First off, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes to the site. It should continue on for a nice long time. 🙂
In lieu of other hard news, here’s another video round-up to enjoy. There are a few videos to discuss from games that were at IAAPA 2013 that we have not seen in action yet as well as a couple that were not there.
I was sent a rough edit of some of Bandai Namco’s booth ladies taking the new Mach Storm for a spin. I did a tiny bit of editing and added some music to it courtesy of Rob Howard Music. Just judging by their reactions this game is one you just have to play:
From what I’ve gathered about the upcoming release of Namco Bandai’s Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5, not all fans are entirely enthused about it out West since finding WMMT4 is extremely difficult, if not impossible unless you head to Japan or maybe Australia. Either way WMMT5 is coming in 2014 and time will tell if it will be Westernized or not. I’m leaning towards it being not as Namco has Mario Kart GP DX and Dead Heat Riders (and technically Super Alpine Racer) on their racing game plate to deal with. Here is a new trailer for the game, which is devoid of actual gameplay but their is a Dig Dug Easter Egg in there…at the very least.
Adrenaline Amusements has posted a trailer for their new Jetpack Joyride Arcade game. This trailer confirms that the game works either as a pure arcade game or a ticket redemption game. I heard some good reviews of this one at IAAPA, it sounds like it was a hit with attendees.
The original Jetpack Joyride was developed for mobile devices by Halfbrick who also created Fruit Ninja. The arcade version of FN called Fruit Ninja FX was done by Adrenaline Amusements and it was also a big success on the arcade scene. That means a sequel for the arcade side as well with Fruit Ninja FX 2. One unique aspect of the new arcade version are the figurine models. Players can get these from the redemption counter of a venue that has the game and they place their figurine on the watermelon in front of the game as a way to select the character. This trailer shows that working out, along with touting the many other features that this offers over the first FNFX.
I’ve been hearing the chatter about this Skylanders craze that is apparently going on out there but as far as I have been able to tell, its something to kind of compete with Pokemon but focuses on action figures instead of cards. That actually reminds me of Battle Beasts which was a toy fad that took place when I was a kid. I guess their mistake was not marrying the action figures with video games. Anyways as we found out at IAAPA 2013, Adrenaline Amusements is bringing Skylanders Cloud Patrol to the arcade scene. Below is a direct video of the game in action. I did some poking around and it appears that it is based upon a game of the same name that is found on the iPad. Classic Game Room has a review of that, which also gives you more info on what Skylanders is exactly in case you are curious. I assume that the arcade version just gives the mobile version the big screen and redemption treatment .
One game that was also at IAAPA 2013 by Adrenaline, Monster Factory. This trailer gives us a better idea of how it works, which is overall a simple matching game that benefits from some arcade controls.
The NEON FM by Unit-E loctest continues, here is the latest video showing a hardcore player giving the game a spin and some kids giving it a try. That is certainly one place where the difficulty change will help by adapting properly. At the moment they have it set on free play as a way to encourage plays and get some feedback.
Finally on an arcade related note, I was contacted by Will Brierly who had created a unique arcade game a few years back called Get Outta My Face. While that game wasn’t a breakout commercial success, it prepared him for projects down the road. Right now he has been promoting Soda Drinker Pro, a simulation game about drinking sodas(which even works with the Oculus Rift). Babycastles created their own “arcade cabinet” for SDP, using a laptop a stuff penguin, some cardboard and tape (I guess this is the modified Caine’s Arcade approach). Here’s the making of that:
Soda Drinker Pro is silly! Maybe it’s Root Beer Tapper’s spiritual successor! Too bad there’s no Beer Drinker Pro!
I wonder if highway games will have another interview with namco about the state of the arcade industry and maybe give some info on whether or not the banapassport online system was a sucess? There could still be a possibility even though it’s looking very slim for wmmt4 coming out west let alone 5. Arcades in the UK that have maxitune are still very popular to this day.
I know I bang on about it a lot but I just find it strange that some of the games by namco can use the banapassport such as tekkan tag 2 but yet not wmmt4. Time will tell I guess
I just wonder were the camera man had to lay while filming the girls playing ‘Mach Storm’ 🙂