AKIHABARA

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A visit to Super Potato Akihabara, a must-go spot for retro game hunting!

Retro games are becoming increasingly popular in recent years. Let’s go find out what Super Potato Akihabara has to offer, a place that attracts retro game fans from all over the world!

Super Potato Akihabara is a video game shop that mainly carries retro games. What makes it stand out from other game shops is its unbelievably huge inventory of games. For this article, we visited the famous shop in Akihabara that is attracting retro game fans from both Japan and overseas.

A five-minute walk from Akihabara Station, Super Potato occupies the third through the fifth floor of a building in the “Electric Town” (a nickname of Akihabara). The entrance on the first floor is very narrow, so be careful not to walk past it.

First, let’s check out the third floor. The floor is called “Retro Game Hall of Fame,” and it carries numerous video game consoles and games, centering on Nintendo and SEGA retro game titles.

The game console section has a wide array of consoles such as Dreamcast, Mega Drive Mini 2, and GameCube that we have played before, as well as ones that we have never seen before. If you are lucky, you might find consoles and controllers that you can only rarely find today.

The stacks and stacks of various game consoles are such a dream sight!

A Family Computer robot is watching over the inside of the shop. (Unfortunately, it’s not for sale.)

The game cassette section has a dizzying array of game cassettes lined up on the shelves. You’ll definitely find some of the ones you have played before, so just looking at the packages brings back one’s childhood memories.

It offers a huge range of titles from ones whose franchises are still ongoing to niche titles that are extremely hard to find.

Inside the glass showcase are ones with premium prices such as ones that have never been opened.

Some golden Family Computer cassettes are also on display. These are not for sale and are extremely valuable, as only a limited number of them are on the market, so make sure to view them with your own eyes.

Now, let’s go to the fourth floor that mainly has the games for the PlayStation series, PC Engine, WonderSwan, and more. There is also a collection of must-see not-for-sale items, so don’t forget to check that out too.

WonderSwan is known to only those in the know, as it was released only in Japan.

It is surprising to see that these products even existed!

After immersing yourself in nostalgia with retro games, let’s go to the fifth floor where there is a retro game arcade center. With a variety of game arcades and with a section where you can buy penny candies, this space makes you feel like you have traveled back in time a little bit.

Editor Hayashi tried a game that he had never played before, but he got defeated instantly.

Penny candies loved by all generations will make for good memories of your trip.

Super Potato Akihabara is an amazing spot where people from different age groups, whether you are those who grew up playing the retro games or you are in younger generations who have never played them, can have a great time. Super Potato has a total of six locations in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, including the one in Akihabara that we visited, so we strongly recommend that you visit them if you are interested in Japanese video games.

■DATA Super Potato Akihabara Address: 3F, 4F, and 5F Kitabayashi Building, 1-11-2 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Business hours: 11:00 a.m. – 8 p.m. Open every day TEL: 03-5289-9933 Official website: https://www.superpotato.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superpotatoakihabara/

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