GTI Asia China Expo 2025 Day 1: New Arcade Games Debut In China

It is time once again to check out one of the biggest amusement trade shows out of China, in this case GTI Asia China Expo 2025. Alongside the Asia Amusement Attractions Expo in May, it is one of the most significant events for new arcade games in the mainland, and with its first day now over and done with, it’s time to take a look at the first batch of those, with several titles that will be coming Westward soon.

Anyone familiar with our rundowns of the Chinese shows will know by now that we check out what Wahlap have to show off first, partly down to them being one of (if not the) biggest players in China, but also because they are an Arcade Heroes advertiser. As well as them though, there are also a couple of familiar Japanese companies getting a mention at the end of the post, one of which with a few new games…

As always, most of the media and information you will see over the course of our coverage that does not come from Wahlap themselves has been generously sent in to us by our true blue Arcade Hero and friend of the site Oga-Shi; thanks to Ted also for assisting with bringing everything together here.

GTI Asia China Expo 2025

First, a little bit of background information on the event itself. As always, the GTI Asia China Expo has been taking place in Guangzhou, China, at Area A of the China Import & Export Fair venue’s Pazhou Complex. For anyone unfamiliar, this is one of several events organized by Taiwan’s Game Time International, as opposed to the AAA shows each May which are exclusive to China. It is typically held every September across three days (in this case Sept. 10-12), and often kicks off the next big amusement industry trade show season. In terms of size, by all accounts this is one of the most daunting of the bunch, rivalling even IAAPA with its sheer scale and booth numbers (like IAAPA, attractions are included too, e.g. this big dome ride). The fact that our business can still sustain something like it should always be appreciated though…

Wahlap

Wahlap have once again sent us a ton of photos straight from their presence at the show (much more than we can realistically post here), so we’ve curated a few of the more relevant ones that look the best and show the most. As I mentioned on Twitter/X, they also have continued their trend of spectacle – something that is often lacking from Western amusement shows, at least these days (it wasn’t always this way…).

Their many events within an event have included hiring a Chinese girl rock band called Gacha Hime alongside the rhythm games on hand like Jubeat, and costumed characters for some games such as Bombergirl (more on them below). Hard to recall when something like this last happened at a Western trade show – even Japan does this still, with the Amusement Music Festival at their big expo each year,

Storm Racer 2 & Storm Rider X

Those who have followed Wahlap since they made their first major moves in the Western market in the early 2010s will know one of their earliest big overseas hits was Storm Racer, and just over a decade on from its successful Storm Racer G update, they are releasing the first fully fledged sequel to the game, as well as another for the Storm Rider series. As one can tell from the photos, they stand out from the pack with their huge vertical screens, which should be easier to deal with than the double stacked format:

While Wahlap were responsible for the original games’ development (with some additional support from Sega and InJoy Motion on Racer G), this time around Hong Kong’s increasingly prolific 3MindWave studio is co-developing them. As has been mentioned a few times now, they were founded by several people who were responsible for the original games at Wahlap’s old HK team (e.g. Pang Shu), and were already enlisted for Storm Rider 2, so it is no surprise that they have also got to develop these two new sequels too.

Phantom Vanguard: Modern Combat

While those two racing games have taken center stage, one of the new gun games to come along is also there and garnering attention. As mentioned in the preview, Phantom Vanguard is coming from Wahlap alongside Gameloft and Taiwan’s IGS, who they also worked with on the successful Asphalt racer range. This time they are adapting the Modern Combat first person mobile shooters into a lightgun rail shooter, seen below next to IGS’ original Monster Eye 3 Unite (likely coming West soon as Kaiju Rampage Unite).

Here’s a chance to take a closer look at the guns, which look plastic, but are nicely detailed (they appear to be modelled after a Sig MCX). In a nice and interesting innovation, they can be detached or mounted, with the red knobs on the sides of the magazine allowing it to holster inside of the mounted swivel, depending upon what the game calls for. The function of the gun changes depending upon which mode you use; it works like a machine gun when free, but if mounted, it behaves like a heavy artillery cannon.

Jubeat

Currently intended only for China, the return of Konami’s Jubeat in its shiny new cabinets is seen here next to the latest Chinese version of Chunithm, although all but one of the photos we received from Wahlap show it from behind a crowd (there are a few better snaps floating around on Twitter/X). That just goes to show the demand for the game, however, as it was one of the biggest titles of the late 2000s/early 2010s, and many lamented the disappearance of its new cabinets seen at JAEPO 2020 (which are retooled here).

