Back in December of 2020, CAVE rejoined the coin-op arcade scene with the release of their popular title DoDonPachi True Death EXA Label. Despite the pandemic pressures in Japan suppressing a lot of potential sales, the game went on to become a dominating seller for the exA, also giving locations that grabbed one a boost. Today, CAVE has announced its second game release for the exA-Arcadia, Akai Katana EXA Label. NOTE: The name for this will change for the overseas release. That name is presently how it will be known in Japan, the overseas name will be revealed at a later date. It will be available worldwide though, unlike the NESiCA release, meaning that you may come across it locally if you have a local exA operator interested in shoot ’em ups.
For those unfamiliar with Akai Katana, this is a horizontally scrolling, bullet hell-style shoot ’em up that was initially released to arcades back in 2010. Arcade game board prices have commanded a pretty penny on the used market. The game has seen a release on the Xbox 360 and on NESiCAxLive, but just like DoDonPachi EXA, this will serve as the ultimate edition of the game, bringing together all modes from every released version along with a new EXA Mode (an EXA mode was present on DDP, where it was designed to accommodate players who want something a little easier from their bullet hell shooter). This also reportedly has the lowest input lag out of all of the versions; It is being developed by TEAM EXA-AM2, the same team that worked on DDPTDEL.
Here’s a quick teaser for the game, which also features exA’s new “exAclusive” branding that you’ll see on all of their game pages now to highlight the exclusive nature of the games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0GrGoXoC9g
Here’s a review of the Xbox 360 version, although from the sounds of it, the exA version will easily surpass that once it launches around the end of this year.
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