Happy weekend readers, here are some items to share for the weekend.
As a note, I am getting close to producing a print copy of the Arcade Heroes Arcade Almanac, but it has been a slow process thanks to the need for physically resizing each page by hand, as each is an image as opposed to formatted text in a word processor. Crossing my fingers for next week, but I want to thank everyone asking about that for their patience!
Mario Kart VR Finally Comes To The USA
Ever since Namco launched their VR Zone location in Japan with Mario Kart VR headlining the various titles available, gamers have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on the game. After a long wait, and seeing the game come to Western locations such as London, it is finally coming to the United States with a VR Zone location coming to Washington D.C. I was wondering if Bandai Namco might try and broaden the scope of this by attaching it to the We Play VR enclosures that they sell, but so far I’m not aware of that being the case. Perhaps we’ll hear more about future plans on this one at IAAPA. As a note, I saw one major outlet reporting this as though the game is going to be released on HTC Vive for consumers, however I have not been able to confirm this anywhere else so we’ll not link to them on that for now. Site friend Kevin Williams shared an image of the Mario Kart VR setup, which is just below the video:
I still find it odd that Namco didn’t give their Skiing VR game the Alpine Racer title, but oh well.
EAS 2018 Round-Up – Race Craft Reappears
This week in Amsterdam, the IAAPA organization held their annual “European Attractions Show” event. This tends to give us a partial preview of IAAPA in November, although often most companies hold their big reveals for the latter event. As it is, I really didn’t see much that we haven’t covered before, although I did catch this video made by distributor PrimeTime Amusements (note: an advertiser here on the site, as you see to the right) that shows Tecnoplay’s Race Craft. I’ve seen Tecnoplay staff at IAAPA before, but never a booth…it will be interesting to see if RC makes the trip over the pond or not. If you aren’t familiar with Tecnoplay, they are an Italian distributor who has been dabbling in creating some original arcade titles. Their most notable release has been Mini Motor Racing Arcade, which was sold for a time in the US through Benchmark Games (although I have never seen a cabinet on location here…just at an IAAPA). For Race Craft itself, we first heard about it in January at EAG, then there hasn’t been anything else about it since. The Tecnoplay website does have a listing for it, but it’s lacking in any and all details apart from an image of the cabinet.
New Rhythm Game: Marvelous x HARDCORE TANO’C
Rhythm game fans have been buzzing about a new rhythm game that’s been on test in Japan, although I have yet to find any screenshots or video of the game in action. You can check out the official website for it here; we’ll probably hear more about it in the near future. You can visit the official website for it here.
Sega Launches Let’s Go Fishing! In Japan
While we usually don’t post about medal games, I could really see Sega reworking this into a coin pusher that the US market could handle, especially given the fad of fishing games that is still going strong.
Gameinformer Visits The Strong Museum Of Play
The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY is one of those places where serious gamers should make a pilgrimage to at least once in their lifetimes. I still need to do so myself. Recently, Gameinformer took a trip there to look into some gaming history, where they check out the 1946 EM arcade title Atomic Bomber, getting into what makes it tick. I can’t embed the video here, so click here to check it out.
Explaining the The IP Ownership Shuffle Regarding A Few Arcade Titles
When I first came across this story of Liquid Media acquiring the rights to 65 “classic titles” that included the likes of Bubble Bobble and NBA Jam, I was a little perplexed. Taito is still around and a game like Bubble Bobble has been one of their key games that carries with it instant recognition; NBA Jam is also not a title I’d expect Warner (the owners of Midway’s IP) to sell for cheap. Fortunately thanks to this article over at Geekwire (and thanks to John Andersen), a clarification was issued that the arcade IP as a part of the deal only covers ports that Acclaim handled back-in-the-day, such as the Bubble Bobble port for PS1. This makes much more sense given the list, so fans of NBA Jam, Bust A Move or Darius Gaiden don’t need to worry.
That’s all I found for these weekend, see you Monday!
Thanks for always including Japanese arcade news when you can, it’s hard to come by!
I agree it would be neat to see some of the unique medal games be reworked into the plastic chip and card dispensing style we have here in the US.