1 post tagged “arcade”
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my latest obsession in the Japanese arcades: Aquarian Age Alternative.
AAA is one of those "place real cards on a playing surface, watch as the game senses them and reacts accordingly" games. But this one is slightly different. In AAA, the entire playing surface is actually a screen. As you place cards onto the surface and move them around, you can see the game tracking their movements in real time. It's very cool.
In case you've never seen one of these games before, below is a YouTube video (filmed by HeiseiDemocracy), showing you how this game roughly works.
The basics of the game are thus: you, the player, are represented by an avatar called the Mindbreaker. By moving your Mindbreaker card, your avatar moves. Mindbreakers cannot attack nor defend, and the aim of the game is to defeat the opponent's Mindbreaker.
The Mindbreaker cannot attack, so you will need to use a Character card. When your Mindbreaker has generated enough energy to summon (or "Break", in game parlance) a character, it will appear on the game screen. Move characters by moving their card, and activate their abilities by flipping the card. There is one more type of card: Alterations. These are essentially spells, which can be used only once per game. At the end of each game - win or lose - the machine dispenses one sealed card. The only cards you can actually buy come in the Starter Pack, which you must purchase for 500 yen. Each game is 300 yen, decreasing to 200 then 100 if you win games in a row.
Therefore it's not such an expensive game after all - considering you always walk away with a prize, so to speak. True, most games are 100 yen, but they don't hand out collectable cards, do they? As it stands, this game is very engrossing. I've played 12 matches so far and have duly been handed my rear back almost every time. Of course you need good cards to win, but you really also do need a strategy. Do you defend your Mindbreaker strenuously? Go for an all-out attack? Trap the other player and disable their characters one after the other? This isn't a turn-based battle game - everything happens in real-time, and if you forget to move your cards, your opponent will make short work of you.
In actual fact, I'm thinking of making a guide on how to play this game. I am also thinking of making a new website. I want to call it, "PkerUNO's Guide On How To Use Cool Stuff In Japan For People Who Don't Understand A Lot Of Japanese", or PGOHTUCSIJFPWDUALOJ for short. I've already written up a few articles on FeliCa over at http://pkeruno.googlepages.com/ so adding this would be the logical next step. Do I hear any interest whatsoever from my loyal readers? :)
