IAAPA 2019 Day 1: Sega, Raw Thrills, LAI Games, TouchMagix, UNIS, & More

Day 1 of the IAAPA Expo 2019 event has come and gone, and boy was it a loooong one. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun though (it just gets a little exhausting to stand & walk that much 😉 )

Here are some impressions that I’ll share with you from the various games at the show so far…I didn’t get a chance to play everything, but I did get to a few.

#IAAPA2019 Day 1! Nitro Trucks, Mario & Sonic, Outnumbered, Crazy Ride, GunArena, Terminator Salvation: Delta Mission & more! Here’s a video of it all, but if you prefer to read, I have more impressions below.

Mission: Impossible Arcade (Sega)

Revealed a short time ago, this licensed multiplayer shooter made it’s debut at the show, but unfortunately Sega had to clamp down on photos/videos of it due to the licensor (Paramount Studios). Such a practice is common in Japan, although it’s not something we’re accustomed to in the States, and it’s too bad.

I did spend some time with the game and can tell you what I thought about it though, through the magic of VLOGing.

As a reminder, most of these games are still in prototype form and may change, or may not be released at all!

Nitro Trucks (Play Mechanix/ Raw Thrills)

I won’t repeat what I already dedicated a whole post to, so click here if you’re interested in that. Oh, and there’s this official trailer now:

Big Buck Reloaded – Terminator Salvation: Delta Mission (Play Mechanix/ Raw Thrills)

While I didn’t play the new Reloaded Big Buck experience yet, I did try out Terminator Salvation: Delta Mission. It takes the second part of the game (where you are being chased by a giagantic terminator through the ruined city) and updates that with new, sharper graphics, adjusted pacing (since the gun being used is a shotgun) and changes to how many enemies you face, changes to how much the Terminators need to be hit to come down (it’s a little easier), and changes to power-ups (the minigun just fires, but there’s no force feedback, so it does feel a little strange…grenades when picked up give you five that you fire off in succession). I was very surprised by how much of the game is there – I’d guess 15-20 minutes? All this as just a part of an update to online Big Buck HD machines.

Outnumbered (LAI Games)

Mentioned on the blog here several times, I finally had the chance to try out LAI’s latest video (non-redemption) title, Outnumbered. While it’s not the only target shooting game on the market right now, it is the most interesting (no, I didn’t get paid to say that 😛 ).

I’ll do a video of this one too, so I won’t get into a ton of detail here, but I played through all three stages, logged in using the Outnumbered app. That was cool, as it reported my score on the phone, I leveled up and could enter the day’s tournament, although I don’t think I did that correctly (I don’t think that I did well enough to top the charts, but I did fine…A’s across the board, not S’s). What I like about this one is that the levels play out like a standard light-gun game, the player camera moving through environments and targets popping up to blast. They “pretend shoot” at you, just to let you know what’s coming. This all gives the game some character, as the targets fit the theme – some wearing handkerchiefs around them in the Wild West; having antennae in the Deep Space one; having tufts of hair and claw marks in the zombie one. Some voice acting or narration would be welcome to expand on that character, but it’s good as it is.

You want to try and get “perfect accuracy,” which means that you never miss a shot. It becomes more interesting in 2p, since some of your opponents targets will appear in front of yours and they have to be shot by your opponent first.

Spacewarp 66 & Drift ‘N Thrift (Touch Magix)

You can read about Touch Magix’s three games in our preivew here, but I did get a chance to play these and found them to be fun. They keep things simple – focusing on straightfoward gameplay. It is made first with tickets in mind, but they can tailor something for non-ticket locations if need be, as they know that not all locations can have redemption.

Spacewarp 66 was most interesting to me, as it sort of reminds me of an obscure favorite for the Atari 800XL/Commodore 64 called Yoomp!; the basic concept has also existed in the form of Ballistics. You pilot a UFO down a tunnel that has numerous “teeth” obstacles that pop-up, grabbing tickets occasionally and avoiding the teeth. Pass 66 to win the ticket bonus. I asked if a non-ticket version could be made and they said yes…I think making it like a classic game (perhaps making a different looking level after you reach the end goal with a score bonus) would be great.

Drift N’ Thrift is a simple driving game where the more you drift, the more cash that pops up. You need to earn something high ($100k I think it was) to win the ticket bonus. It can be tough to really get the fuel and other things you’re aiming for, but that’s part of the challenge. There’s no gas or boosting, just drifting.

They also had a 3rd game, Carnival Cups, which is the old “watch the cup” for your ball game. There are five stages, where it gets progressively harder.

Crazy Ride (UNIS)

We’ve all been interested in this one since we first learned about it, and it was a popular piece yesterday. It takes the Crazy Taxi concept and simplifies it for today’s more casual audience (i.e. it’s linear instead of open world), although I will ask if that’s a show mode or not. I didn’t see any way to gain additional time – you just have you 60 or 90 seconds to grab as many riders along the curving road as you can and deliver them to their destination which is just a little ways down that same road. The level I played didn’t have any jumps like in the trailer and it also appeared to have an infinite boost, although that boost did seem to have a cool down timer.

Ultra Motor VR (UNIS)

I didn’t get a chance to play this one, but watched people play it. It was popular, not unlike Super Bikes but with VR and a motion platform. While I did see one guy try and do it without the headset, it kept showing the in game camera wrong at first and the HMD had to be recalibrated. Nothing that a little software tweaking can’t fix.

GunArena (Taito)

Could this game be the new axe throwing? Maybe. You take control of an airsoft pistol and fire pellets at the screen. This was at the UNIS booth, where two other Taito games (Festival Hero and a new Space Invaders) were present, as the two companies partner up. The details on that haven’t been fully fleshed out yet, but it seems like a good fit for Taito to better get their games into the states. UNIS did say that they will likely add an enclosure around GunArena for the issues. I didn’t play it yet as it was super popular, but it sounds like the gun has a nice kick and there are a lot of cool levels. It’s one that really tests your skill.

Atari PONG Knock Out (UNIS/Dave & Busters)

Dave & Busters has this game as an exclusive at present, a 4-player version of the Atari PONG table. This makes it like Quadrapong, but electromechanical, and they’ve thrown some other things into it, like an announcer/commentator and “power-ups” or special game effects are in the corners. The physics still aren’t 1:1 with video Pong, but it works for the limitations of what the mechanics can do. And it looks pretty sharp

Ok, so I can get this out there in a timely manner, I’ll let that and the videos do the rest of the talking. Catch you on the next update!