Original article hand written 19th March 2000
This review is in two parts, the first part deals will the Metropolis arcade during the 1990s and the second half discusses the refurbished site on the 2000s up until it closure at some point in the mid-2000s.
Metropolis in the 1990s
This is one of the original arcades opened by Sega with a view to re-inventing them for the games playing public of the 1990s. It was a bold and confident move and one that would help them in opening several similar locations in the months ahead. I discovered this new age gaming ‘theatre’ quite possibly due to it being mentioned on a video gaming TV show that was popular at the time, namely, Bad Influence. So, off I went to witness first hand this new style of arcade.
Its location was unusual to say the least. Up until this point I used to find an arcade as something which occupied a ground floor premises of a building on a high street. Metropolis, however, was located in the basement of quite possible one of the most famous toyshops in the world, called Hamleys in Regent Street, London, This also made the arcade quite easy to find and once inside the location a staircase leading to the basement took you there. The staircase itself was located to the right of the shop and there was a rather handy large 'Sega' logo hanging overhead to signify the arcade’s existence. There was also a large picture of Sega’s then new mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog with a Metropolis logo next to it on the wall near the staircase. In fact, anyone walking by in the street outside could not miss this large double door size image adorned in primary colours or the logo with its large brash lettering that stood out also because it was lit up to make the blue and white in the logo glow.
On that initial visit, as I descended the stairs, the sounds of dozens of electronic games rang true. And, the first sight to behold at the foot of the stairwell was a deluxe Sega Virtua Racing complete with a crowd of fifteen or more onlookers. It was the summer of 1992 and Sega’s Model 1 arcade board represented the state of the art and was powering this F1 based racing game with beautiful and fluid 3D graphics. There was no way you would find one of these babies at a local high street arcade. No, by re-inventing and re-targeting the arcade at families and casual gamers instead of the dedicated player Sega had fired a warning shot for smaller arcades still housing games inside generic upright cabinets.
However, any concern about a decline in high street arcades, or what we the games players were used to as the norm, were non-existent. It was 1992 and if games looked and played as good as Virtua Racing then why worry, bring on more of these extravagant games and super 3D imagery, this was a new frontier in gaming and still in its infancy. The most important aspect about all that was happening was the transition from 2D to 3D graphics, a visual indicator that gaming was changing forever and it was first and foremost image based in nature.
So, there is was, a practically new simulator cabinet with a unique widescreen display and airbags in the seat that would inflate and deflate in tandem with the on screen action to replicate the effects of g-force in high speed racing. As I would find out in the weeks and months ahead, these cabinets were not just expensive but quite large and complex to operate so there were just a few to be found at Sega branded or larger arcades. Walking around the arcade then, after being spellbound for I don’t know how long, I also came across a just as rare upright version of Virtua Racing. The screen appeared massive as I was used to the 16-20 inch CRT monitors inside upright cabinets, now this Virtua Racing has a very large 29 inch panel that showed of the beautiful graphics perfectly. And, to top it all there was an 8-player linked version with four ‘twin’ cabinet that allowed a monumental competitive race to take place.
Of course PCB based gaming was still very much in evidence with the ever popular Street Fighter 2 playable on numerous cabinets of varying shapes and sizes. There were many other titles that day but sadly their names escape me. There were also a number of dedicated cabinets with games such as Title Fight, a boxing game from Sega, and the uncommon and impressive Sega R-360 simulator cabinet hosting their aerial combat game G-Loc.
Now, although Metropolis appeared large it wasn’t really, it was a modest size with clever placement of the many cabinets allowing the floorspace to be divided about half and half between the arcade and a restaurant. This was all part of Sega’s new concept arcade with a place to eat next to the games. They wanted the view of an arcade as a seedy, darkly lit premises to be replaced with colourful and brightly lit gaming arenas or ‘parks’ for all the family to enjoy. In fact the word 'arcade' did not feature in the press releases and magazine reviews at the time with Sega instead choosing quite cleverly from a marketing perspective to label their locations as 'family entertainment centres'.
