Japan - Joypolis Tokyo

[Gazza]

Tokyo Joypolis

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-298-Tokyo_Joypolis

This is located in the southern part of Tokyo on the bay. It is accessible by multiple lines, though the most interesting one is via the driverless Yukiramome line from Shimbashi, because you go across the rainbow bridge.

 

It is located in The Decks, a shopping center with entertainment (Has a Legoland Discovery, Madam Tussauds etc)

You can buy your own tickets at the vending machine quite quickly. Annoyingly even if you pick English, the actual ticketing product names are still in Japanese, but I was buying an evening ticket and already knew the price so was able to just deduce which one to pick.

Everything is able to be done as a single rider, and at each attraction they’ll give you a card explaining the rules and instructions in English, albeit poorly translated (Eg you could tell the phrase “inside the museum” had been used instead of “inside the attraction”)

The park is a 3 storey building with a  big central atrium with the halfpipe, coaster and stage, with other attractions on each floor, wrapping around this.

As for the attractions:

 

Geikon Live Coaster

Better than I expected. I guess in the pics all you see is the turn and barrel roll, in reality it’s a reasonable length.

The ride has double sided wristband key lockers, which work quite well.

The first part of the ride is a dark ride section with a few turns and a steep lift hill. There are screens over the track mounted on an overhead rail, and they move with the car so it doesn’t have to stop to play the game. It’s a rhythm game a bit like dance dance revolution, but it feels a bit weird tapping a button that is at navel level on the harness.

Its based upon an anime, so in the background of the game its just people screaming and fighting incomprehensibly.

So after about 3 or so rounds, you get launched out into a fast turn and through the barrel roll, and the car starts spinning. You then do a final section of track that is a few compact turns and drops with some disco lighting (imagine like the indoor section on Abyss at AW, just no inversion)

 

Transformers Human Alliance Special

A simulator that could spin around to any angle a bit like a human gyroscope / space rings.

You didn’t get to control the steering, so basically you were in a fighter jet doing aerobatics in an aerial battle between Transformers and Decepticons. You could control the shooting, which was pretty easy because you just fired when the crosshairs lined up with a hit box.

Storm G

 This one was a simulator where it was like going down a big futuristic tobbogan run. The only degree of movement this one had was rolling left and right, so you could control this and it would bank up on the turns. At special checkpoints you’d hit a button and that would make it do full 360s. At the start of the game riders vote on the downhill course they want (Eg one with lots of rolling, or one with heaps of rolling), everyone picked the moderate one, which was fine, because it still rolled heaps.

Otherwise, it feels a bit weird and forcless because you don’t feel the acceleration or the downhill tilting, and there was a bit of lag with the input.

Sonic Olympics

Basically like those old style vintage treadmills with rollers underneath and no motors. The force of your strides would get the belt to move.

There were 3 events. A sprint where you just ran. A triple jump, where you would sprint, then hit a button at the right time. Finally there was hurdles, which you guessed it, involved both running and hitting buttons at the correct time.

They provide running shoes if you don’t have them.

Wild River

Very predictable. You sit in a raft, and go down a river with big waterfalls into a treasure cave. A baddie turns up in his big steampunk octopus machine, steals a treasure, and things start collapsing and turn to shit. He grabs you, so you end up out of the water and being tossed through the air.

Attack on Titan

A  group walk through/tour attraction with okay scenes and a couple of projected backgrounds. Basically just working your way through rooms with giant man eating creatures wandering around outside and eyeing  you off / trying to consume you. One scene was a faux elevator ride to the top of the city walls. At one point you had to search through a room with book cases and drawers with everyone to find a key to get out. The finale had a couple of full sized giants heads. One was successfully decapitated. The 2^nd was consuming one of  the tour guides, complete with faux blood effects.

It's only a new attraction, but the projected parts were pretty low res and the scenery was all flat printed vinyl.

Hozukis Coolheadedness

One of those 3d sound attractions like the old Sounds Dangerous at Disney Hollywood Studios.

Basically you sit on small stools in a tea room wearing special headphones, the room is blacked out, you hear people arguing, fighting, swinging weapons, stuff toppling over. At one point the seats drop a small distance.

I couldn’t follow the story, but it was quite cool how it really felt like stuff was happening inches from your shoulder or as if someone was whispering right in your ear.

I guess these days 3D sound is now consumer level with newer headphones though, so these attractions may die out.

Sadako Psychic Curse Manor

Again, virtually all in Japanese, but the host used a few basic words to let us know what was happening and what to do ( “Escape! Escape!”) and the preshow vid had subtitles.

Basically it was about pyschics who invoke dead spirits. So the first room is just a bit of faux psychic reading.

The next room had you getting into an upright coffin with the door closed (but a small window). Characters would roam around outside, bang on it, get in your face etc. At one point the coffins were tilted horizontally via a mechanical system.

The final scene was at a TV, where that woman from the ring crawled out of the screen and chased you down the hallway to the exit.

 

Halfpipe Tokyo

The only real thing with a wait.

It’s really just like being on a stand up version of Voodoo at funfields, with a smallish swing arc, and spinning.

It doesn’t actually run on a track, it swings from overhead.

Pairs or singles stand on a board. The board has a tilting section of plate that acts as a switch.

(Imagine standing on a wooden board with a broom handle underneath if you want to imagine how it feels when you trigger the switch)

The goal is to hit the switch at the bottom of each swing precisely, if you do it well, the board will spin several times, if you do it poorly you’ll get half a spin.

Everyone gets a rank based on how many degrees of spinning you got, and there were some madmen getting 14,440 plus.

Good fun, but dizzying.

There were other simulators, but I didn’t need to do all of them. A couple of other attractions were quiz based or interactive so it would have been too difficult.

They also had a 3D show, and a shooting theatre attraction that I wouldn’t have minded trying, but I ran out of time.Its a good place, i spent 4 hours there, could have done more with another hour, but I was satified nevertheless.

 

Oh, they also had a pissing contest in the toilets:

Edited January 24, 2020 by Gazza

[jjuttp]

Good to know there's still SEGA owned arcade parks now that SEGA World in Sydney and SEGA Republic in Dubai are dead. Your description of Wild Jungle just sounds like the river level of Dead Storm Pirates found in most arcades, albeit with more legs.

 

Was there the Japanese table flipping game anywhere?

[Baconjack]

Cool TR. I have always wanted to go to a Joypolis - sounds like a very interesting place.

Are the upsized Initial D games (where you drive in an actual car) still there? I've seen videos of it on Youtube and would love to try one of those.