We’ve got more Exa-Arcadia news for you today, as the company has been able to continue work on various titles that are headed to arcades this year. Let’s get you up-to-speed!
Chaos Code -Exact Xeno Attack-
The final release from FK Digital is now shipping and available for operators to add to their Exa systems. This marks the 2nd fighter for the Exa-Arcadia, the first being Kung Fu Vs. Karate Champ. It also ends up as the ‘ultimate edition’ of Chaos Code, which has been around for some time as discussed in previous posts.
Lightning Knights
Known as Iron Crypticle on home consoles, the name on this one changed and the most recent updates to the Exa website are now reflecting some of the differences that the arcade version will enjoy over the console cousins. At it’s core, this is still a fast-paced dungeon crawler in the vein of Smash TV (we haven’t had anything in either the RPG or twin stick shooter genre in a while), but they have reworked some of the elements so that there is a better flow for coin-op based arcade play. One of those changes is the removal of the bonus mini-game where you play a platformer, collecting coins and running from a big spiked wall.
Other changes now apparent (as shown in the completely new poster artwork above) are the additions of new characters, and changes to two others. All of them have a name now: Arthur (who looks like a play on Arthur from Ghosts ‘N Goblins), Forrest and the additions of women fighters, Poppy and Violet. The UI has changed up a little bit, and they’ve also added some voice acting, which you can catch in the new trailer below. There are various other changes to how this game plays, which is also why the name change – new bosses, new enemies, changes to how the scrolls work (more like arcade-style power-ups in a shoot ’em up, with some exceptions where you’ll have to collect several to activate them). This is also a three button game (Attack, Atomic Fist, Dash). Everything about it has been tailored to streamline the gameplay so it works in an arcade setting. All-in-all, this one definitely gets to say it’s arcade exclusive, like a Gold or Plus upgrade to what has been available on consoles.
This game is available for pre-order; I’ve confirmed that the game is finished, so it should be shipping very soon. This will also mark the first 4-player game for Exa, but it will work for 2p only on existing non-4p cabs:
Axel City 2
I hadn’t noticed or caught any updates to Axel City 2 in a while, so perhaps these have been up for a while, but I did just notice some new screenshots for the game on the Exa site. Not sure how close this one is to completion though.
I also noticed that Blazing Chrome has some slightly new artwork for the poster (just some added, stylized Japanese text), but there is no link for pre-order yet on that one.
Vritra Hexa
A few hours after posting this, I caught this video on Twitter from the designer of the upcoming STG for Exa, Vritra Hexa. He appears to be finalizing the game, working on creating attract mode footage and sorting out bugs from that process. I’d guess that this one is pretty close to finished at this point too.
https://twitter.com/saddy575/status/1260978858213310465
“Lightning Knights” is a very unusual game for arcade. They really go new ways on Exa-Arcadia.