Spotted On Test: King of the Road

[Thanks to Jdevy for the tip]

DISCLAIMER: The following product may change drastically from what you see below OR it may not be released at all. It is a prototype product going through testing and is subject to change or cancellation without any notice. Potential buyers, please do not contact your distributor about it yet, as they will not have any information to share beyond what you’ll read in this post. 

I’m not sure what it is about late Friday, but it seems to be the time when I receive interesting tips on new arcade games that are currently on test.

Let’s jump right into it. King of the Road is essentially an indie game originally  developed by Wyatt Bushnell (a son of Nolan Bushnell) and Mike Salyh for the Two Bit Circus in Los Angeles. The official website for it is here; It’s essentially a party game, kind of like those endless runner style games on mobile, but much crazier as you have up to 8 cars fighting to be the last car ‘standing’ on the road. Per the description:

King of the Road is a fast-paced, casual racing game for up to 8 players. Dodge oncoming traffic, ramp over obstacles, and bump your friends off the road. Do you have what it takes to be crowned King of the Road?

While I had assumed that the concepts developed at Two Bit Circus might stick to that venue, it appears that others in the industry have taken notice, particularly where King of the Road is concerned. Today’s news is sourced from this post to Imgur with the title “King of the Road by Adrenaline Amusements,” it’s impossible to judge from this photo alone whether or not it really is an AA game, although I would assume that whoever took the photo and posted it played the game, where they likely saw their logo. So, we can assume for now that it’s an AA game; I did send an e-mail to a contact I have at the company, but given the late hour, I might not get an answer until Monday.

Here’s the pic, then some comments. Also note that where this is a location test, the final production design of the cabinet will likely change.

This new, potentially commercial model varies a little from the version seen at Two Bit Circus. The cabinet is similar in several ways, but with some changes/improvements. The top portion would be the biggest change, with lights along the monitor, the new marquee (which does have an art style similar to what Adrenaline’s done before), LED lighting behind the wheel, which with the simple art makes the control panel more vibrant. The screen appears to be smaller (I’d guess it’s 65″), while the bottom portion looks about the same.

I’m not sure what location this is – while it is definitely an FEC, it doesn’t appear to be a Dave & Busters or a Round 1 due to the mural. Does anyone know of a place that has a huge mural of the Pac-Man ghosts? 😛

For some opinion, I like the idea of big party games. While such games are certainly more for FECs than the street locations, for an arcade with the space and budget, it makes for a unique bit of fun when you have specifically tailored multiplayer titles like this around. I haven’t played it so I can only say that it looks like fun, but I’ve long seen that multiplayer is where the strength of modern arcades games is at, as opposed to single player fare.

We’ll have to wait and see for more info, but based on what we know so far, what do you think about King of the Road?