Then there was the aspect of pricing. Up until now I was used to paying 20p or 30p a credit, however, Metropolis was now one of many arcades charging at least 50p a play or £1 on the larger cabinets. This was a big hike in the price to play but as the games and the technology behind them was getting more expensive, arcade operators were logically enough asking the playing public to pay more to experience the games.
However, if this review is beginning to sound a bit down beat don’t worry because things are about to get better. Sega Metropolis turned out to be the UK testing site for all of Sega’s new games arriving direct from Japan. Between opening and up until around 1998 if you wanted to play the latest Sega arcade games, some of which were still in the alpha or beta stage of development, then Metropolis was the place to be. There were some major exclusives with games being sited here literally weeks, even months, before going on general release. For example in the summer of 1994, if you wanted to play Daytona USA, then Metropolis featured four twin cabinets linked for 8 player competition as well as 2 large dedicated cabinets. Considering the modest floorspace this was an epic setup only to be matched by the one found in the much larger Funland arcade in the Trocadero centre.
Due to its notable location on London’s famous Regent Street and inside Hamleys, more visitors than normal would enter the toy shop and probably by surprise discovered the basement arcade, sorry, family entertainment centre and restaurant. Most of the clientele consisted of families with young children and tourists walking around Regent Street and nearby Piccadilly Circus. Yet, there were gamers here, casual and hardcore, the latter perhaps aware that it was a test site for Sega’s latest arcade games.
The list of big games to appear here included Sega Rally, Virtua Striker 2, Scud Race and later a four player SpikeOut setup. There were also many games from other notable manufacturers including Time Crisis and the Tekken series from Namco and numerous Capcom fighting games with the versus series standing out.
For me though it was the debut of Virtua Fighter 2 and 3 which really makes this place memorable. For just one week only before Christmas 1994 Sega showed off Virtua Fighter 2 on exclusive test. I mean this game was barely released in Japan yet here it was in the West End of London. Developed by the legendary AM2 division of Sega, I knew them as being responsible for some of the greatest games of my childhood, including Outrun and Afterburner. In the new year Virtua Fighter 2 was given a full release with a setup that was reminiscent of what you might find in a Japanese arcades. There were two cabinets placed back to back but with controls for just one player on each side. This was similar to the Sega designed 'versus city' cabinets in Japan allowing players to sort of take each other on anonymously. There were some very good players showing up at Metropolis to provide a taste of the depth of the game. There was also a version running on a large Mega Lo cabinet with a 50 inch projection screen and controls for two players seated next to each other. This was great for tournament style play with crowds of spectators easily able to view the action of the large screen.
Then along came Virtua Fighter 3 or VF3 to up the ante. It premiered in September 1996 on another Mega Lo cabinet. Now, there were crowds around most new games when they appeared in Metropolis, but with VF3 there crowds and queues waiting to play including me. On one occasionI I remember standing and watching for around 2 hours as player versus player matches continued unabated. There was some guy called Derrick Lynch hanging around commentating on the matches, he was a known face appearing on the popular Games Master TV show to do the very same. But the person to stand out was an unknown Asian oriental dude who had an incredible 22 match winning streak playing Jacky. I took on Mr Lynch using Sarah against his Jeffrey but lost a closely contested match. It was a real occasion as this was the first official unveiling of Virtua Fighter 3 in the UK and the technology behind it, Model 3.
So VF3 became a firm favourite and Metropolis was one of the better places to practise but perhaps not so much for the competition. once the game was released later in 1996. Visually the game looked so far ahead of its time that I knew there was no way that current generation high-end consoles like the Sega Saturn or Sony Playstation would be able to come even close to replicating the graphics. Two upright cabinets also appeared at Metropolis by 1997 with excellent ball top joysticks that were a cut above the cone shaped sticks on the older Virtua Fighter 2 upright cabinets. These sticks, probably using quality 'Sanwa' branded parts, gave excellent feedback and made pulling off moves and combos that bit easier. However, all good things come to an end and by the middle of 1998 all the Virtua Fighter machines had disappeared.
