Umeda Joypolis

Umeda Joypolis (Japanese: 梅田ジョイポリス) was a Joypolis branded amusement park located inside the HEP FIVE Mall in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, and was operated by the Sega Corporation.

History

The park opened alongside HEP FIVE on 28 November 1998 as one of their initial tenants.^[1] It was situated in the mall's amusement floor, near the mall's Ferris Wheel.^[2]

As with the later Joypolis parks which utilized a specific theme, Umeda Joypolis also went under that route, being under the concept of "Underworld"; styled as an urban complex. The park debuted four Sega attractions - three of which were upgrades of previous Sega formats (Fortune Cave, AS-MAX, and Dennou Senki Virtual-On Special) and the other being brand new (Drift Cart).

After the closure of a majority of Joypolis parks from 2000-2002, the Umeda park was one of three to remain in operation, the others being Tokyo and Okayama. By 2008, after Okayama removed their remaining attractions to become solely a game center, Umeda's operations mostly operated as a game center as well, but still brought in new attractions and facilities.

On 8 February 2018, CA Sega Joypolis announced that Umeda Joypolis would permanently close on 6 May 2018.^[3] The park's managing director Ryoji Hayasaka cited in an interview that the closure was due to the expiration of the management contract.^[4] The park closed as planned on that day.

On 28 May 2018, it was announced that a Namco VR Zone would take over the former space of the park.^[5] As of 2025, the space is home to the Osaka Bandai Namco Cross Store, which contains a game center within the property.^[6]

Layout

Umeda Joypolis was situated in a smaller location when compared to its sister Tokyo Joypolis and took advantage of it's space by setting its attractions within the walls of the building.

Floor 8

The lower floor, Floor 8, is home to the park's game center facilities (including a Crane Game section), a Crepeojisan outlet, and the park's Walk-Through attractions.

Floor 9

The upper floor's space was home to the park's simulator attractions, but it was mostly accompanied by P-Closet (styled as P+Closet), a beauty parlor that opened on 28 July 2011.^[7]

Former Attractions

Name	Designer	Type	Opened	Closed	Fate
3D Adventure the Ride	System Pro Co, Ltd.	Simulator	April 16, 2004	2013	Scrapped
AS-MAX	Sega AM5	Simulator	November 28, 1998	Unknown	Unknown
The Blair Witch Project	Unknown	Walk-Through	April 29, 2000	2001	Removed
Drift Cart	Sega AM5	Unknown	November 28, 1998	Unknown	Scrapped
Fairy's DIAMOND	Sega	Walk-Through	2006	May 6, 2007	Removed
Fortune Cave	Sega AM5	Walk-Through	November 28, 1998	June 2004	Removed
Haunted House of Art Craftman Yoshiaki Kamimura	Watanabeyuka Co., Ltd.	Walk-Through	April 28, 2016	June 25, 2017	Removed
The Horror House 2	Sega	Walk-Through	1999 or earlier	1999 or later	Removed
Hospital Mania	Sega	Walk-Through	December 1, 2001	2002	Removed
Last Panic	Sega	Walk-Through	1999 or earlier	2001 or later	Removed
Men in Black 2	Sega	Walk-Through	July 20, 2002	June 29, 2003	Removed
The Room of Living Dolls	Sega	Walk-Through	November 28, 1998	May 6, 2018	Removed
Sadako 3D - Floral Tribute	Watanabeyuka Co., Ltd.	Walk-Through	April 27, 2013	April 20, 2016	Removed
Sky Cruising	Sega AM5	Flying theater	October 22, 1999	May 6, 2018	Scrapped
T3 Attraction	Sega	Walk-Through	July 19, 2003	2004	Removed
Treasure Hunters	Sega	Walk-Through	December 23, 2004	2006	Removed
Wild River - The Treasure Hunt^[8]	Sega Adventure Company	Simulator	November 28, 1998	May 6, 2018	Scrapped
Zombie Zoo - Zombie Confinement Tour	Watanabeyuka Co., Ltd.	Walk-Through	July 22, 2017	March 31, 2018	Removed

References

↑ "大阪に「梅田ジョイポリス」登場". Sega. 1998-09-24. Archived from the original on 2007-03-01. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/19991008030618/http://www.sega.co.jp/sega/atp/umeda/hepfive.html
↑ https://www.itmedia.co.jp/business/articles/1802/09/news123.html
↑ https://withnews.jp/article/f0180210002qq000000000000000W00o10101qq000016795A
↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2018-05-28/bandai-brings-vr-zone-arcade-to-osaka-this-fall/.131287
↑ https://bandainamco-am.co.jp/game_center/loc/hepfive/
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150823024134/http://p-closet.sega.jp/
↑ "大阪に「ジョイポリス」11月オープン". nlab.itmedia.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-07-13.

This box: view edit Amusement Parks and Game Centers operated by Sega
Joypolis	Fukuoka Kyoto Niigata Okayama Shinjuku Tokyo Umeda Yokohama
Galbo	Ichikawa Osaka ATC Yokkaichi
Overseas Parks	Player's Arena Sega Republic Sega World Sydney SegaWorld London
Game Centers with Attractions	Club Sega Canal City Club Sega Chatan Club Sega Yokohama Sega Arena Hamaotsu Sega Arena Nakama Sega Arena Padou Sega Arena Toyohashi Sega World Cospal Sega World Hakkeijima Carnival House Sega World Rinku Sega World Utsunomiya
Overseas Arcades with Attractions	GameWorks Rio de Janeiro Sega Arena Taichung Sega's Time Out On the Court Sega VirtuaLand Sega World Bournemouth Sega World Oe

[1] "大阪に「梅田ジョイポリス」登場". Sega. 1998-09-24. Archived from the original on 2007-03-01. Retrieved 2024-04-27.

[2] ttps://web.archive.org/web/19991008030618/http://www.sega.co.jp/sega/atp/umeda/hepfive.html

[3] ttps://www.itmedia.co.jp/business/articles/1802/09/news123.html

[4] ttps://withnews.jp/article/f0180210002qq000000000000000W00o10101qq000016795A

[5] ttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2018-05-28/bandai-brings-vr-zone-arcade-to-osaka-this-fall/.131287

[6] ttps://bandainamco-am.co.jp/game_center/loc/hepfive/

[7] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150823024134/http://p-closet.sega.jp/

[8] "大阪に「ジョイポリス」11月オープン". nlab.itmedia.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-07-13.

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