One interesting thing that has been said on the grapevine is that Wahlap have actually done their own R&D on this at Konami’s approval, making them 120hz on their own accord. Unfortunately, some players have also been claiming that the cabinets and game could use some fine-tuning still. One photo that has done the rounds in fan circles shows a broken button on one of the machines, and there is also a suggestion there have been some frame rate drops and input lags… hopefully that gets patched up before they launch.

Bombergirl

As revealed in advance, the other Konami game that Wahlap are now bringing over to China is Bombergirl. This keeps much of the action of the original, but as expected isn’t quite as revealing as the Japanese versions, and also uses a new twin 2v2 cabinet with one shared monitor and a card vending feature.

Speaking of card games, this interestingly seems to use the same base cabinet as a new overseas version of Wahlap’s original Kingdoms Fantasy card battler, which is now releasing in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and testing in Japan. That last one is notable as they haven’t tried games out there for some time.

Other Games

The below photo carousel shows a selection of the other games that Wahlap had on hand. One surprise among them that hadn’t been hinted at before is an Ultraman-licensed RC car game, as part of Wahlap’s “Wa Game” range for that property. Unlike the old Sega Super Circuit, it doesn’t have a full arcade console for each player, although I wonder how it works on visibility for some of the track portions.

Bandai Namco

As well as Wahlap carrying their officially licensed CN region release of Taiko no Tatsujin, since last year Bandai Namco have been making appearances at Chinese trade shows in their own right, typically through their Namco Enterprises Asia subsidiary. Some of their focus has always been on the Banpresto Crane Game prizes they own and sell, but there are a few small surprises of their own elsewhere...

Pac-Man Whack-A-Mole

Back at AAA 2025, Pac-Man Baller Jr. was debuted and added to the growing Pac-Man Street Range, and now we have another new addition to that product line. Bandai Namco are continuing to base it in classic amusement piece genres by bringing Whack-A-Mole into the equation.

Perhaps it should be retitled "Whack-A-Ghost" in this case though, as they have gone the admirable distance in making the moles Pac-Man's iconic enemies. It's this attention to detail that makes pieces like these so good, and makes Namco still one of the best in the business:

Pac-Man Kiddie Ride

As well as the Whack-A-Mole, Namco have got another Pac-Man surprise in store - this time a video-based Kiddie Ride. This follows in the same footsteps as those they launched last year for Taiko and Gator Panic in China, with a cute ride-on design inside the character himself.

Could we see this Pac-Man one reach our shores soon too? The other two kiddie rides they recently made have made Western landfall (albeit in a limited capacity with Taiko, though plenty of people seemed to really love it), so that looks pretty likely... we'll probably know by IAAPA.

Sega

One final surprise for this part: as well as Bandai Namco, Sega Japan were also in attendance in the form of their Sega Logistics Service parts subsidiary. Ted had mentioned he'd heard they might be there, but Oga wasn't certain until he got to the show. Admittedly, they did not attend to show off any games, instead choosing to promote all of the UFO Catcher prize range - but nice to see them there nonetheless.

Other

Of course, this is only just scratching the surface in terms of what has been showcased and debuted at GTI Asia China Expo 2025. Before the Day 2 and Day 3 posts come around, for a little bit of an indication of what's to come, UNIS' two big launches at the show have been for their new Top Speed Legend racer, and the non-VR version of Godzilla Kaiju Wars from Raw Thrills, which we heard about on test recently (click the titles for glimpses of them, courtesy of Alan-1's James Anderson). They have also managed to acquire the license to the high profile Genshin Impact IP for arcades and revealed a number of developments for that, though similar to what they've been doing with the Emoji properties it looks to be largely redemption/prizes.

Outside of those, Ace Amusement have also got several new original games in tow as usual; for the two we already know about, Dino Attack looks to strike out against Jurassic Park Arcade in the dinosaur shooting stakes, whilst Hover Rush is claimed by them to be the first water hovercraft racing game ever. They and UNIS will almost certainly have more than that, and besides them, there are also already a few videos out from Leon/Flamestone Amusement and, of course, Yuto Games that show off a few of their new works.

As usual, the next day's coverage will have much more detail on those new UNIS and Ace titles just mentioned, whilst the final day's will dive into everyone else who has attended. But until then, which of today's new arcade games seen at GTI Asia China Expo 2025 interested you the most?