A new store opened in Akihabara Tokyo called Aso Bit City. It's a giant 8 story building of nothing but video games, computer games, toys and comics! If you follow the link above their a pictures of each floor. We checked it out.

The place used to be a T−Zone which is a computer and computer parts chain. About a month ago we saw it clearing out and then this place just opened.  Aso Bit City is a play on the word "asobi" which means "play".   Some of the things we saw...:

XBox had their pods from the tradeshows out front.  I don't know whether to consider those cool or scary.  They open like the beds in Alien, you climb in, they seal up and surround you with sound while you play XBox games on LCD screen.

Taito's Taiko no Tatsujin the home version had a line waiting to play.

Lifesize Mario on the 1st floor and life size Sulley and Mike on the second.

I picked up 2 Micropets from Tomy.  They're these little toy pets.  To play with them you talk to them.  Like you say "turn around" and they turn around or you say "Go!" and they start going.

Combat Digi. Ittybitty remote control tanks!  Konami has a series of ittybitty remote control toys.  Cars, Trains, and other stuff.

I also saw the new Lego Spybotics. Computer programmable Legos.  Maybe not quite as cool as Lego Mindstorms but still cool.

Also Nintendo is now giving away DVDs with previews of upcoming games. They claim they will come out with a new DVD every quarter. The first one featured several games but the biggest were Legend of Zelda and Biohazard0.

Zelda looks great and there was an interview with Miyamoto.  He seems very very proud and excited about his new game.  I can't wait!  It looks like it's going to be a good Christmas for Nintendo.  Eternal Darkness ships this month.  Mario Party 4 ships next month as does a 4 player Tetris and then Zelda the month after and somewhere in there is Metroid Prime too.

For a while Aso Bit City is going to be the biggest thing in Akihabara.  If you get the chance check it out.