Death of an Icon: The Arcade

It seems growing up that I took Arcades for granted. I always figured they'd be around. I mean, I have very early memories of playing Pac-Man at Straw Hat Pizza. Of course, there was the odd birthday at the Tully Road Chuck E. Cheese, which is the biggest one of its kind, a 3 story monstrosity with a gigantic rat mascot that one can see from the freeway and something like 5 different birthday rooms.

But it wasn't until about 1991 that Arcades took a much bigger part in my life. For those who aren't into Arcade history, that was the year that Street Fighter II was unleashed upon the world. The sequel to Capcom's 1987 release Street Fighter, Street Fighter II introduced us to 8 playable characters, 6 more than the first. It also gave us 4 "boss" characters, who would later become playable in an upgrade. It was a fighter that was deceptively simple. You had 3 punch buttons and 3 kick buttons. But there was a much deeper fighting engine lying beneath that simplicity that brimmed with complexity. Each character played differently and people could find the one that best matched their personalities.

Funny. In those days, I was drawn to Ken, the Shotokan fighter from the USA who was very similar to the main character Ryu except that he was a bit weaker but faster. Nothing really changes. To this day, Ken is still the character I main. Does that mean that I haven't really grown up? Hmm, I probably have to ruminate on this one.

Street Fighter II soon became a right of passage, a way for boys to transition into manhood. Sure, you may laugh at it now but all the tell-tale signs were there. Before that, boys would prove their masculinity by getting into schoolyard fights, or by joining various sports, eager to exercise their competitive natures and show they were the best. The same thing happened at the arcade. The better you were, the longer you played. Because the machine was set so that you could continue playing until you were defeated in a best out of 3 match, either by computer or by human opponent, you could theoretically play until you didn't have any more challengers. You'd see kids line up their quarters on the arcade machine, forming a type of queue, calling it "Next game" or "I play winner" to mark their intentions. Those whose talents weren't up to snuff played their matches, lost, turned around dejected, only to return with another quarter and lining up at the back of the queue waiting for their next chance. The winners? Well, they had bragging rights. Each successive win, each opponent defeated, just added to the intensity in the atmosphere, with each player frothing at the mouth to get a chance to take the guy out. It was like a gauntlet. Only the strong survived.

There were many days of cutting school to go to the 7/11 around the corner to get a couple of rounds in. Many days spent at the arcade at Eastridge mall, or again on the top floor of Chuck E. Cheese. And even though Street Fighter II became available on the home systems, there was still nothing quite like the arcade experience. I mean, it's nice playing against your friends and family. But that gets stale pretty fast. You get to see how people play. You understand what their weaknesses and strategies are. You begin to read them. But going to the arcades...suddenly you were playing strangers. You were putting your reputation on the line in front of people you didn't know and you had to save face. Losing was certainly a humbling experience. Victory, on the other hand, was always sweet.

After Street Fighter II and all its variations, there was Mortal Kombat. Then Killer Instinct. It's funny that the arcade boom of the 90's started with Street Fighter as it would also be responsible for its demise. Arcades used to have varied games but with the success of Street Fighter, they became overwrought with me-too fighters and even worse, other Street Fighter type games like Marvel Vs. Capcom and Darkstalkers. They pushed aside shooters and racers, two genres that normally flourished at arcades. Instead, everyone wanted a fighting game and it wasn't too long that people got bored at the lack of variety. Coupled with this was also the fact that the home systems had become powerful enough to produce arcade perfect translations. Pretty soon, publishers were skipping the arcades altogether, finding greater and more stable success with a home release.

Of course the final nail in the coffin was the advent of online gaming. Now, people can play other players all over the world and not just at their neighborhood arcade all from the convenience of their living rooms. You have access to people 24/7 waiting to play and find a game at any time of night. But is that necessary better? While there have been great strides recently, especially with the "arcade mode" in Super Street Fighter IV that closely mimic the "I've got next" arcade experience, it's still not quite the same. There's nothing quite like proving your mettle to the person standing right next to you, playing the psychological game, and being able to read their actions. Until someone can recreate that experience perfectly, Arcades will always have a special spot in my heart.

Post-script:
All hope is not lost. If you live in Japan, that is. The Arcade is alive and well in the land of the rising sun. Hmm, maybe I should visit my cousin Gemma.