Impressions of Sofmap's MegaStore in Akihabara

3:41 PM on 09.28.2007   |   Dale North

We first heard news of the opening of a new Sofmap store in Akihabara earlier this month. I promised that I would "poke my head in there" to see what was really like during last week's Tokyo Game Show, and it turns out that this overgrown electronics store is just as crazy as we thought it would be. 

Sunday is the craziest day to hit Akihabara, but it was the only time the Destructoid TGS team had, so we quickly made our way to the new Sofmap. The main entrance was manned by several "noisemakers" armed with noise sticks, flyers, and megaphones, doing their best to get customers to enter. Ironically, all of their commotion made it difficult to enter.

Hit the jump to see more of Sofmap's MegaStore. 

We waded through seven fully stocked stores, packed with everything you'd need, as well as several things you'd never need. Much like other Japanese electronic retailers, each floor was dedicated to a different type of product. We blazed past most of the household goods floors, stopping only to get a picture of Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief Nick Chester posing with this strange midget-creature drop thing.

Also, we couldn't help but notice this picture of a baby smelling its own fingers. Scary.

Every television, mp3 player, and gadget you've ever dreamed of called our names, but our determination brought us to the 7th floor: games. The games selection wasn't the best, especially for Akihabara, but we've seen worse, and at least they seemed to be well stocked. It actually reminded us of a really large Best Buy. We spent a long time poking through games we've never heard of, making fun of the lack of Xbox 360 aisle traffic, and staring at Crisis Core advertisements.

I left with only a keychain (a $7 one, at that) and the knowledge that there is much better shopping right up the street, for both games and electronics.