JAEPO 2019 Wrap-Up: New Arcade Games For Japan & The World

Another arcade trade show has come and gone, but this one has really stirred things up thanks to the Exa-Arcadia platform, guaranteeing a larger amount of content for arcades to enjoy. As a lot of the news was covered in the first JAEPO post, I’ll only be including items here that are new, such as release dates or videos, so some info might be short.

But before we get into what else has been collected on that front, Sega Amusements have created a video to showcase another trade show that just happened in London, EAG. Here’s that, then let’s jump into JAEPO:

Attendance was up in terms of total people that visited the show, although they didn’t repeat as often (that’s what the “net visitor” number is).

exA-Arcadia – What’s The Big Deal?

On the “sizzle reel” video that I posted about the exA-Arcadia platform, someone stated that they “don’t get the hype” behind the platform. To kind of get into that, I’ve thrown together this lengthy vlog below; but if you don’t want to watch all of it (at least you can skim through it 😛 ) the short of the issue is: This is a modern Neo Geo MVS. Conversion kits have been a rarity in the contemporary arcade industry. The last one Japan got was Akai Katana in 2009; in the West, you’ve had Redline Rampage in 2014 and Dream Raiders to Let’s Go Island kits in 2016. Not really extensive pickings and it’s also been terrible for collectors.

You can’t just buy a Sega Ringedge or Taito Type X3 board and throw it into any cabinet you want with any game you want and call it a day (both legally and technically speaking; controls are often unique too). exA creates a unified platform that is made to bolster joystick games and it doesn’t require monthly fees after that to work.

Now for the long story (almost 40 minutes, so we’ll call this a Super VLOG):

It should also be noted that the Japanese distributors that were announced at the end of the show do NOT sell or ship to overseas customers. For the rest of us, an announcement will be coming a little bit later.

Konami

DDR A20 – Konami wasn’t content to just show off a gold colored cabinet, they need golden software too. The 20th anniversary version of DDR is known as DDR A20, which supersedes DDR A.

I didn’t hear any news that changes the status of how DDR A20 will be treated in distribution and overseas manufacturing. Probably the same as DDR A (aka, Dave & Busters, Round1USA, no one else unless they’re loaded, etc.).

Konami also got a ton of attention from their 9th annual KAC, or Konami Arcade Championship. While many of the players were Japanese, some foreigners did show up to represent their countries, particularly the USA. Here’s the DDR & Jubeat finals, they also held tournaments for Bombergirl, Pop’n Music & others.

Sega

Sega did have House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn on hand, but everything else they demonstrated was intended for Japan.

Chrono Regalia – This new original RPG is looking slick, and if you want to watch four hours of a livestream to this game, here you go. It’s launching on Feb. 21st:

Maimai DX – the newest version of Maimai also got a livestream:

WCCF Footista – and so has the update to WCCF:

Taito

While it isn’t their game, Taito did get a lot of traction in Japanese game media for bringing Halo: Fireteam Raven over; they also had UNIS’ Atari Pong and ICE’s Super Chexx Pro.

Street Fighter V Type Arcade (Capcom) – The upcoming arcade edition of Street Fighter V (and a lot of accompanying cosplayers) was on-hand to play, pleasing fans. I’m sure Capcom will bring this to consoles before the end of the year. Especially where the arcade version allows you to connect a PS4 controller to it.

Space Invaders Pinball Jam – For battle pinball, here’s a little more of Taito’s upcoming Space Invaders themed game to see.

Blazblue Cross Tag Battle – Not exactly Taito, but just to mention that this one is going to see a few different tests in February and is slated to launch this Spring. As a reminder, this one will be playable on both Taito and Sega’s digital distribution networks in Japan.

Bandai Namco

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Last Survivor – In case you were wondering when the industry might take a crack at something like Fortnite, Bandai Namco has that answer. Although to be completely fair, other battle arena games have existed in Japanese arcades for a long time; Gunslinger Stratos is one of the recent ones, as is ByKing’s Magician’s Dead. I really don’t see Bandai Namco supporting this one in the States or Europe, unless Round1USA gets some setup to enjoy. By this photo that site friend & contributor Kevin Williams sent us, it looks like a mounted version of a PS4 controller, split in half.

Sword Art Online – This will be launching on March 19th. Like JoJo, don’t expect to see it out West.

Poker Stadium – No release date was announced on this one, but it’s looking like the nicest Texas Hold’Em video game around:

For something that could belong in the ‘Other’ category, Marvelous’ WACCA rhythm game will launch in the summertime.

There were some VR things there too, but not as much as last year, and nothing that seemed radically unique or workable in most arcade environments.

That’s all I think was new, overall it was an exciting JAEPO event. Again, only exA is showing anything new that we can really expect to find distribution (in both US and Europe), so that’s why it has received so much focus.

From everything shown at JAEPO 2019, what are you most interested in?