In recent times the most notable games to appear have been Daytona USA 2 in July 1998 and a wonderful four player linked SpikeOut setup as of October 1998, but since then nothing. SpikeOut was sadly withdrawn in September the following year maybe due to poor returns as most of interest from gamers made them gravitate towards the Street Fighter vs X-Men and Tekken 3 cabinets. The trend of no big new releases continued into 1999 and it was around this time the Model 3 arcade board used in games like VF3 and Scud Race was superseded by newer Naomi hardware, based off the very new Sega Dreamcast home console albeit with access to more memory for data and graphics. The very first set of games to use this new technology including Crazy Taxi and Zombie Zone and both put in an appearance at Metropolis and then stayed for up to a year before other titles began to show up including Virtua Striker 2000, Virtua Tennis and Ferrari Challenge in an amazing 3-screen deluxe cabinet. Another big game to make an appearance was Konami’s excellent sniper based shooter, Silent Scope.
Personally, I lover the Ferrari game with its very life like replication of the F-355 car being raced around actual racing circuits such as Suzuka in Japan and the Italian course at Monza. However, I was also waiting for games like Out Trigger to appear, which was a Quake style first person shooter allowing, like SpikeOut, four cabinets to be linked up for competitive action. Yet, it never put in an appearance.
Worst of all the pricing on games had increased with all new Naomi based games now £1 a play. Worryingly, even games like Daytona USA, which was now six years old, had this extortionate price tag attached. I am sure, judging from the tens of thousands of plays this had over this period would have easily let Metropolis recoup its return on investment, so why still charge £1? However, Ferrari Challenge in its monster 3-screen cabinet cost a staggering £2 a play! The novel little printout with your racing statistics was a further £1.
So, taking all this into account, its probably safe to assume Metropolis is no longer a test site for new Sega games as was the case in the mid-1990s. There is a definite slump of interest from the operator in this location and visitors now just view the arcade as some kind of curio that they can stop and stare at for a while, they are not interested in playing the games and certainly not at £1 a play, so they stop by before moving on to the main event, that is, exploring the toy shop, after all that is what Hamleys is all about.
The glory days are behind it but it is still a noteworthy place and worth a look. Oh yeah, and the stairs on the right side of Hamleys leading to the arcade as you enter the toy shop, they are no longer there and the only way to get to Metropolis is to use the main staircase in the middle of the shop floor. The large SEGA logo placed above the old staircase has also been removed so it is small wonder that anyone would be aware of the existence of an arcade here. The times are changing as home consoles become more powerful with the advent of Dreamcast and now Playstation 2 but it is nice to know that arcades like Metropolis still exist and provide their unique blend of large extravagant cabinets and social interaction which in itself helps diversify and lets the gaming landscape flourish.
FIRST CLOSURE – March 2000
Well, it’s finally happened. It is my sad duty to inform fellow arcade gamers that Sega Metropolis is officially closed as of the week commencing Monday 20th March 2000. And there I was just a few or so ago writing a review about it, but alas, it was not to be. After eight years of service to gamers, Metropolis is no more and it has been consigned to the arcade history books.
Is this then truly a sign of things to come? It began with the closure of Namco Wonderpark in July 1999, followed by Funland in September and then finally Sega World. At this rate there will be precious little premium arcade gaming space to be found.
As far as I am aware that leaves just three Sega branded arcades in London and those are the locations in Wood Green, Colindale and Queensway. Worrying this poses the question just how long will they survive as this becomes a waiting game with the clock ticking.
Metropolis in the 2000s – renamed ‘Sega Park’
Opened: late summer/early autumn 2000
Closed: 2005
Well, this came as a bit of a nice surprise today when visiting London. Earlier this year when visiting Hamleys to check out the arcade I was saddened to find the basement floorspace completely cleared and what I imaged would eventually be used to show more toys and this appeared to be the case when confirmed by speaking to a member of staff.
