With the new year it’s time to get ready for some new game announcements. Later this month there will be the EAG Expo in London, UK; then next month in Japan is JAEPO where much of what we can expect to see in the Japanese market through the year will be unveiled. In regards to that show, we have our first announcement of what we can expect to see there – Bandai Namco is releasing a new version of their successful Deadstorm Pirates arcade game that is being called Deadstorm Pirates Special Edition. This is not the same as their Deadstorm Pirates 4D+ attraction but an upgrade to existing DSP games.
Aside from the obvious differences in the cabinet above (particular the lit-up skull) other differences include the addition of two new stages, the final stage can be picked at the beginning of the game and there is a new ending video, possibly that can mean an alternate ending. For the two new stages, one of those is described as a tower level that has a roller coaster style design to it; the other is an “eerie fort”. It is scheduled for a Japanese release in March.
Given how well Deadstorm Pirates has done out West I think there is a pretty good chance that this update could find its way over to us sometime after the Japanese launch.
Batman Review
Speaking of new games, I got my hands on the new Batman arcade game by Raw Thrills and here is my review of it. I hope to get some footage of Sega’s Transformers Human Alliance here soon and I also have another arcade montage video and some related to Dariusburst in the works. Editing takes forever though so I’m not sure when I’ll have each of these rolled out but I’ll try and make it soon, before the Vegas Amusement Expo if that is possible.
Dead storm pirates has been very popular where ever I find it and namco would be foolish not to release this upgrade but something tells me we’ll be seeing this out west. Personally I’d prefer a sequal but it’s better than nothing for now and it’s more inclining to go on the game knowing you don’t have to go on all levels to unlock last stage.
yeap deadstorm pirates was such a massive hit i couldnt belive how fast namco ported it to ps3 because it was that successful 😀 i would love to see a load more sequals in the future but seriously namco should be reviving some of its older generation arcade games soon like STARBLADE+HD in that SD cab would be out of this world and SOLAVU!!! :0 heck could of been done in GUNDAM PODS but nope all quiet on the namco front still :/ i do hope soon …
@jonhooper –
I would say that ‘Mach Storm’ would be a Starblade for the Naughties! They say they have plans for a space game on the system after the jet fighter game has been released!
Nice review of ‘Batman’ AH.
‘Deadstorm Pirates’ in Japan has had a update already – chances of the update in the West may be a difficulty as this would need access to the PCB beyond the abilities of the current team in the US/UK (they could not send people out to every operator to apply the update, unless they want to take the hit?)
According to the info, this is a different update than the previous one and its slated for a release in March. My guess if they bring it out here then they will go the traditional upgrade kit (to add that Skeleton topper) route.
The upright units could use a monitor upgrade (the big black bars on the side just make it look weird) but that would probably be too large of a cost.
I believe the photo you have for Deadstorm Pirates SE is a prototype for the deluxe (moving) version. The final version should have different side graphics as well.
Nice Batman review. For future software updates besides adding an adjustable time period for picking a bat-mobile, I hope they can add a slow colour fade option to the seat led’s as I find the strobe effect outputting / seizure inducing.
While that effect doesn’t bother me, my brother mentioned that early on and he also was worried it would cause someone a seizure. An option to adjust the effects would be a nice touch.
There is a option in the test menu but it doesn’t seem to do much. Its at 10% on our pair and its maybe a little slower.