(Thanks to ECM for the tip)
Back on October 30th, a new location test began in Japan that interestingly enough seems to have avoided most of the Japanese arcade newswires. That is a fairly rare thing to occur, especially when you have a license/name like Luigi attached to it. Here is the loctest promo poster for Luigi’s Mansion Arcade as seen on Gamestalk.net:
And thanks to that license, there are plenty of Nintendo fans out there who are paying attention to this to hopefully provide more pictures. As you can see above, the cabinet design is a Theater cabinet, which has been popular to find in modern arcades since Sega’s Let’s Go Jungle. Likely this is a light-gun game with vacuums as the “gun”. Also given the design, this likely has a 55″ screen. Unfortunately we have no idea how the game plays at this point but it is safe to assume that it will play differently than the home versions.
The sad thing is however is that this is seemingly being handled by Capcom alone (although there could always be someone else involved here that we don’t yet know about). I don’t say that as a negative to the game quality but as a negative to the chances of finding this outside of Japan. In Japan the company has not kept up very well with their arcade competitors in recent years. Aside from Street Fighter (now done through Taito), releases have been rare, like the odd Monster Hunter themed pig racing game. They also did a New Super Mario Bros Wii themed redemption game which I have not seen imported to the West in any form so far.
As Capcom has no official arcade presence out West, the only way we will see this here is an operator spending the cash to import it or a US-based manufacturer deciding to give it a go (or the possibility that someone else is involved with this game behind the scenes – which is still open). Both of which could indeed happen when you have chains like Dave & Busters or Round1USA wanting to get their hands on some unique games that no one else has.
For now though, here is a picture of someone looking at the cabinet from Twitter user PO121KARMA:
Gamestalk now also has an update about the game too, which through translation shows that the game is indeed a light-gun type game as I had guessed and it is aiming for a Japanese release in Summer 2015. The game is creatively based upon Luigi’s Mansion 2 that came out for the Nintendo 3DS, although it will certainly use upgraded hardware and different play mechanics. Here is a tweet showing another cabinet shot, no one seems to have been able to get one from the inside at this point:
That same Twitter user linked to this additional picture:
I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for more info on this one, especially at IAAPA 2014 to see if there is any interest in someone bringing this over. What do you think of Luigi’s Mansion Arcade?
Wonder why they’re going with Capcom and not Namco this time. Maybe they could get Namco to distribute it in the West.
The two companies have a pretty rosy relationship, probably moreso than Namco. As mentioned in the post, this is not the first time Capcom and Nintendo have worked together for arcades and we could also note the Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom arcade board which was a modified Wii system. I’ve heard chatter before that if anyone is going to buy Capcom (they are in terrible condition financially) that Nintendo is the most likely candidate to do so.
Sounds very interesting but a shame it more than likely won’t come out west. If namco was making this it would deffinatly be released but unless a distributor will pick this up it certainly won’t come outside Japan.
it could possibly come to the west more than unline new super mario bros arcade version as this is a mounted gun (whatever aiming device it is) like lets go jungle which are very popular but it won’t come out which is a big shame unless it gets picked up 🙁
Moreso than Namco!? I wouldn’t that far. Mario Kart DX series, F-Zero AX project and most importantly their current relationship with the latest Smash Bros. games 😉
I mean in general, not just arcades, sorry. Capcom content shows up a lot on Nintendo’s platforms, the U/3DS have been getting a large helping of Capcom content just this year but it has been strong in the past as well. In Japan Monster Hunter is one of the few IPs they have left which is bringing how some bacon and that is enjoying most of its time on the 3DS. Even Capcom has relation to Smash with the Megaman appearance 😉 Capcom just hasn’t had a lot to offer on the arcade side because they just don’t have anything to really offer anymore in general – just more Street Fighter. Nobody is looking to them anymore to set the standard for arcade gaming, like the company had done in the 90s. If Capcom was in a stronger position financially they probably would have more than just that Mario Bros Wii World Coins game and now Luigi’s Mansion.
Namco really ought to distribute this game if it’s possible for them as the mario franchise is the most popular not just in the west but all over the world.
We did get hopping road by taito which I thought was way beyond getting released in the west but it did after all so maybe the same will happen with luigis mansion.
The hype is real. Unfortunately….Capcom has it. So the dream is dead. Its nice seeing Nintendo sticking their toes in the arcade waters again.