With July fully underway, it’s time to take a look at a couple more trade shows that recently showcased arcade games. These are perhaps the most effective way for new products to get intra-industry attention these days, giving manufacturers the best opportunity to present their games in a hands-on way to potential buyers. While we tend to focus more on a couple of the larger shows during the year, smaller ones have their value too, with today’s examples being no exception.
We have two shows to cover this time – the International Bowl Expo 2025 held in Washington D.C., and IAAPA Expo Asia 2025 held in Shanghai, both at the start of this month. Unfortunately I did not get the chance to attend either, but with the aid of content posted by the companies who have attended them and Ted (who did not attend too, but has helped link several of these over on the AH Discord), here is an overview of most of the arcade games that graced these events…
Bowl Expo 2025
There was a lot to be said about Bowl Expo this year; for one, it being held on the week of the US’ Independence Day, and two, for being in Washington D.C. While I get the thinking – hey, go to our nation’s capital for the 4th of July, since they tend to have a lot of stuff going on – in practice there just were too many people with family plans that this negatively affected attendance.
As a note, I recorded a podcast with Brandon Willey and Kevin Williams where we discussed things, and they were able to point out how it wasn’t the best attended Bowl Expo; another point was raised that shipping into D.C. this week was very expensive, which meant that most made their shipments light. Between all of those factors, many “kept the powder dry” on revealing new products so as to have a bigger impact down the line. This also mentions additional product that was at the Expo which isn’t detailed below:
Fortunately, next year’s Bowl Expo will be held earlier in June and in Nashville, TX. This is also an improvement, given that 2026 is the US’s 250th birthday, so the first week of July is going to be very busy all across the country. Best not to let all that overshadow a relatively small arcade show…
As always, our coverage here will start with site advertisers, then move onto the rest in alphabetical order.
TouchMagix
Though not promoted in advance aside from their banner ad here on the site (thanks to their support on this – which also sees them first up here), TouchMagix did bring their recently-released Minions Bullseye Mania alongside the mainstay titles they have been selling for some time, including Pudgy Penguins and Pop It. Minions had one big change to it from AEI – they stocked it with soft bananas, which matches with the license. It also means no more loud crack when they hit the screen (they were plastic at AEI).
AVS Companies (Alan-1)
AVS Companies aren’t always mentioned on the site with them being a distributor, but seeing as they represented Alan-1’s Soda Slam! here, they are worth a nod up top too. They also brought along a candy vendor, and the tabletop Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash from Bandai Namco – which brings up a point, as initially GoldStorm Pirates was slated to appear at the show. However, Bandai Namco did not have their own booth, and the game is nowhere to be found in photos of AVS’ space. Perhaps there were shipping issues?
Speaking of Alan-1, they will have a bigger direct presence at this year’s California Extreme (CAX) very soon. That will feature their full current lineup in the form of Soda Slam!, Avian Knights, and the whole Recharged range, including a brand new, yet-to-be-revealed addition to it…
Betson (Raw Thrills)
As always, Betson represented fellow site advertiser Raw Thrills, with them bringing probably the most video game-heavy selection of titles to the show. Most of the company’s recent major releases were around, from Top Gun Maverick and Wizard of Oz to the standard models of Fast & Furious and Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, as well as Marvel Contest of Champions, Angry Birds Boom and the 2-Player Assault edition of Halo Fireteam Raven. Also present was Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR, which now sports all six levels in all their glory. I still think that this one would be great without the VR aspect, but if such a design were in the works they would probably wait a while to see how the update does.
Andamiro USA
Onto the other companies who appeared at Bowl Expo now, and chief among those was Andamiro USA, who presented the one new-new video game brought to the show. They have partnered with Chinese company Superwing to bring their Marksman video shooting range to the US, following its release in China and appearance on their booth at IAAPA Expo Europe last year. Unfortunately Andamiro have still not promoted it and their booth as of yet, besides a preview and a feature in a product catalogue, so in absence of any photos from the show, here’s a video trailer that Superwing posted for the game a little while back:
JET Games
Though not new-new, JET Games were effectively the one other outfit who had any new product besides pure prize redemption, as alongside the likes of Mega Shot they brought along their Talking Tom Goldrun videmption game. This piece actually debuted at Amusement Expo (AEI) in March, but had a photo ban, so was not illustrated on the site back then. Here however, that was evidently lifted.
Besides using the cabinet of a Chinese piece called Jump For Treasure, one odd thing about this title is its touchscreen controls; these are not part of the big gameplay monitor, but a subscreen in the control panel. This does stand out slightly but can have the adverse effect of bumping the price up, as well as creating more maintenance flash points than just using standard buttons or joysticks.
LAI Games
LAI Games were probably second only to Betson/Raw Thrills in terms of how much they brought to the show, as alongside Kaiju Rampage and Cyberpunk 2077: Turf Wars, they also had part of their Seasons crane game range and the first trade show appearance of the NASCAR Pitstop redemption game by them and Wahlap. This has already released to Dave & Busters locations and was supposed to appear at Amusement Expo, but missed that show for one reason or another, so debuted here instead.
