COVID-19 (or the Legacy Virus) has had caused things to slow down. Sure, vaccination rates are now going and herd immunity may be achieved any time soon. Soon people are now having limited going out. After all, Omicron may still infect the vaccinated BUT it's rather mild in contrast to the pre-vaccination days. I remembered missed eating out. One thing I just can't miss is going to the arcade. The arcade can develop some fond memories. However, these fond memories can be relived at home or some arcade games are no longer worth playing.
There are so many fun memories (or not) about the arcade. I remembered going to the arcade when I was in my elementary years. I was fascinated by a lot of games. I mean A LOT. I could remember how there were so many games on Bibo, Glico's, and later Time Zone. My fascination was strong when I was a kid. I guess it's all part of being a child, right? There's been so many arcade games. But one thing was certain - them arcade games were a CHEATING BASTARD. I tried to learn a few special moves yet I couldn't reach that far either.
One of my memories was seeing Mortal Kombat II. I think I remembered someone was using Sub-Zero (Bi Han) using the second controller. It was time to deal with Kintaro who was infamously difficult. I used to think everyone was playable like it was in Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. However, these bosses are so hard that it's really a quarter eater. Making them playable would make the game broken. Playing Mortal Kombat Trilogy made me realize that after I got to play as the bosses by default. Seeing someone getting pummeled by Kintaro and hearing the "AAAAAAHHHHH!" with the uppercut was just groaning. Worse, the CPU tends to button-read for one reason - to eat up your quarters. That's what I didn't figure out until I played Mortal Kombat II on the PS2 via Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.
People will be falling in line waiting for their turn, right? Also, it's a test of expertise. I remembered the first Tekken game and almost nobody reached Heihachi. Seeing someone play as Paul and lose to Kuma was another. Others reached Heihachi but RAN OUT OF QUARTERS granted how cheesy he was at the first game. Just seeing how the Street Fighter II series got so hard was another. I just have to laugh at how I was teased that a woman beat me in Street Fighter II. I could talk on and on about how Chun-Li is one of the most irritating characters to fight against. That's why I even dreaded facing her in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Fortunately, later arcade games were a bit more balanced and Chun-Li isn't as much of an a** to beat as she was earlier.
I think the big reason behind the difficulty is all about quarters. I think amusement centers want people to spend as little time as possible in the arcade. If more people stand by too long - a long line will be waiting and it'd be bad for the business. They don't want to sell tokens at a higher price too. It also was sucking out quarters out of people. I played Mortal Kombat II on the PS2 and counted the number of times I CONTINUED. I estimated I might have spent more than PHP 100.00 in the arcade. Back then, I remember my parents would give me money enough for five tokens. Fighting Kintaro in Mortal Kombat II was a real pain. It wasn't until I figured out the timed jump kick trick that allowed me to beat him. Shao Kahn was even monstrously hard. That's why I usually don't play the Mortal Kombat classic games anymore. I'd even play Mortal Kombat 11 (which I feel I regret pre-ordering just to play as Shao Kahn) after an overload of microtransactions.
Right now, I do feel like I want to play some arcade classics. However, arcades are what I'd call a slowly dying trend. I feel Namco should've stopped making Tekken games for the arcade because the console betters are way better. Why would I go to the arcade back then if we had a PS2 at home AND Tekken Tag Tournament can be brought home? Netherrealm Studios never bothered to make any arcade edition for the reboot of Mortal Kombat either. I think the arcade is best left off trying to win a prize than offering video games. Timezone was among the times when I played to win a toy. My little sister once won a teddy bear from Timezone. But now, those are but memories such as how cassette players, portable disc players, fax machines, Windows 95, MS-DOS, etc. and the like are a thing in the past.
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