The Defenders Of Amusement – Arcade & Pinball News
With IAAPA past us and some time given to digest what was there, let’s take a look at what you think was the most interesting, exciting, best, etc. game you saw from our IAAPA coverage or perhaps if you were there, whatever game impressed you the most. It’s a large list, about 30 games long and I’ve put it down in alphabetical order.
[poll id=”5″]
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Website: https://arcadeheroes.com
I'm a lifelong fan of video games and I have been operating my own arcade, Arcade Galactic in West Valley City, Utah since 2008. Soft spots in my heart for Atari, Sega, and Nintendo.
I liked OG, I thought it was a lot of fun and the features it has are cool. The only place it really lacks (sadly) is graphics. A couple of the Chinese games on the floor look better than it does, including a kids ball throwing game called Penguin Paradise who was developed by some unknown.
Yeah, I know graphics aren’t everything nowadays but for a game like operation ghost it really needs them to recreate the atmosphera and feel of an undercover shooting game. first sega did it with let go jungle sequal and now the sequal to ghost squad? Wonder why the graphics are so low from what I’m hearing from people? I remember a time when in the arcade that each sequal to a popular game had improved graphics over it’s precessor, wonder if sega are trying to scale back on arcade titles, if they do this house of the dead 5 it will give people a bad impression of sega and arcade games as a whole if they carry on like this
I don’t mean to make it sound like graphics are everything but it is strange when you have no-name Chinese developers pulling off better graphics than Sega on their latest flagship title. Otherwise, OG is fun, I like the gun and the alternate firing modes, the game is more technical then I expected
A lot of questions started over OG – one even suggested that the JP team was let down by their CGi. I played the game to completion at EAS and was surprised that it had only three working levels and a giant “to be continued” screen on the ship mission!
After the whooping the JP teams got at IAAPA they will have to ask some serious questions on their viability to compete in this race!
what a tough question, too bad no rank-choice voting! I’d have to say if i had to buy one game out of your list it would be Pac Man Battle – i just think that’s an earner, personally though i most curious about OG and of course let’s go island 3d (which i still haven’t even played the non-3d version!)… but honestly it looked like a really good show and for the most part i’d be happy with any of the offerings!
I actually was surprised by Power Truck. Despite the plethora of racers out there, it did enough to stand out. The sound system on it is really good but I particularly enjoyed the Crash/Chase mode. Speed Driver 3 by IGS was equally really good.
I don’t see Speed Driver 3 on the list.
I guess it’s a typo since there’s a “Speed Racer 3” there.
By the way, thanks for your great articles.
These two games looks really good.
It was a typo, thanks for pointing that out. Not sure why I came up with Speed Racer 3 X)
i’ve played lets go island and I thought the graphics were nowhere near as good as the first game Lets go jungle but it’s also alot more chanllenging although I found alot of it the same to be honest but that’s not really a bad thing, I’m curious as to if lets go island will have a few extra stages that’s not found in the non 3D version like what sega did with outrun 2 SP where it had all new locations
Why play an iPad game on an unnecessarily huge screen?
Why do people think this is a good thing?
It’s like asking,”Why watch a movie on a big screen when you can watch it on a laptop?” 😀
I rarely post online but I must say IAAPA put on one heck of a show this year. There were so many new and exciting companies launching new products and the presentations were fantastic. I must say the one I was most impressed with was Rerave. I met one of the owners there and he gave us a rundown of the arcade version of the game. It was magical all the way from the graphics to the audio delivery. This is exactly the kind of game that I am looking to purchase for my 6 locations because it was engaging and really fun. I actually enjoyed playing it so much I downloaded the iPhone version after leaving the booth. To me it sounds like a good company and they are doing things right.
Just my 2 cents..
Kev
I love how someone keeps stuffing the re-rave vote.
I dont think even 100 people play rerave,
I don’t know about that, DJMT3 seems “stuffed” to me just as well if that is the case, although neither should be as far as the poll goes unless everyone has found a workaround they are taking advantage of. I saw very few people playing it at the show to be honest – ReRave seemed pretty popular. I’m not taking sides, just saying what I saw. But the poll is supposed to be blocking out repeats so I’m not sure what’s going on, could just be people honestly voting. I would hope that people would play fair either way.
We’ll see which game is really “stuffed” when arcade operators look at their revenue numbers.
hint: At Round1 in City of Industry, ReRave would never generate half the revenue Technika generates if the number of machines was equal and ReRave cost twice as much to play.
