Welcome to Newsbytes, our little collection of arcade & pinball news for the weekend. Note that we had to correct something on the Buckzilla article so that has been updated. Also, I’m hearing from various individuals about the new Rampage game which is at many Dave & Busters locations this weekend but unfortunately I’ve not heard any positive reviews so far. But taking an optimistic approach, original Rampage creator has this to say about it:
Thanks. … Bugs me a bit too, but at the end of the day I'm left with "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". It's nice to know we touched so many lives…
— Brian F Colin (@BrianFColin) March 25, 2018
Onto the news:
Stern Teases Iron Maiden: Legacy Of The Beast
We’ve seen a few teasers as of late and living up to the name, this is just a tease of “the worst kept secret in pinball”, Iron Maiden. This trailer shows nothing from the game but I imagine we’ll have images by Monday. I hear through the grapevine that later this year Stern will be Deadpool…
Konami Launches Dancerush Stardom In Japan
We’re waiting with baited breath to see if Konami’s newest Bemani sensation will get proper distribution out West but until then, if you find yourself in Japan at this time or in the near future, you can check it out. Thanks to Bemanistyle for the reminder on this one!
The NBA Jam & Primal Rage II “Post-Mortems” At GDC 2018
Among the many talks at the Game Developers Conference that took place this week, there were a couple of arcade related ones. One was a post-mortem on the development of NBA Jam by team members such as Mark Turmell and Sal DiVita with many interesting and fun revelations (such as the injury stat having no effect in the game). Read about it from this collection of tweets.
I’ve found less information on the Primal Rage II post-mortem by Chris Tang. There is this tweet below and this page on the GDC website; we’ll share video of the post-mortem when it is released to the public. I’ll also share a video of Primal Rage II as on MAME here.
https://twitter.com/Murder_Punch/status/976870170391207941
Red & Ted’s Roadshow Pinball Machine Discovered – New In Box
It’s a rare find to come across a product like an arcade or a pinball machine that is from the early 90s and find it new in the box. The Gameroom Blog has a post about just that happening as a friend of the writer got his hands on mint condition, still-in-the-box pinball table of Red & Ted’s Road Show.
On-Hands With An Indie Arcade Game: JPO IN SLC
I explain it all here in this video:
That’s all I managed to find for this time, have a fun weekend!
JPO IN JLC looks so funny. It’s so weird and unique. I may not get all the Salt Lake City vibes behind it, but I think it deserves a full arcade release. Maybe it’s just meant to be a short-lived art game, though.
And regarding Andrenaline’s Rampage, it’s not that it’s bad so much as it just isn’t a full experience like the originals. You destroy buildings for ticket rewards, and instead of playing in stages, your characters jump to a new set of buildings each time a screen is cleared. It’s just…interesting. I don’t feel that classic Brian Colin personality from the new Rampage. The art isn’t there. The comedy isn’t really there.
Perhaps Adrenaline has almost taken on too much this year. They’ve made SO many games to tie into SO many properties–can they keep it up
He is working on a full release for it but as one man, it is tough to mass produce those. Could prove interesting if he brought it to Exa-Arcadia, although you’d lose the throttle feel and unique overlay from that.
We’ll have to see if Rampage will have a different amusement mode but I’m guessing it will be like what has been described, without the ticket part. It’s really too bad and this is what sinks one remake after the other as they don’t get the “humor” behind the originals. It’s just to crank out something with a name and profit for a few weeks if you can