(Thanks to BumbleBear Games, Raw Thrills and Betson for the info; corrections have been made to the article regarding screen sizes and the company name)
Not many independent arcade titles have found their way to the spotlight of mass distribution and even fewer have been able to get picked up by a major game manufacturer. So with that in mind, it is noteworthy what has happened with the following story – Raw Thrills Inc. has joined forces with the creators of the independently made Killer Queen Arcade to bring the game to the wider audience of the arcade market. (Click on any image below for a larger view)
If you need a refresher, Killer Queen Arcade was released back in 2014 and stood out for being a 10 player (5v5) joystick arcade title. The game concept itself had started out as a real world/physical game that the creators felt would work best as an arcade title. Pairing two five player cabinets together that also featured 46″ screens(corrected from 55″), it was a behemoth of a game to come across at the locations that have picked it up since 2014.
With Raw Thrills coming in for the new version, some changes have been made to it to maximize its potential including the re-designed cabinets you see above and some gameplay tweaks. On the hardware side, the TV positions have been slight adjusted and the size increased slightly to 47″; cup holders have been standard since the 3rd revision of their cabinet and the game now has some retro style side art (has a distinct late 70s/early 80s Midway/Williams vibe):
On the software side, the new tweaks include a tutorial to help new players understand how this unique game works; they have added AI players to fill in spots that are not available for human players (similar to the unreleased Pac-Man Battle Royale: Tournament Edition software); and they have also corrected a number of bugs .The new version has gone through extensive testing and is available now. Locations that have the previous build will be able to update the software. Here is the flyer for the new release:
UPDATE: This video was just posted to the Betson Youtube…doesn’t tell you much in the event that you don’t know what the game is already but it does focus on the primary aspect of the multiplayer:
It is surprising to see Raw Thrills go this route as they generally have opted to keep their skill video games based on a control scheme tailored to a car, motorcycle or gun as opposed to joysticks. They have moved on that with developments like Galaga Assault and World’s Largest Pac-Man And Friends, although those games were developed for other companies. With this targeting bars, it should be interesting to see how it works out. This game has been added to the “Already Released” column on our 2016 game releases tracking page. What are your thoughts on the new Killer Queen Arcade?
Kick ass! Nice job Raw Thrills!
That is a really fun game, and the added details should really help it out.
It’s certainly most unusual since rawthrills themselves have said that joystick games tend to not do as well as driving and shooting games. I’d be interested to see what this game plays like for myself, are there any videos of the games in action?
Here’s a video of the game in action!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DyAwobPCCW0
And here’s a twitch stream from Chicago’s recent invitational. Teams from NY, Portland, and Columbus all showed up:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2FYaQ0gjLmk
Any idea on the price point of this raw thrills version?
I remember the original being way overpriced for what it is, but now if they come in with a much more reasonable price I may be able to go for it.
‘” They have moved on that with developments like Galaga Assault and World’s Largest Pac-Man And Friends, although those games were developed for other companies. “”
To be fair prior to those they also did the arcade version of Doodle Jump (which itself was an indie mobile game).