Last year, UNIS gave us one of the bigger surprises in video gaming with a return to arcade soccer/football. Fantasy Soccer was first shown at IAAPA 2018 and was released for arcades to grab this past March. The game plays fast like Virtua Soccer or Super Sidekicks and not strategic like WCCF. The game cabinet was also notable for being like a modernized version of Namco’s World Kicks; players control the movement of their player with an oversized joystick, and kick by literally kicking the mounted soccer ball at the base. It also supports 4-players per cabinet (8 by linking two together). That makes it a big game that pushes a big price that is aimed at FECs. Here’s the game from the last time I saw it:
While modern game production has been trending more towards Super Deluxe and Deluxe cabinet/prices, we still get the occasional piece that works for smaller “street” locations. Enter in the new 2-player model of Fantasy Soccer.
As this flyer posted to Instagram shows, the game software is the same, they’ve just adjusted the cabinet. It still uses the kickable balls at the bottom; the monitor isn’t much smaller (4p=55″ / 2p=49″ although the 4p has a 2nd monitor); and the 2p cabinet is more colorful. While the 4p version can link to another, the 2p model cannot link to a 4p one; no word on whether or not you could link two 2p cabs togther, although I imagine it would make more sense to just buy a single 4p cab in that case.
I haven’t heard what the price will be on this new model, but between that and the more compact size, perhaps there are a number of street locations that would find this appealing; particularly bars. Bars always find success with sports games (hello Golden Tee & Big Buck), although I don’t know how many American bars would go for soccer over American football/baseball/basketball/hockey.
The 2 player version will debut at IAAPA 2019 in Orlando, FL. We’ll have more information about it then!
