In case you hadn’t noticed, the trend that is ‘so hot right now’ in the arcade market are videmption games and on top of that, porting mobile games to the arcade for a larger screen experience. We’ve discussed several this year alone – Ghostbusters, Galaga Assault, Sonic Dash Extreme, Angry Birds Arcade, Crossy Road Arcade, Gridiron Blitz, Crazy Claw even Point Blank X. Many of these can be set to ‘amusement only’ (i.e., don’t play for tickets, just a score) although how many venues pick them up and set it to that option is unknown (probably limited to non-profit venues like Boys & Girl Clubs that have arcades).
At the upcoming IAAPA 2015 show I’m expecting to come across many videmption concepts, probably more than straight video games. Today I found out about such a new title that will be at the show – Timberman Arcade by a company called Magic Play. In looking at Magic Play’s website, it appears that they have been providing redemption type games to the US starting this year and they have built up a decent line-up of product so far. The EU base of the company has been around since 2013since2001(thanks for the correction Chris). Timberman also joins Can Knockdown 2 Arcade Edition for their videmption line-up. Here is the promo trailer for Timberman, which has a very flashy cabinet – the controls are simple (just some big buttons) although from the cabinet picture it looks like they also put large buttons on the sides almost like a pinball machine:
What are your thoughts on this release as well as the videmption trend?
I’ve played some of these mobile-to-arcade games, and I think it’s a very poor experience. The gameplay is shallow and simplistic and they are not different enough from their mobile counterparts to be interesting at all. A total money-grab from developers. Pass.
Hello. I found that in Google when looking something about our Timberman.
I don’t know where you get info about our start. Read more here: http://magic-play.eu/?en_about-us,3
2001 🙂 On US market few years later.
BTW Great article. 🙂