While it’s been a slow news period for the summer, that doesn’t mean that nothing it happening behind-the-scenes within the arcade world. We have three games on test to discuss today, known as “location tests” in arcade industry jargon. It’s our way of saying “beta test”, although in some instances a concept might be more in the alpha stages. Those three games, which we’ll cover in this order, are:
- Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot (Capcom/Bandai Namco)
- NEW!! Pop’n Music (Konami)
- Forklift Frenzy (Bay Tek Entertainment – ?)
Many thanks to Ted and Jdevy for the heads up on two of these. Please keep in mind these disclaimers, however: 1) We don’t have a lot to go on with two of these games – just a single photo. It’s rare that a manufacturer will comment on a game that’s out on test. Usually, they will only do so if it’s really close to shipping. 2) Any and all games on test are subject to change and may not even be released at all. Please reserve final judgments for when a game is in full production.
With that, let’s get started…
Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot
First up, the biggest and freshest of the bunch – Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot. For a very quick refresher, the Resident Evil (known as Biohazard in some corners of the world) series has limped its way onto the arcade market before, namely with Gun Survivor 2 Biohazard Code: Veronica. This was also handled by both Capcom and Namco, but, it was generally panned for its clunky gameplay. I believe it was mainly sold in Asia and Europe; I’ve heard of it in the States, but only as a very occasional import.
Whether or not this new version of the game has anything to do with that aforementioned tite, we don’t know, but I would be very surprised if it did. On test at Namco Funscape Romford in the UK, we can infer a few things from this photo, but do note, I have no official word from Namco on this, so these are my educated guesses (after the photo, which was originally posted by the wider complex this location is a part of):
First, the idea that this is focused on “dead shots” could clue us in as to the gameplay. Also of note: at first I erroneously read this as “head shot,” and that’s how the story was published, which was incorrect. My apologies on that.
For gameplay, it also won’t be a case of throwing RE2 into a cabinet and calling it a day, although it could be a heavily reworked, on-rails version of the Resident Evil 2 remake that was released back in 2019. That could also include more non-stop action than the series is generally known for, as gun arcade games have to change things up if they want to be successful. But, we have no idea how much will have changed until we hear/see more.
The photo shows the game in an environmental cabinet (think a giant cockpit cabinet that two people can sit inside of). Could there be some other feature at play, like VR? It’s less likely these days, especially after Bandai Namco dropped their VR Zone concept (including the highly-lauded Mario Kart VR system) following COVID. If this was VR though, I have to imagine something akin to Godzilla Kaiju Wars, with mounted guns and a motion seat. My sense from this photo however is that it’s more of a traditional mounted gun arcade game. It could have tethered guns too – House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn and Luigi’s Mansion Arcade both did that.
Namco and Capcom working together isn’t anything new, but it is a little bit of a surprise to see a game like this popping up in the UK before it was seen either in Japan or the US. It’s also been a while since Capcom has done anything major on the arcade side of things, but they like to pop in-and-out of the business at random like this. Perhaps this is also testing out in Japan though, as one big arcade blog over there recently mentioned that they came across a new game on test and it had no signage on it saying that they couldn’t film it, but they decided not to share what it was out of respect.
If any of you live near Namco Funscape Romford and can give it a visit to get a better look at Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot, let us know and we’ll give you credit for what you share 🙂 Thanks again to Ted for finding this game first.
New Pop’n Music
The internet has also been buzzing with news that Konami has been testing out a new version of Pop’n Music. While this normally might be just a nice thing to mention in passing, the fact that Konami is looking at selling games in North America again means this is most definitely going to be included in that.
The game uses a 43″ 120Hz screen at present, and there’s a small touchscreen – but as always with any test game, don’t make that final judgment call as details like that can end up changing into something else. The astute eye will also notice that this Japanese location test game is covered in English – not unheard of, but also uncommon for games with no intention of exports at some point (although the screen pictured here has that boilerplate legal “not for sale outside of Japan” paragraph going on).
Video for this one can be seen on Twitter/X, as well as here:
Forklift Frenzy
Credit to Jdevy on finding this one, although we have even less than the others to go off of here – I’m not even 100% sure that this is Bay Tek, although Jdevy suggested that it’s on test somewhere where Bay Tek likes to test games (if it’s in Wisconsin then yeah, 99.9% chance its Bay Tek, as I don’t know of anyone else who tests games like this out there).
Forklift Frenzy is a videmption game, and if you’re into forklift operating, then you’ll likely be a pro at it, but since this photo of it just so happens to have a guy standing right in front of the control panel, we can’t tell how the controls work. The gameplay seems to show a warehouse and I’d guess that you have to lift and load pallets of stuff onto the shelves. Maybe if it tests well like this, they could slap a Costco or Sams Club license onto it, heh.
I would note though that we’ve often seen test games from Bay Tek that disappear into the never-released ether, so if this one appeal to you, patience and low expectations on seeing more are in order. If it is a go though, I imagine it’ll be at IAAPA 2025.
That’s all for now on the above titles, but should any more information arise on them (Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot in particular), we will update as soon as possible. What do you think of these three new arcade games on location test?
