Music Arcade Games Now: Sega’s Project DIVA Arcade FT in CA; ReRave Plus Kit; NEON FM loctest + More

arcadehero December 3, 2013 6

News post-IAAPA has been sluggish but it is out there. Today here are a couple of items for some rhythm arcade games.

Arcade Belgium is reporting that the Round 1 Puente Hills Mall location in California has snagged a new Project Diva Arcade Future Tone machine. The Nu powered game was released in Japan on Nov. 21st but there have been no announcements from Sega about availability outside of that country. As usual this is Round 1 flexing their connections muscles at getting some games from Japan that are difficult/impossible to find elsewhere out West.  But that does not mean all hope is lost as the original DDR started out via imports and it took off from there. If the game did well enough at Round 1 then there’s always a chance Sega could expand. They seem to be interested on some level since the previous version of this game was tested out there. Although if they were really serious then they must have tried out some secretive location tests elsewhere that does not have a hardcore rhythm gaming fanbase to see how the game does among a casual gaming populace.

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While browsing some tweets I came across a picture of Chris Cotty (of Eight On The Break arcade and Coast-To-Coast Entertainment) and Kyle Ward (of Step Evolution) standing in front of the ReRave Plus setup at IAAPA 2013. I noticed a handwritten sign on the games there that I must have missed previously that clears up a detail about the kit. We noticed and I know many others did as well, how ReRave Plus looks similar to the design of PentaVision’s DJ Max Technika arcade games. Well according to the sign, ReRave Plus has been designed to convert DJMT units to ReRave Plus. There aren’t a ton of DJMT machines out there (the game has been discontinued and I heard that the network for that game has been shut down so fans were trying to develop a solution) but still this tactic is not unheard of as kits that are designed with multiple cabinet styles in mind improve their potential market reach. Touchscreen game cabinets are still fairly rare out West so supporting the few that are should be a prudent business move.

On the NEON FM front, a new rhythm game by Unit-E, I believe their location test is still going but the last update I can find is this video from Nov. 26th and a little mention on their Twitter channel about the game working with online scores now.

Switching gears from the rhythm gaming side of news, there have been a few things happening in the Japanese arcade space but nothing really earth-shattering from what I have read. Today it was announced that Kohime Musou will be getting a sequel next year. The first was made available in the US but the company that was providing it to the US did a horrible job at telling anyone about it (wasn’t even mentioned on their website and I found out about its release 3 months after the fact) and so the game completely bombed. An all anime girl-on-girl fighting game is a tough sell to begin with but they should have at least tried. By that account I doubt we’ll see the sequel here but perhaps if it is picked up again, some marketing would help sell more than a handful of units.

Also there is a shooter by the name of Caladrius, developed by MOSS which is getting an arcade update via Sega’s ALL.NET+ network in Japan. It’s called Caladrius Aile Ciel(AC; thanks for the correction ZS) and the official website is here.  Seems pretty unlikely it will get some love overseas especially where importing a board with just the game on it isn’t available. (H/T to ECM for this one)

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6 Comments »

  1. CD ageS December 3, 2013 at 3:19 pm - Reply

    The latest location to open (Round 1 Lakewood center mall) also has it. Saw it on location just this past weekend. Looks like Round 1 is on a roll with importing exclusive titles here in the US 🙂

  2. Craig Simpson December 4, 2013 at 10:48 am - Reply

    Project Diva really is a fun game (ONCE you learn HOW to play it) as I play the U.S. PlayStation 3 version. I might see it making a scene in the American market but the following would have to happen, the game needs to be revised to include a newb friendly video redemption mode. This game has a very difficult learning curve (more so than that of DDR), so it will be frustrating for players who try it for the first time to succeed.

    Secondly a lot of general promotion for Hatsune Miku will have to be done, granted she is the world’s most popular idol (pretty good for a person who doesn’t really exist), but she is not America’s. Despite a hard core fan base in our Otaku community including anime conventions, clubs, and comic shops, many in the general public go “who’s that?” when they see her charming animated smile.

    Never the less SEGA has a bigger gold mine here (more so than a blue spiky haired insectivore we all know) and they need to capitalize on it.

  3. Hugo Lowenstein December 4, 2013 at 11:26 pm - Reply

    What a pity Galaxy Force is not coming back! That was a great SEGA shooter! I also am thinking of a certain flying jester that should be in the arcades. Virtual On arcade game, anyone?

  4. Shanzenos December 5, 2013 at 5:36 am - Reply

    “certain flying jester” Someone implying Carnevil over here?

  5. ZS December 6, 2013 at 7:05 am - Reply

    TYPO: “Caladrius EL CIEL” should be Caladius Aile Ciel (AC).

  6. Akira Kun January 4, 2014 at 8:29 pm - Reply

    Would you believe the Puente Hills Round One now has three Project Diva Future Tones?

    Not to be outdone the Lakewood Round One has five Future Tones. I am not sure if the Moreno Valley Round One has any as I rarely go to that one.

    Depending on what time you go, during peak hours at night there are usually people playing it.

    I noticed Technika has been unplugged/removed at both locations ever since the network died for it so R1 seems to want Project Diva to fill that gap.

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