The next arcade installment of Dance Dance Revolution, X3 is soon going on test in Japan, from June 8th-12th in Akihabara, Tokyo. Suffice it to say that at this point nothing is known about the new title, whether it will just improve on what DDRX2 offered or if it will shake things up with some revolutionary features. Let’s hope that when it comes to the US (DDR nearly being the only title Konami’s Arcade division is supporting outside of Japan) that it won’t have any of the issues X2 had getting out the door, although those were fixed rapidly with help from the Bemani community.
Also on the Bemani side of things, Konami has another Beatmania game line-up for a September release known as Beatmania IIDX 19 Lincle. I have no idea what the heck a Lincle is supposed to be (Link’s Uncle perhaps? As commentors have pointed out it’s Link+circle to invoke the social media idea behind the game) but I’m sure that this game will continue the fine tradition of bringing a hardcore music game to select venues.
Also in loctest news (it’s bursting at the seams from Japan today), Sega is rolling out tests for the latest update to their action-packed mech fighting game Border Break, now with version 2.5. The test started yesterday at several Japanese venues and will continue until the 10th of June.
Taito has another sequel of their weird table flipping game also on test now until the 8th at their Taito Station in Akihabara.
It’s true that Japan gets a lot of love in this area but not to despair, location tests are taking place elsewhere but they are usually held in secret, taking the approach of getting “untainted” results (until we get a tip about them I suppose). We recently saw that The World’s Fastest Drummer and Dirty Drivin’ on location test. I’ve been hearing rumors of another couple of games making their way to test this summer as well but without confirmation at this point we’ll have to wait on those. It seems to me that the summer time is a great time to do some testing, at my own arcade it’s busier during these next three months than a good part of the rest of the year.
UPDATE: Sega has also announced location testing for Let’s Go Island 3D. If you missed out on this one, it’s Sega’s most recent light-gun shooter but now with a 52″ true stereoscopic 3D screen that requires no glasses. The game will be on test at three different locations in Japan over the next three weeks. Still not sure if they will give this treatment outside of Japan or not. Source
[Via Am-Net.jp]
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Arcades4ever
I am totally surprised why sega hasn’t released board breaker to the west other than in japan. Has it even had a location test done? Hardcore gamers that love FPS games would love to play this game, this would go down well I would hqve thought. As for taitos table flipping game I would’ve thought they’d test it in the west since a sequal is on the way, the japanese always have all the fun 🙁