The first major arcade/amusement trade show of the year is already upon us, the EAG International 2015 Expo being held in London, UK. This is something I would call a tradition for us here as we have had coverage of the London January shows since 2007, a month after this website started.
For this year the big news up front is the appearance of Bandai Namco Amusement’s Time Crisis 5. This is the first time the game has appeared in the West; it has been enjoying location tests in Japan for a couple of months now. As previously reported on Arcade Heroes, the game features a new dual pedal system, 2 55″ HD screens, the return of the villain Wild Dog and more. Here is your first look at the game, with footage provided to us by The Stinger Report.
Next up is something from Sega Amusements, the latest build of their new racing title Showdown. When we first covered this game a few months ago, it was unveiled to have a special version which used ultra-wide screen curved displays. I got to check those out first hand at IAAPA 2014 but Sega has decided to ditch that idea in favor of more standard 65″ HD displays. It is too bad, I think its great when new ideas are tried out on the hardware but I know some were not happy with the grainy look that the projectors produced. Either way, the game is still the same (I enjoyed the different modes of play, especially the demolition derby stuff and graphically it is a top notch title) and the standard version of the game will be shipping for arcades internationally any day now.
Pinball Preview – This was posted by PinGame Journal and gives a pretty good rundown of what is there. I do find it surprising that there is no mention of Heighway Pinball or Dutch Pinball, especially Heighway since they are a UK manufacturer. I’ll keep my eyes peeled just in case either of those companies are there as well.
Jersey Jack Pinball also has announced their own method of providing tickets in their pinball games, EAG2015 marks the introduction of that system on Wizard of Oz for the company. Stern has had their own ticket system out for some time now although I have not heard of any locations that took the plunge with it.
Here is a video of the system shot by PinballNews:
That’s all I have managed to get for the moment, stay tuned as I am sure there will more. What are your thoughts on these developments so far?
I found Time Crisis 5 to be very short – Only 3 stages! Also Namco said Tekken 7 will not be released in the West…
Thanks Toby. I know they plan on having six stages available later in 2015. I guess they just want to get the game out then get the full software out later in the year. Not a surprise on T7, that is what I was hearing as well.
Only 3 stages? Do you think it’s because it’s still being developed or is it going to include the extra stages as part of the update like what happened with mariokart DX.
Recall the English Flyer we got, that mentions the extra 3 😉 Sounds like they are still working on those and will add sometime in 2015, my guess is around IAAPA time to pump the hype up for the holidays
We never got Tag 2 in the states. I wonder if Galloping Ghost is going to set up another custom cab?
We did actually, Namco was selling kits for a while but it was very low key so almost unheard of. Round 1 USA has them, I believe Arcade UFO does and that’s about it. As I’ve mentioned before, fighters are dead to the industry at large as long as the expectation is they will get a console release soon afterwards. Then that $7000+ kit they bought will make $10-$25 a week instead of $150-$300 that their light-gun or racing games average; as most do not do GG’s business model setting up a console to do that in a cab isn’t something they are keen to do either. :/
Pindemption – seriously? I thought those ticket things were just for children! I can’t see kids playing pinball for tickets when there must be much easier redemption games around. Still, there must be a market for it if Stern is doing it too.
It’s hard to say as I have not seen anywhere that has bothered to try it. In my experience kids will play pinball because it is colorful anyways. I’ve never heard them asking where the ticket vomiting is at.
I actually like the idea of “Pindemption” as long as the prizes are somewhat decent and it’s reasonably skill based.