Newsbash: Cut The Rope Videmption; Classic Arcade Finder; More Mario Kart GPDX Play

Well this was a slow news week. Slow enough that I don’t have a whole lot to share today but as mentioned in the last multi-news post, that will change with the AAMA Gala next Thursday. Also, I may have an “unboxing” to do about Rerave Arcade as that will be arriving at my place this next Wednesday/Thursday; I also have been working on some arcade game montage videos to share and finishing up the Midway Arcade Prototypes Post #2.

UPDATE: I completed the montage video, which includes a little promotion for my book but also for some arcade games. Here it is:

In the videmption world there is a new conversion of a phone/tablet game that is being adapted for arcades, Cut The Rope. ICE is doing this one, seemingly as a follow-up to their Cut The Rope prize merchandizing game which strangely, had nothing to do with cutting ropes as far as the game went. This new videmption piece addresses that and like other conversions of this style we have seen gives you a huge touchscreen to enjoy the experience on. It seems likely that this will be at the AAMA Gala next week.

It’s not difficult to find an arcade near you thanks to the Internet and another tool that is useful for tracking one down, in particular “classic arcades”, is this map on Google Maps. This is actually an extension of ArcadeLocations.net which we have mentioned on here before. Still handy though. (Hat Tip to Victoria Rego for the link)

Earnings reports are coming out for the 1st quarter of the fiscal year in Japan. It’s not exactly rosy and InterGame has a summary. Part of the blame is being assigned to the economy there but I haven’t heard of some major changes they’ve made to break their stagnation that has been in place for quite a while so I’m not sure what they were expecting exactly. In addition to a sluggish economy they blame smartphones and gaming on those devices.  That’s something that has to be adapted to as smartphones will not go away anytime soon but Sega Sammy in particular says that “new and innovative” games will turn things around. Who knows if they mean some games they’ve released this summer or if they are referring to games in the works.  (Hat Tip to Kieran May for the link)

Speaking of Japan, with Namco/Nintendo’s Mario Kart Arcade GP DX playable there and just to rub some salt in the wound of anyone who is dying to play, here’s a kid playing a track. This answers the question about what happens when you get first place in the game – no free game (which is a criticism often leveled at the other MKAGP games).  Of course who knows how it might be changed for the US version, although its safe to assume that it will just be a translation and not so much a feature overhaul. This kid is good at the game and he either already knows what he is doing or he takes time to actually read what’s on the screen. So often that’s a step glossed over by people in a rush and then they need someone to explain how the game works, despite it being written out on the screen or told via voice over.