Pretty cool stuff. The area had maybe half a dozen arcades, a bunch of PC gaming rooms (of course those are everywhere) and some Noreabangs (karaoke rooms). The arcades ranged from some small ones entirely filled with some old shootem'ups and even older couples playing them to some more elaborate fare. 

I hit up the larger one, and it really made me wish arcades were more popular in NA. Couples were shooting hoops, guys were at the BBgun target practice, the backroom was lined with couples karaoke booths, a bunch of kids were bunched around a Street Fighter II match, School girls were playing taiko drum master and a crowd formed to watch two guys do some serious DDRing. 

It was just a fun place. I hit up a couple of machines.  

Sega's: Lets Go Adventure; Lost on the Island of Spice was a so so mounted turret lightgun shooter, made better by it's silly name.

Konami's Drummmania 3 was great (how did it take so long for music games to be popular in NA?),

Namco's Cobra Arcade was the most hillarious and lamely Japanese lightgun shooter I'd ever seen (fun though)

And to top it off, my new all time favourite arcade game: F-Zero GX!  

But wait! It's even cooler than it looks! Why? Because just above where you put in your money (500 won or 45 cents Canadian), there's a slot for your Gamecube save cartridge. By playing the arcade game you can unlock new material on your Gamecube game!

So this isn't just a report on my time at a Korean Arcade, it's also a quest for info. Does anyone know if the Arcade/Gamecube transfers will work between a Korean arcade machine to an NA Gamecube game!?

I'll be so bummed if when I try it it doesn't work.

Gamecube-to-arcade connectivity confirmed?

I'd like to tell you the "exclusive" content is exclusive, but it's not. Just play the hardest Grand Prix in F-Zero GX and you will eventually unlock all the AX stuff. This is what made me like F-Zero GX even more (it was such a surprise to see the new tracks for the first time)!

You could still try though, if you don't want to force yourself into playing one of the greatest games ever. ;)

But what if I'm not good enough to unlock it on the Cube?

and what if the thought of unlocking it in an arcade game just seems so much cooler to me!

F-Zero GX was balls hard, though. Like, bone-crushing.

stof, I think it should work, but don't quote me on it.

That's awesome. I wish arcades didn't go away.

I too love the arcades in Asia (I've only experienced the Hong Kong ones, but I assume they're all the same or very similar).

One thing I've always wanted in Western arcades is the level of connectivity some of their arcade machines get. I've seen 8 player soccer matches, with each person on a separate machine and at least 12 (I didn't count all of them) Gundam arcade machines hooked together to play in one massive in game battlefield.

I think it's that sort of multiplayer fun that'll draw people back to Arcades in Western Countries (seeing as how I can play with more people on a single PS3 console than I can most arcade games, except for maybe Daytona).

I miss arcades too. I recently played the arcade Mario Kart GP (made by NAMCO) and found it suprisingly kind of lame. Not only could you play as the usual Nintendo characters, but Pac Man, Ms Pac Man and the Blinkies are there as well. Although it seems to have gotten good reviews, I found the gameplay nothing like the Nintendo home console games. It was ok, but nothing amazing. Apparantly there is a MKGP2 as well, but it has not made it to North America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTJ1sL8fZzU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8t9ada5aUM