Taito Hey Akihabara is one of Akihabara’s most emblematic and bigger arcade video game centres in the neighbourhood. It features an incredibly vast collection of arcade video game machines, with a complete selection both of new arcade games and old school retro games.

In terms of older vintage arcades, Taito Hey permanently has a selection of sit down candy cabs with games organised by genre, such as shooting, beat ‘em up and fighting. Even if the amount of machines dedicated to each of them is always more or less the same, the games are changed in a monthly basis, except from classics which are always present, such as Street Fighter 3 or Darius. Some of the old games are enhanced with auto-fire buttons (especially on shooters and beat ‘em ups) and line-out jacks, in order to connect your own headphones.

Newer arcade machines change following new releases and trends. Modern arcade machines include many card based systems, which require a set of interactive trading cards in order to be able to play, online shooting machines, which feature large gun shaped controllers and provide competitive gameplay over the network, and rhythm games, in the same style as the old Dance Dance Revolution, but with newer and more sophisticated controller methods.

UFO crane machines are also an important part of Taito Hey Akihabara. Especially found on the first floor, this crane machines sometimes offer exclusive Taito themed prizes, which cannot be found in any other location. These usually include merchandise based both on older Taito franchises, such as Bubble Bobble, or newer trending games and anime.

Taito Hey Akihabara can be accessed both from Chuo Dori, Akihabara’s main street, or from the smaller back alley. It has a total of 4 floors, connected by escalators and organised in the following way:

1F-Crane Machines
2F-Shooting, retro games and rhythm games
3F-Vs and fighting Games
4F-Card games