TGS07: Pokemon Center Photo Gallery
With TGS right around the corner, Game Informer Online has been poking around Tokyo, seeing the sights, plugging yen into capsule toy machines, guzzling curry and playing the role of the gaijin gamer. With some time to kill before our appointments today, and since we’ve already done plenty of Akihabara coverage in the years past, we decided to head to the land where you can actually catch them all, the Tokyo Pokemon Center.
Originally, the first Tokyo Pokemon Center was housed just outside of the main Tokyo train station, but recently Nintendo moved the house that Pikachu built to a small prefecture outside of Shimbashi, called Hamamatsucho. If you’re in the Tokyo area, it’s a quick trip from the JR Yamanote Line train. With train stations having a number of exits, it’s nice to know Pikachu will lead the way to the correct exit out of the station. Leaving from the station’s north exit, you go straight across from the station and take a right, and within approximately 100 yards, the Pokemon Center is in a business building on the left called the Shiodome Shiba-Rikyu Building. Considering there are massive amounts of families and children, it’s hard not to figure out where to go. Pokemaniacs, this is your heaven.
If you’re looking for Pokemon merchandise, this is your palace. Anything at all conceivable by man has Pokemon all over it. From the movies, games, cards, and soundtracks, to school supplies, plushes, udon bowls and corn flakes, it exists in one place. The new location is a bit larger than the original Tokyo location, which allows for more and more Pokemon merchandise to be housed. Considering how many people were see inside the store on this early Tuesday morning, we believe Nintendo is raking in some serious cash every second this store is open.
Sadly though, this is not a Nintendo World Store, and the focus is on merchandise, and not on the games. You can pick up limited edition Pokemon themed hardware, as well as Wiis and accessories, and purchase all of the Pokemon games, but there were no kiosks available to actually demonstrate the games. This seems like a perfect place to allow gamers to try out the latest Pokemon titles or even try out Pokemon games from the past. Granted, most likely if you’ve made the trek to this store you’ve got a number of Pokemon games in your arsenal, but it would be a perfect place for Nintendo have a historical area to show where it all began.
While Nintendo decide to convert their New York Pokemon Center into the Nintendo World Store, Japan houses the only Pokemon Center in the world. Truly the place to catch it all, if you love Pokemon and you’re in Japan, the Pokemon Center is a must visit place.
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