Obviously it wouldn’t generate as much because one game cost twice as much as the other to play and in your scenario, it was ReRave that costs more. Why would you (the customer) pick the more expensive one? Your theory makes zero sense to a person whom manages 2 arcades and constantly looks at revenue streams. I mean, it wouldn’t make as much because it costs the player twice as much so I’m trying to figure out what exactly you’re saying.
The technika “upgrade” is only a third of the price of ReRave’s cabinet. IIRC, the Technika cabinet itself is fairly close in price to ReRave and you get a lot more content.
ReRave shouldn’t even BE in the arcade right now. It was originally supposed to be a dancing game where you use your feet on an open touch sensor floor to hit the notes. This is just an overglamourized version of the ipad release. Not to mention I can only think of like…2 people that actually take their scores seriously on that version.
Honestly, many people doesn’t know ReRave. There are more people playing Technika in our country than ReRave. Besides, BGAs in Technika are cool, ReRave seems to be pretty boring for me which I would prefer playing Osu! than that.
Besides, there are more stuffs and surprises in DJMT and it’s has been developing ever since it was created. IT’S ALREADY IN ITS 3RD SERIES.
Keep in mind, we’re asking about best game of the IAAPA show. No not many people had heard of ReRave yet but despite that it still attracted a lot of attention. I heard many people talking about it away from the booth. I think it will be great for drawing in new blood into the music game genre but to be completely honest I think this little rivalry going on between it and T3 is a little ridiculous since it’s completely plausible for both games to co-exist in the market. You can like one or the other or both and it’s not going to make you any less of a rhythm game fan.
Whether in IAAPA show or not, it’s definitely great to see new music games like ReRave entering rhythm game industry. Although, I’m not quite sure about the ‘co-exist’ part ;). I mean, to be honest, co-existing without any rivalry would pretty much solve any issues in this world and yet, we find it so hard to do it – maybe we’re simply wired that way. Consider ITG/DDR or just Microsoft/Google (I’d LOVE to see the day when these two get along :D)!!
It was a close call for Technika and Rerave, but for our company we decided to vote Rerave. We decided to give them our support on the poll because they are new and very attractive for the market and their graphics and gameplay was very unique. The owners have a very successful history and are keeping cost low since they do the development on the arcade version as well. I agree that both companies can be healthy for our industry so we are proud of all the new and excited games we saw there.
You mean like how they abandoned Pump It Up Pro 2, and how their boxy cost-saving cabinet costs the same as a Technika cabinet?
I have no problem with ReRave finding “success” but it’s obvious to all of us that this poll is stuffed.
Members of the ReRave team have zero to do with Pump it Up Pro 2 nor have they been directly related to the Pro 2 project.
ReRave is quite new when compared to DJMAX Technika series. Even so, looking at the stats, both are pretty close. I think gaining such popularity in a short period of time, in and of itself, is a huge achievement!
Both Technika 3 and ReRave had very impressive showings at IAAPA. I think there’s plenty of room for both games to exist in the arcade space, especially since typically music game players will jump around from machine to machine while waiting in line. It’s only a matter of time before you see Technika players cross-over to ReRave and vice versa as both of them have some of the same features at their core that keep the gameplay fresh and competitive. At the end of the day it really comes down to preference in music, but all in all both games offer different gameplay experiences and are loads of fun in their own ways.
I think ultimately the only real competition between the two at this point is what operators are willing to buy or prefer. Both machines are priced very similarly from what I’ve heard, so it’s pretty even on that front. At the end of the day they’re both a great value for their money, and extremely welcome additions to the music gaming space (especially with Konami skipping out on DDR X3 in the US, and no new Pump announced) so I’d be really pleased if I saw either machine start springing up at arcades.
I have to say I am impressed most of the games at the show. I am happy to see a lot of unique touch screen games being added. I remember a few years ago all you would see is the same old stuff re-hashed (there is some of that but, not as much).
I liked: ReRave, PacMan Battle Royale Deluxe, Speed Driver 3, Love Touch
The real question is not just what’s immediately cost effective but what’s going to keep people coming back to play or even what’s attractive to the customer?
OG tested in Chicago and honestly was terrible compared to GS. There’s zero depth, feels more like they’re trying too hard to be a COD:MW-style game but plays horrible and feels sloppy.
If developers keep pumping out games that are just the same-old same-old without anything to offer the player, then what’s the point?
It’s also sad to see so many Japanese companies scale back on the American market with their arcade games and the few that are licensed generally are crippled for the sake of “cost cutting.” It’s like no one really looks at the long term for the businesses.
Arcades4ever
Well well as of now it looks like I’m not the only person who’s looking forward to playing operation ghost since at this time no one’s voted for any of the other games apart from operation ghost