More From Bandai Namco’s Dead Heat Unleashed As Seen On Location Test

I don’t say it enough but the site here has great readers. I really appreciate it when any of you send tips in, as it helps cover more of the industry. Today I have to give a hat tip to Paul Kim, who visited the Dave & Busters in Addison, Illinois where Bandai Namco Amusement is currently testing Dead Heat Unleashed, something that we wrote about on the blog recently (and was also sent in by a reader).

Fortunately Paul took the time to snap some photos as well as video; We’ll start with the footage first, then share more of his pics. There is no indication of a PIN system, nor a shifter; as an operator, the headache I’ve been going through on Maximum Tune 5 lately (namely disrespectful teens and adults slamming it as hard as they can, then getting upset with me or arguing with me when I ask them multiple times to stop so that they don’t break it) I no longer mind racing games not coming with shifters. Some people are real jerks and they don’t care if they smash up a part that’s going to cost hundreds of dollars to fix that doesn’t necessarily cause the game to make that much more money to compensate.

Anyways, the video:

As the video points out, this has 8 tracks instead of the original’s 4; this would also give it more tracks than the new Fast & Furious Arcade, Drone Racing Genesis and (I think) Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade. For gameplay though, if I don’t receive anything else on this one then I’ll be able to nab plenty at IAAPA here in a couple of weeks.

Now for the pics that Paul sent in. Now it’s a bit more obvious that this shares some of the same cabinet elements as Maximum Tune 5, although I would still not be surprised to see further adjustments for the final product:

An interesting thing to note on this one is the “Buy 2 Get 1 free” feature. I can’t recall seeing such a bonus buy-in from a modern Namco game.

That is all for now – more information will be shared once I have it! What do you think about Dead Heat Unleashed as we learn more about it?