3WAVES BLOG

Friday January 1st, 2010 | Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment

Dating has finally arrived on the handheld gaming scene with Konami recently releasing a new game called “Love Plus”. The game is simple to play; select a virtual girlfriend who tickles your fancy, take her out on a few dates (with your Ninetndo DS), and if the stars align you may get the chance to kiss her – by kissing the screen. The times within the game are synched to real times so when you wake up she wakes up, when she takes lunch you take lunch, and so on.  

Targeted at 20-40 year old single (and married) Japanese men, “Love Plus” has sold more than 150,000 units since its realease in September 2009 and is still growing in popularity.  Where  a lot of social interaction between the sexes in the ‘real world’ is limited to the work place “Love Plus” is sure to provide the ideal game for many a lonely salaryman – not a perfect solution for the declining birth-rate, however, and the fashion choices certainly raise some eye-brows.

Friday January 1st, 2010 | Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments

As a kid growing up in the States, the local video arcade occupied a small corner space near the back entrance of the local shopping mall.  But gaming is a bigger deal than ever and nowhere is this more true than in ultra-urban Tokyo.  The above video provides a brief walkthrough of an ‘average-sized’ game center located in northern Tokyo (shaky camerawork courtesy of yours truly).  Japanese game centers are sprawling places with something for everyone.  The slots and ubiquitous ‘pachinko’ machines attract a middle-aged and older demographic, as does the leisurely-paced electronic horserace game that shows on a big screen that’s more akin to a jumbotron.  Some of the players seemed to have been there all day betting on their ‘virtual horses’ and lounging comfortably in reclining leather seats replete with cupholders. Of course there are more than enough attractions to bring in high schoolers and twenty-somethings as well.  What this video doesn’t show you in addition to the massive game room:  this facility also houses a large bowling alley, a baseball batting center, rooftop tennis courts and an urban driving range for those golfers that can’t make it to the course on a busy weekend.