Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Billy Danze]

There's a decent one in Yeoido and at the COEX, but does anyone know if there's any others in Seoul?

[fustiancorduroy]

Sure! There are a lot of arcades in Seoul. But a lot of them are hole-in-the-wall places that don't really stand out. I don't know what games you like, but by far the biggest game at most arcades is Tekken 6, although you will see a fair share of Pump It Up and other music games.

Some good arcades in Seoul:

- Jongno, next to the McDonald's across from Insadong.

- Hyehwa/Daehangno, along the pedestrian street outside subway exit 4.

- Gangnam Station, somewhere inside the station (I can never remember where it is exactly).

- Sinchon. There are two nice arcades there. One is Enter, which is along the main walking street to the right of the scatter crossing. The other is a small place in the basement of a building across from the cathedral that is just before Yeonsei's main entrance.

- Yeongdeungpo, Times Square Mall. It is on the fourth floor of the mall in the main entrance hall, next to the CGV.

- Konkuk University, on the third floor of the Star City mall, just above the movie theater.

- Daerim. I've never been to this arcade, but it apparently is one of the best for Tekken in, well, the world. Directions and pictures to the place can be found here: http://blog.naver.com/doshos_?Redirect=Log&logNo=130078033540. Note that the directions are written in Korean.


There are more arcades than this, but these are most of the better ones here in Seoul.

[Billy Danze]

Good stuff. Thanks. If anyone has others let me know.

[mayorgc]

alright guys, lets give clear directions. Exit numbers, landmarks, etc.

I'm mainly interested in Tekken 6, so these are the ones with Tekken 6 or BR machines.

Suwon Station: CGV building, connected to the subway station. It's on the 5th floor or 4th floor, below the theatres. It's hard to miss if you go up the escalators. 1 T6 machine that I know of. Competition is sparse at best.

Suwon Station Outside Area: Not near the hooker houses. It's outside the front of the station. A bit hard to see. It's on the first floor of a building. I guess the best way to describe it is to get out of the station and onto the street. Go over the pedestrian overpass on the right hand side of the road. if you walk west (?) for a minute, you'll see some shops and corner stores. There's a medium sized arcade there. 3 T6 or BR machines. Strong opponents.

Jungan Station Area: I've only been here once. It's in that massive pedestrian outdoor shopping complex. I can't explain where it is, but if you visit all the streets, you'll see a small arcade. 3 T6 machines I think. Not sure how good those guys are.

Anyang Station Area: You gotta exit the station. get out onto the street. You'll be infront of a lotteria. Head towards the busy shopping area. Look for the lotteria or mcdonalds. The arcade is really close to the lotteria. 1 T6 and 1 Br machine. Competition is ok.

Gangnam station: Head towards exit 5 but don't go out. There is a hole in the wall arcade here in the underground shopping area. It's got like 15 BR machines. Good skill level I guess.

Chongshindaeipgu station Area: Theme land arcade I think. It's near exit 13. You gotta head into the alley way thing. Its not far, but it's hard to find first time.

Sinchon station area: Head towards yonsei

[DorkothyParker]

Anyone know is Street Fighter 4 is popular here? Husband hasn't seen it, but he will be pleased if it is around Seoul somewhere.

[RyanInKorea]

If you think the one in COEX is decent, you don't like playing games...

Mayorgc just went up in respect points... and I don't even like Tekken Whogivesasheite.

As for Street Fighter 4, here you go:
http://www.eventhubs.com/articles/2008/aug/15/street-fighter-4-arcade-machine-tracker/

Ryan

[mayorgc]

Isu is also called chongshindaeipgu. it's line 4 and line 3 I think. A lot of fighting games. Not just tekken. SF4, blazblue and others

[mayorgc]

There are apparently arcades in madeul or nowon, but that's too far for me.

The daerim arcade is apparenlty exit 11. walk for five minutes. its on ur right side, second floor. It's all T6

[fustiancorduroy]

[reactionary]

The hyehwa arcade is really really really crap. Don't bother.

[Yaya]

They're getting harder to find but they are out there. I remember Sinchon had a really big arcade that was always packed, and then the PC game took over and that biz went south so fast.

The bad news is that the price of the games will go up since there are fewer of them out there.

There is one by Sinchon going toward Ewha Womans Univ.

[Xaiko]

I go to the one in Apgujeong because its like the only one with DDR.

[mayorgc]

I'm still confused about the enter arcade in sinchon. I've looked for it. All I found was an "amusement" center, with tons of claw machines, basketball games and other "non" videogames. I've found the "hole" in the wall arcade near the university, but not the amazing "enter" one.

and it's true that the arcades are dying. I've seen 2 close down within the last year. but both were located literally a block away from other arcades, so I guess it was a market correction of sorts. But it still sucks to see. I don't want arcades in Korea to end up like the ones back west.

I wish Korean arcades were as amazing as tokyo arcades though. entire floors dedicated to either Tekken, VF, Shooters, Racers and ETC

[fustiancorduroy]

At Enter, most of the arcade games are located on the basement floor. I'm not a big fan of Enter, though. I much prefer the smaller place closer to Yeonsei (much better Tekken crowd over there, for one). As you know, there are arcades (Gangnam, Daerim) that are pretty much all Tekken machines and nothing else. Those are nice.

But yes, on average, Korean arcades are much more, um, modest establishments than those in any decently large city in Japan. Maybe that will change in the future, but then again, maybe it won't. Still, I like Korean arcades all the same because they are cheap and have good Tekken players. What more do you need (other than maybe DDR; I don't care for Pump too much)?

[fustiancorduroy]

I did a Naver search for "압구정 오락실 DDR" and this is what I found:

http://blog.naver.com/exiteei?Redirect=Log&logNo=100055004889

There are your directions, all in Korean, to get to the only arcade in Korea (as far as I know) with DDR. That page was last updated in late 2008, and at that time the arcade had SuperNova 2. If they still have that (or the newer version, DDR X), I'll be a happy camper. In any case, I will have to hop on the bus and head over to 압구정 this week.