However, when popping in today to see how the refurbishment was taking shape I was mystified by some of the wording displayed on the floor guide near the stairs. The basement listed amongst other things on ‘Sega Park’. Well, there was only one way to find out. As I entered the basement from the staircase in the middle of the store it was very clear that it had undergone some major changes. Whereas the old basement was split roughly half and half between the arcade and a restaurant area, most of the space was now occupied by console and computer gaming together with board games and a ‘Games Workshop’ affiliated area. And there, tucked away at one end of the basement was the Sega Park.
Recall, if you will, the alcoves described in my original review of Metropolis. These had been stripped away to open up the floorspace allowing Sega Park to neatly fit and occupy one side of the basement, the side that was closer to the main street entrance above. To see what was on offer you actually had to go through a separate doorway so that the arcade was clearly separated from the other areas of the basement, unlike Metropolis, which was completely open planned.
Upon going through the doors into Sega Park its appearance is no longer that of a brightly lit and colourful interior and rather a throwback to the dimly lit image of arcades from the 1980s with most of the light being provided by the monitor displays of the games. There is also a rather odd smell inside the arcade that is present whichever part of the floor you are standing in. The arcade is no longer as large as the old Metropolis too and I would guess it takes about a quarter of the overall basement floorspace. Yet that slight limitation in space doesn't stop Sega Park for displaying a good range of up to date games.
On this visit in early October they had the new and popular Star Wars Racer followed by 18 Wheeler, Ferrari Challenge, House of the Dead 2, Silent Scope 2, Virtua Striker 2000, Virtua Tennis, Time Crisis 2, Crisis Zone, World Kicks, Sega Rally 2, Daytona USA 2, Star Wars Trilogy, Ocean Hunter, Jurassic Park Lost World and Crazy Taxi. There was also a new Airline Pilots game from Sega running on a large three screen setup similar to the deluxe Ferrari Challenge cabinet. That is not a bad list with a lot of these games using the new Sega Naomi arcade hardware to power them. Now this also got me thinking if Sega Park was still a test location considering the new-ness of the games but it is difficult to say. Also, notice that this list is very much focused on large deluxe cabinet based games, there are some sports games like Virtua Striker and Virtua Tennis but no fighting games. Although Virtua Fighter 3 is quite old now, with rumours of a sequel hopefully due soon, it might have been nice if they had got a Tekken Tag machine in and maybe Street Fighter Third Strike as these are relatively new and the former is proving quite popular in places like Casino Arcade and Funland.
It does seem strange to find an arcade without fighting games because there are such things as popular ones that can appeal to a more mainstream crowd. For example, Capcom’s versus games have always been a crowd pleaser and it would have been nice if the Naomi hardware based Capcom vs SNK or even the very original and highly innovative Power Stone had shown up on a large screen cabinet. So, yeah, a few fighting games wouldn’t go amiss and Sega Park might have missed a trick there, and funnily enough even the new Virtua Striker game is inside an upright Naomi universal cabinet rather than a Mega Lo style large screen setup. On the downside, pricing is as high as ever with every game set to £1 a play, this now seems the norm in West End arcades with all large deluxe cabinets charging this amount.
In summary I am glad that the arcade is still there in some shape or form. The cosmetic changes appear a bit retrograde and some of the atmosphere radiated by Metropolis is missing but I suppose that is bound to happen and it is as they say the price of progress. And there are some bright spots on the horizon for arcades as the successor to Sega’s Naomi hardware, aptly titled ‘Naomi 2’, is coming later this year and the exciting news, for me at least, is that a new instalment in the legendary Virtua Fighter series is in the works. Hopefully Sega Park will live up the reputation of its predecessor Metropolis and debut Virtua Fighter 4 in all its glory. Importantly, just as it was for most of the 1990s, arcade hardware will be ahead of consoles and computers, even if it is just a step ahead, and that is enough for me to keep playing there.
