Video Killed the Arcade

I can remember visiting the arcade when I was a kid. Or at least my version of an arcade. Where I lived, going to the arcade had many different connotations. It meant that every time I would go shopping with my Mom, I would beg her to go to Wal-Mart. Because her shopping at Wal-mart meant me playing Primal Rage, Street Fighter II, Virtual Fighter or that light gun game with Aerosmith at the local Wal-Mart.

Or it would mean me always, ALWAYS, begging to go to Pizza Hut. And it wasn't because they had good pizza. They had Misses Pac-Man, the kind where you lean over the top and play. The kind with the greasy joy-stick and the booth cushion for a chair. Growing up when I did meant nothing was cooler than pizza, so said the four wise ninjas - Leo, Ralph, Mike and Don. Whether the pizza was good didn't matter, it was just luck - or I like to think, fate - that Pizza Hut made the best damn pizza I had ever had.

Going to the arcade was every trip to ice skate, every roller rink visit. Putt putt? All I took was quarters. Skate? Why would you skate when you could play Time Crisis or Metal Slug (oh Hometown Pizza!!) or, I'll never forget, the Marvel VS. Capcom at Iceland - the only one I ever played.

And then they built an arcade in the mall, which had all the games, but by that time, I was getting older, I had a Playstation, games cost 75 cents for one credit, Crusin USA was EVERYWHERE, along with those big loud Dance Dance pads and generic crap that took up the room the Virtua Tennis's, pinball machines and Galaga's used to occupy. I couldn't play Street Fighter anymore, it was all Tekken and...Tekken.


But I digress...every trip to the movies was also a trip to the arcade. I remember when they got House of the Dead and I spent hours playing that game. I would get my allowance in quarters, cut yards for quarters, recycle aluminum cans for quarters. When I could play Time Crisis, House of the Dead AND Virtua Tennis all in the same place, I was in arcade heaven.

So playing House of the Dead 2 and 3 on the Wii was a bit of a nostalgia trip. There was no slot to put the quarters and no germ covered plastic red and blue guns, but shooting zombies in my living room with my Wii zapper was a lot of fun. I'm going to get the Handgun made by Nyko for the Wii for that authentic feel, but the zapper is still fun.

I just hope they put out Time Crisis 1, 2 and 3 for the Wii. Imagine, all three on one disc. I would pay $50 for that easy. The Wii could be a revival for the hardcore gamer, making light gun games and arcade titles available that may be hard to come by or nearly forgotten. I'm excited, I want to see more Sega games, more 3D0 and all that other stuff that was great but so many people have forgotten.