For an update on Cyberpunk 2077, it looks like it will still be releasing to other US locations in August, and for its European release, official LAI distributors Sega Amusements have been promoting it recently in the form of a YouTube trailer and a new page on their site. Oddly Kaiju Rampage has not appeared alongside it, but it was spotted (likely on test) at one of their locations recently. Speaking of Sega…
Sega Amusements
Though they have had more significant presences at the show in past times (2018’s saw them debut Daytona Championship USA’s standard model, as well as a close to final version of the Transformers sequel), Sega Amusements have downscaled that with how Bowl Expo has been going more recently. This year that only went as far as having the few cranes and merchandizers you see below. As mentioned previously in a Newsbytes, they could’ve brought something new but not major along the lines of the apparent upcoming standard edition of Apex Rebels or the production version of Alpha Ops VR Strike, but it’s probable the aforementioned lower attendance and shipping costs scuppered it for now:
While we’re here, it is worth adding that one Sega game which would’ve been nice to see there but truthfully didn’t need to appear at the show was Maimai DX. This was being showcased just after it concluded anyway over at the Anime Expo in L.A., where it had a great reaction from fans and was officially confirmed to be rolling out to all Round1USA locations soon. That confirmation will surely please some…
UNIS
Finally we have UNIS, who get the distinction of being the only company here to appear at both Bowl Expo and IAAPA Expo Asia up next. They unsurprisingly chose to show off more new games at the latter, but did still bring an assortment of their releases along to the other (albeit mostly smaller examples), including Monster Kart and Bigfoot Smash. More photos of how their booth looked can be found here.
Perhaps the more eyebrow-raising aspect of UNIS is that on one of their official YouTube channels, they have released this curious English trailer for their answer to Minecraft Dungeons Arcade that they call Picture Book Land. This wasn’t at Bowl Expo and I would be surprised to see it ever turn up here, but it has been available in China for some time now. Perhaps they are testing the waters…
IAAPA Expo Asia 2025
Onto IAAPA Expo Asia now, which has also seemingly suffered due to the timing of taking place at the same time as Bowl Expo, and perhaps moving location. This show has typically never had very many new games or major presences either, being the lesser of the main IAAPA shows (Europe and the main Orlando one have more), but did step up a little last year when it was held in Bangkok, Thailand. This year has seen it back in Shanghai, China, which seems to have been a plus for the attractions/theme park side of things as that had plenty going on, but less so for the amusement/coin-op contingent (which already had a big Chinese show a couple months back with AAA, and will again in two more months time with GTI).
As this video from the show portrays, VR was still part of that too, with appearances from VR Star Space and Hero Zone. As an aside, Hero Zone had a big recent RePlay cover story for their Terminator Uprising, though it doesn’t look like it was here. The zombie game using the same cabinet was, however:
Still, there were a few traditional arcade companies who attended alongside the more attraction and VR-oriented trade, so let’s take a look at some of them while we’re at it here.
Ace Amusement
One example of how this show hasn’t been too big on arcade product is Ace Amusement’s presence. If you have been keeping a close eye on them it would be more than clear that they have been launching a ton of new games of late, with several releasing out West, but instead of bringing any cabinets in person here, Ace simply had promotional material detailing their range. It seems odd that they wouldn’t have even one smaller piece, but perhaps costs were too high to bring one here as well?
Cheer Amusement
For a quick example of how the attractions side had more positives and big products, the likes of Inowize were represented well by their Chinese distributor Cheer Amusement bringing along a QBIX immersive reality room installation. This was all alongside their own equipment:
DOF Robotics
Another more attractions-focused company now, as DOF Robotics showcased their Angry Birds Fury Road racer. This is one that has oddly fell right off the radar after it appeared at the last IAAPA; it was apparently on test during Spring, but after that, there was no further word on it. Seems like they are still giving it a release, though we don’t know if there have been any changes to the game since we saw it last.
Epark
While others are more reserved, some Chinese arcade companies these days really spam online content, with Epark and another example shortly falling into that category. Unfortunately that often correlates with them carrying plenty of ‘high seas’ product, as a quick look at Epark’s other videos reveals, but here they had a small enough presence to only bring a merchandizer and a three-player kiddie videmption shooter:
UNIS
As alluded to earlier, UNIS pulled a surprising double appearance by going to both Bowl Expo and IAAPA Expo Asia, even making the effort to bring along a couple new games to the latter. Here, the biggest of these was Monster Jet Riders. This can be seen below next to the deluxe edition of Monster Kart, which it appears to be a follow-up to; we had previously got a glimpse of this in a no photo capacity at AAA 2025 and via a trailer soon after, but this is its first major trade show appearance in English. They additionally had a new four player pusher with some sort of video element, though there are fewer details on this one.
Yuto Games
Besides Epark, the other Chinese company who have done their usual social media blitz as part of appearing at IAAPA Asia is Yuto Games. They had a bit more than Epark, and do seem to be making more original efforts than them these days (e.g. their Crazy Drift racer), though still take a bit of generous inspiration from existing games in places (see the four player shooter with VR Agent-like gun headsets):
That wraps things up for both Bowl Expo and IAAPA Expo Asia 2025; though smaller than usual, as has been covered above they weren’t totally devoid of arcade games, with several new examples shown that should be releasing soon. A few companies who appeared (e.g. Adrenaline Amusements and SEA Animation) did not publish any details of what they had or seemingly bring anything new, but just for the record, they were there too. Which games shown at them here interested you most?
