Every fall, I travel to Japan to help cover
Tokyo Game Show, and every year I find myself a little sadder as I look around Tokyo's hallowed gaming shops to find that the classics sections are growing smaller and more pathetic. Sure, we'll always have shops like [ame="http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/9235"]Super Potato[/ame], but they're fewer in number. Meanwhile, other gaming shops are catering less to the retro niche and more to either mainstream gamers or the creepy sub-section of fans that refuses to play any game starring male or post-pubescent characters. Compared to just three or four years ago, Tokyo's retro gaming scene has taken a huge nosedive.
One phenomenon that appears to have sprung up to replace the country's faltering retrogaming commerce, though, is a sudden influx of retrogaming bars. We visited a couple of them two years ago -- 8-Bit Cafe and 16 Shots -- but since then, quite a few have popped up around the city. In a way, it makes sense. The people who used to frequent the classic gaming shops have done their shopping and own what they want at this point; what they want now is a place to hang out and socialize with like-minded folks. And that's where retrogaming bars come in.
So, last night we decided to check out the current "it" spot, Shinjuku's Muteki Mario. The name Muteki Mario means, roughly, "invincible Mario." I'm sure that has something to do with the flashing star outside the bar, but part of me suspects it also has something to do with
this. No courage like Irish courage... even for an Italian hero in a Japanese game.
I can see why Muteki Mario is so popular. The interior is chill, dim but not dark, small and arranged in a way that makes overcrowding impossible. It's comfortable, and the prevailing theme is videogame nostalgia. There's a huge projector screen connected to a Wii crammed full of Virtual Console games -- and, this being a Japanese bar, the vast majority of those titles are early Famicom games that no one in America cares about. But a tipsy 30-something Japanese dude would totally get a kick out of stumbling drunkenly through infamous games like Spelunker or Atlantis No Nazo, I bet.
The decor is also notable, since there's quite a bit of game paraphernalia on display, but not quite enough to feel crowded or kitschy. Everyone's favorite installation are the light figures, which have been designed to resemble Mario warp pipes. Rad.
Par for the course, Muteki Mario offers a handful of game-themed drinks (pictured top): The Enemy Koopa, the Mario, the Cute Peach. They're fine, but all other drinks are priced at a surprisingly standard 700 yen, which is pretty decent. Apparently Japan sells liquor for cheap but reams you for beer... which is fine, because I don't like beer anyway.
I probably won't have much free time this trip, so it was nice to stop and check out Muteki Mario our first night in the city. (Even if it did degenerate into a bunch of drunk Americans making sex jokes as they played Cho Aniki.) I'm sad that something like this would never fly in the U.S., at least not with this sort of relaxed atmosphere and friendly service. But on the plus side, it does give me a reason to look forward to visiting Japan occasionally now that Akihabara is mostly dead....
1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : TGS 2010: Mario is Invincible, Imbibable
Threaded Mode
