arcade games are something i have always been passionate about since my dad took me to my first arcade when i was about five years old. i started with metal slug 5, a game that would quickly become one of my favourite games of all time (damn i had good taste!). some other games i grew up with at the arcade were classics like house of the dead 2, time crisis 4, daytona usa 2, rampage world tour, and street fighter ii ce, a game that began my lifelong infatuation with fighting games, something that carried on into my teen years when i ended up attending local fighting game tournaments and getting involved with the fgc.
these days however, i mainly play arcade rhythm games, which have basically been consuming my life for the past four years since i started with my first, taiko no tatsujin! arcade rhythm games have been an incredibly important part of my life especially throughout my teen years, with me having met lots of close friends through the community and climbing the ranks of the games i play. some of the moments i am most proud from my years spent playing arcade rhythm games are:
- coming first place in the local preliminary for the 2024 taiko no tatsujin world championships and getting flown up to auckland to play in the national finals which i placed second in
- getting in touch with the national brand ambassador for the largest arcade chain in new zealand and convincing them on a video call to send a maimai cab to my local arcade
- hosting local taiko and maimai tournaments and other events for the community
- reaching 15.8k rating in maimai
- reaching advanced lv.1 in pump it up
- achieving 200 10* full combos on taiko
- being the first player in new zealand to reach the 10th dan dojo ranking in the 2026 dojo season in taiko!
on top of all that, i have recently been trying to get into pinball! pinball has a unique charm to me with the way that although it is an arcade game, it feels far less "video game-y" than other arcade games with how mechanical it is. ive been enjoying playing a lot of the modern stern releases, especially pokemon from 2026, but im also fond of some of the older titles like banzai run and attack from mars. there seems to be a really good local community and tournament scene for pinball that i am slowly trying to get involved in, but for now i consider myself a casual player, unlike arcade rhythm games which i take very seriously and play very competitively (being the top ranked player in my country isnt easy!)