with it being located in a very busy area of Shibuya. The night we went to Shibuya Sports Land was for a 300 Yen all night free play for Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
That night I played Rikkimaru's Sagat in Street Fighter 4 before many people showed up, getting a couple wins out of maybe 7 games before he went on to play SF3 and rack up a 40 something win streak. The competition for SF3 in general out here is on another level so to see him completely dominate like that was pretty mind blowing.
They ran a 3 on 3 tournament that same night and our friend ThyAllMighty's team took 1st place, defeating Rikkimaru's team. Not 100% the name of all the players there, but I do remember Q player TM pulling off some ridiculous set ups with Q. Very fun night even as a spectator, and just to think this is any other Tuesday at Shibuya Sports Land!
I think it was Tuesday anyway! The days are kind of all blending together into one long session at this point, but I do know that Gods Garden was on Friday. Many of you who watched the stream know that this was an event hosted by KSK that invited some of the top players in the country to come play. Lucky for us, they also let foreigners in to play as well.
The event was located at Asagaya Loft A which is a little bar & lounge located fairly close to the train station. It was raining that night and the streets were packed with people since some fair was going on so we had a little trouble finding the spot.
Included with entry was a free drink ticket which was nice but inevitably lead to me sitting at the bar drinking more and more, chatting it up with Fubarduck, FaceNC and MAGUS1234 as we waited for the tournament to begin. I was having a great time but wasn't really in the tournament mindset, not that it really mattered considering who I ended up playing.
The tournament was round robin format, where the player with the best record in their pool made it into the main event. Marn was my first match and he destroyed me with his C. Viper. His play style is much different than Magus1234's, and with it being just one match I didn't even have a chance to adjust. My next match was a bit more forgiving though as I played a Zangief and pulled out a win. I was feeling confident after that but went onto lost to another C. Viper, who again had a completely different play style than all the others.
The most memorable match though was against TKD who is an El Fuerte player. Tiger Shots were useless in this match as he would splash over them each time, scoring him a knockdown. In the corner he would do a goofy cross up using Jumping roundhouse and proceed to Run Stop Fierce. The most interesting tactic he had though is he would use the air grab to catch me out of a back dash. I had never seen this before so I was in disbelief when it happened. I thought maybe I did something like an uppercut on accident but knew that couldn't be it since I didn't hit a button. IronFist later confirmed that this was possible as an El Furte used the same tactic on him that same night...at a different location.
Marn, Ricky O. and Fubarduck dipped out a little earlier but Magus1234, FaceNC, Nevermore, and these two players who run the Singapore Street Fighter scene (Yagami Lang and someone else, I forget his name -- sorry!) stuck around for the later matches between those who qualified. We had drinks and were betting on all the matches so it made for a good time.
The matches that went down were some of the best matches I've ever seen, with Uryo taking out Daigo and Mago coming back from the losers bracket to take it all. If you haven't seen these matches yet, do yourself a favor and check them out.
Also, between all this they had a ladies only mini tournament in which a Blanka player ended up taking it all. Not only were they all super solid players, they were also all very, very beautiful as well. I wont lie, I wanted to take some pics but didn't want to be the creepy white guy snapping shots!
Since Gods Garden we've been taking it easy as we move onto week two. The plan is to start playing even more than before and really try to maximize our play time here. Next week is a 5 on 5 tournament at BIG BOX which should be dope and of course Super Battle Opera, so stay tuned for more updates from Tokyo, Japan!
Reader Comments (21)
"I wanted to take some pics but didn't want to be the creepy white guy snapping shots!"
Should've taken the pics anyways! :P
nice writeup
@Oichi
Agreed
@haunts
You shoulda been the creepy white guy taking shots. If you weren't going to do it, who wiill?!?! If I was there, I woulda been the creepy asian guy taking shots, but what fun is that? -.-
Thanks for sharing your tales so far. Akumas here are getting scary as is. If you say they're a big problem over there now, I can only imagine what we'll be seeing in the months to come.
--GCII
Sweet Keats' Quill!
My God, Neidel... Is that what Heaven looks like?
I'm pretty sure it is.
You and Magus gotta live it up for the rest of us while you're over there. LIVE IT UP!
Good wright up.
Heard you got banned from that shithole GAF. Fuck them. And, their group of shitty scrubs who think they can play. LOL.
Anyway, going to be coming to japan later this year. Leveling up to the max. In SFIV and Sexing them japan school girls.
Marn, Ricky O. and Fubarduck are crazy for not staying to watch. you go all the way to japan to play and then don't want to stay up and watch the best japanese players beat on each other?
Fantastic post, haunts! I'm surprised you were able to get all these photos, as Japanese arcades are usually quite strict about people taking photos.
Keep doing it, its gotta be great to go out there and have all this fun and just soak it up. Love every update, thanks for letting all of us out here on the interwebs live vicariously.
Thanks for the coverage Haunts! Q: After seeing them both in action would you say Bonchan is a better Sagat player than Mago?
Pics of the ladies!
lol
Amazing write ups so far. For 99% of the people reading this, it's about as close as we'll get to such locations :\
As far as the couple US players not staying to watch the rest of the matches, apparently it was SUPER hot in there, and they probably see those players each day while at the arcades throughout the week anyhow. On top of that, it was held until like 5am Japan time, so they may not have wanted to stay up the whole time.
I tried to take a creeper shot of a chick in a maid costume in Akihabara yesterday but she covered her face. lol
@supermoves
I havent played Mago yet so its hard to say. I think all the top players are outstanding, hard to say who is better, its just who grinds more for BP.
GET THAT ZENY!
Glad to know where Daigo trains. Im going myself next year to do some serious leveling myself. btw nice write up. :)
is that magus losing to a honda three straight in the first pic? I just noticed :P
Awesome write-up as usual. Giving us poor folks a taste of trans-world gaming. Thanks Haunts.
I see my brother in opening picture! YEAH! Also, night write up, haunts. You make me proud.
Such a great write up! I am so jealous. Maybe by the time SF5 rolls around I will have money/time to go back.
Awesome writeup haunts.
Seems like you guys are having a blast there. You musta loved watching sagat vs viper!
The ladies tournament musta been nice to watch too as they looked really good.
That Blanka player could hang with the fellas also i think.
looking forward to reading about SBO!
Awesome read! Im even more hyped for SBO!
update this shit!