I went back by that old Sailor Moon arcade game I found in Shinsekai, Osaka to have a try. Thankfully it was open at 8am! (Not sure if this sketchy little arcade ever closes.) I am guessing this probably isn’t the original cabinet but I am not sure.

I haven’t played this kind of play to win arcade game since I was a kid. I couldn’t even beat the first stage boss on one coin! But I did get a space on the leaderboard and boosted Sailor Moon to most popular character on the game (she’s gloating to Mars on the last screen).

Nowadays, instead of letting you play for as long as you can stay alive, most arcade games in Japan seem to run for a specific time limit (one battle, one song, etc) to give you an equal amount of play for each coin.

Which is kinda nice if you suck at arcade games, but it made me stop and think about how much arcade culture has changed since the 80s and 90s.