The new "Japan Showdown" stage is now available for early access in Knives Out, so I gave it a try right away.
To play, you need to download the expansion pack from "Settings."
This time, I played on both the PC and smartphone versions.
A view of the entire map during the parachute descent.
The map has urban districts like Ginza and Shinjuku, as well as more nature-heavy areas reminiscent of Chiyoda Ward.
When you open up the map, it looks like this.
It looks like an actual map of Japan, but Tokyo Station has been shifted considerably to the east — so it seems they've made some adjustments for gameplay.
What's that baseball stadium on the west side of the map? I wondered, so I checked Google Maps, and it turned out to be the "Wadabori Park Baseball Field."
You can also see the "radio tower" — a.k.a. Tokyo Tower — while you're parachuting in.
The radio tower is right at the edge of the map, so unless you specifically decide to go check it out, you might not get many chances to visit it.
Up close, it looks like this.
It's pretty massive when you get near it.
You can actually go inside the 1F portion of the tower.
Next up, here's the downtown station (Tokyo Station) seen from above.
The station building is fairly well crafted.
A train that looks vaguely familiar from somewhere.
You can also board the train.
The ticket gates look reasonably authentic too.
For some reason, though, the ticket machines don't really look Japanese.
If anything, they look more like the ones you'd see around Taiwan.
Next, Shibuya.
There are tons of signs that look like they're modeled on something you've seen before.
And here's Shinjuku.
The building labeled "Duty-Free" appears to be modeled after the Don Quijote Shinjuku Kabukicho store.
The sheer number of signs really gives the area an Asian feel.
By the way, if you look closely, the currency unit shown is "yuan," and the kanji for "language" (語) is in simplified Chinese — so there's a subtle Chinese vibe lurking in the details. But if you don't look too carefully, the atmosphere feels just like Japan.
The gate iconic to Kabukicho also sneakily makes an appearance. (Left side of the screenshot)
In the area near the harbor, the Rainbow Bridge is properly in place.
Around the shopping street area, there are Japanese-style traditional old houses.
You can download the app from the official site, or from the App Store or Google Play.
*This seems to be an early test version, so the map and contents on this page may change in the future.
