Welcome to the Pokken room at Taito Station Shinjuku Minamiguchi Game World.
An old Tekken Tag Tournament 2 replay unit is hooked up to 6 kiddie-coloured Pokken terminals under a bedroom-wall Sceptile poster.
A strawberry-flavour glow syrup-stains the corner while nicotine tubelights buzz on the ceiling.
Photographer and writer covering Tokyo arcade life – the videogames, the metropolis and the people
Game centres all have stories to tell.
Japanese arcades are dripping with tar and nicotine. In fact, it’s said that the reason nineties candy cabinets keep going so long is that the plastics have transformed into a super-strengthened resin after decades of suspension in cigarette tar.
Dragon Ball is one of those franchises where you could easily spit out another something at a fingerclick. Everyone wants to make it; everyone wants to publish it; everyone wants to buy it. How many decades and a bottomless appetite. Click! Dragon Ball Zenkai Battle.
Pokemon means pocket monsters. Tekken means iron fist. Therefore: Pokken means pocket fist. Named for the scooping of hundredyens – or the skulking home in the cold.
