JAEPO 2018 Part I – New Arcade Games Coming From Japan

Welcome to the first of various JAEPO 2018 threads. These may be a bit of a hodge podge of content, most of what I am seeing from the show coming via Twitter as Japanese attendees tend to favor the platform. Let’s start with news and go from there, in no particular order other than what I’ve come across in my feed.

As a note, the show was not open to the public for the first day, with that time a focus on “business meetings” with booths open mainly to specific clients. That said, it hasn’t stopped a ton of news from posting online.

UPDATE: Part 2 can be found here.

DanceRush Stardom (Konami)

Bemanistyle has pics of DanceRush and e-Amusement with English, Korean & Chinese translations – seems like a very good indicator that Konami has Western plans for this one after all. From the grand setup and what I have seen so far, they do appear ready to put a lot of marketing into it. We’ll see if Western distributors will bite though (Dave & Busters and certainly Round1USA seem set for it, at least).

Thanks to the “Team Battle” setup, this is already one of the most impressive arcade spectacles of the show.

House Of The Dead Scarlet Dawn

Famitsu has an article about Sega’s new HOTD game, where a big stage event was held to discuss the upcoming arcade shooter. Here’s part of the photo op from that event:

The Famitsu article holds an interview on it (I think with these two ladies but I’m not 100% sure). They talk about their opinion of horror games as well as the new Scarlet Dawn features; not sure there is any new-new information on top of what we’ve seen previously, focusing on the new recoil guns, the “4D effects” and elements like the destructible environments, saving other people and so on.

I imagine that lines will be long to play this one; Sega is also giving away limited edition HOTD face masks during the show.

Aka To Blue Type-R (Tanoshimasu, Exa-Arcadia)

The launch title for the new Exa-Arcadia hardware has drawn some big attention so far, namely from companies who are known for their shoot ’em ups. As a reminder, the English version of this will be called “Aka & Blue” instead of ‘To’.

CEO of G.Rev Playing The Game

MOSS’s CEO plays the game (MOSS responsible for the Raiden series these days)

Famitsu Coverage Of Aka To Blue Type-R

4Gamer coverage

Shoot Away Pro (Bandai Namco)

Something we reported on the other day, we now have video of it in action. They decided to keep the graphical appearance old school on this one, which is a bit surprising. Putting the appeal more on the guns and the big screen display instead of the graphical prowess. This is launching in Japan next month; we’ll let you know if we hear about an international release. More details at 4Gamer.net

Starwing Paradox (Square Enix)

Square Enix’s newest futuristic battle arena game is popular despite it only having been the business day. 4Gamer has an article about it with a few more pics:

Here’s the flyer for the game, plus some video of it in motion from Aries Game Room.

Ongeki (Sega)

A new hybrid rhythm game from the people who brought you Maimai and Chunithm, where you control a band as they go down the musical note trench in a similar fashion to dodging bullets in shooters:

Groove Coaster 4 (Taito)

Taito seem to be promoting this sequel with a character moreso than previous installments (from what I can recall):

CosmoGangs (Bandai Namco)

For a redemption piece by Bamco that should be showing up out West, this is a sequel to the 1990 game of almost the same name (this one has an S at the end; new tech):

Atari Pong Table (UNIS)

This one has really been doing the rounds since IAAPA last year, showing up at various amusement trade shows as well as CES. I didn’t exactly expect it to be at JAEPO but it is there:

Sega, Bandai Namco & Konami To Unify Their Card Systems This Summer

Lastly, a bit of non-game news. One issue with every company having their own card system is that it can become a little cumbersome – Sega has Aime, Namco has Banapassport, Konami has eAmusement Pass. Now the three companies are working to bring it all into one card system instead called Amusement IC. Hard to see where this will affect the Western market (not much due to the very limited exposure to these systems in the States and Europe) but it should be beneficial to game centers in Japan.

That’s all I’ve gathered for now from JAEPO 2018. More to come in part 2… and probably 3 😉