As EVO 2014 started a rumor popped up on the internet that Bandai Namco was working on Tekken 7. It didn’t take long for that to turn from rumor to fact as the company released a trailer for the game below, only unveiling some of the story and that the game will use Unreal Engine 4. As the game has a pretty consistent history in arcades, we can assume that the game will find its way to the arcade first with console releases a short time afterwards. I just hope that this time when it comes to the US that the release will be faster than what happened with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited – we did get a kit release for that but it was delayed well beyond the intended release until after the console releases had already taken place so interest in it wasn’t as high as it could have been. Of course time and time again this is what kills fighters for the arcade side but I doubt that Tekken 7 will change much about it. I also assume that this means that Tekken X Street Fighter is dead, I haven’t heard a thing about that in a long enough time to assume “quietly shelved” status.
That is not all that Bandai Namco Amusements has on the table though. Game Watch (h/t to The Stinger Report for this article) has a bit of info on a few new projects to come along from the company. For arcades they recently held a press meeting in Japan to discuss several other projects, a few of which should hold interest for us here. First off, that new dome screen light-gun game, Lost Land Adventure. The game will ship in August 2014 in Japan, uses “Unreal Engine”(the article doesn’t say which one but I will assume 3) for the graphics, the Banapassport support is to save your treasure hunting progress, there is no reloading mechanism, there are a few puzzles for players to solve so it isn’t just shoot-everything-that-moves, the view is larger than the Gundam PODs or Mach Storm and to sit through the five sequences from start to finish takes about 45 minutes. They also confirm support for different countries, the languages supported include “English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Indonesian”. Some of this was shown by the recent trailer, some of it is news. I can’t imagine that shipping and installation on one of these cabinets is going to be a pleasant experience, at the very least it will be a small attraction piece.
For Mario Kart Arcade GP DX news, the first major online update to the game is now live in Japan. This game was recently launched in North America and with it we found out that there is a $50/month charge per seat for the online connectivity, which contributes to the annual online updates which will roll out without an extra charge. I’m not sure when the updates are scheduled yet, perhaps a year behind Japan but the Japanese updates can likely give us an idea of what to expect. For the Japanese update, they did add some new characters/items/tracks, which is something we knew was going to happen(nothing to get excited about on the character, just Metal Mario). But they also added two new game modes – “national competition mode” which means online cross-site play and a new competitive team mode. They also have changed the drifting mechanics although the article doesn’t say what is different about it. Out of these updates, I think that getting cross-site play for the international version will be the most important feature given that monthly charge.
They also discussed a new Pokemon Game, the Japanese release of Super Alpine Racer and a new version of Taiko No Tatsujin. SAR has already been out in the West for a few months now, it seems doubtful that the other two games will get much attention over here aside from the occasional import.
Maybe taiko no tatsujin could happen possibly in the future. If they’ve included don chan in mariokart arcade xd it could indicate that namco may try again although a little far fetched.
Are the mariokart arcade dx online in the US because I’m sure they’re not here in the UK so I don’t see how this will work for offline machines
I hope there’s much better luck releasing tekkan 7 than what happened with 6 as 6 was always being played on when I spotted it at the arcades.
Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is online in the US. The game actually will not fully boot up if it’s not connected to the internet or have a paid subscription.
If you can’t play the game without a subscription, this is going to be a real issue to certain operators who don’t see a decent enough profit to make back on their investment. $50 for areas that aren’t considerably gaming hotspots will ultimately be excluded, unless there’s a separate fee you can pay to keep this running offline.