It has been a spell since we’ve heard from Canada-based arcade developer Adrenaline Amusements, although given that the focus of the site here tends to be on video games and not ticket redemption pieces, that isn’t much of a surprise. Despite Adrenaline’s bread-and-butter being ticket titles, they have done some amusement-only games before, namely Tomb Raider Arcade. Now, as you already read from the headline that brought you here, they are teaming up with Electronic Arts to bring Need For Speed (NFS) back to arcades with NFS Heat Takedown.
Four different Need For Speed games have previously been released to arcades by GlobalVR from 2003-08, the last one being Need For Speed Carbon. Their arcade ports were produced by John Ray, who was also the producer of the San Francisco Rush games. He has long retired though and is not involved with this current project.
NFS Heat is the most recent release that launched on consoles back in 2019, where it received good but not stellar reviews from both the gaming press and players. For this arcade iteration, they have drastically adjusted the gameplay to highlight the fast-action elements that work better in our sector, these changes being enough to add the “Takedown” part to the title. It is presented in this stylish cabinet with purple, blue & pink accents. It will be playable this week at the IAAPA Expo 2022 event in Orlando, FL at both the Adrenaline Amusements and Bandai Namco Amusements booths. I will be grabbing footage to share which you’ll find on the Arcade Heroes video channel.
We learn about this from one of Adrenaline’s distributors, Bandai Namco Amusements Europe, who posted a page about it for IAAPA (along with one for Dead Heat Unleashed). Per that page:
Burn all Limits! An internationally recognised brand with competitive gameplay and epic takedowns. Includes immersive audio with haptic feedback. With this multiplayer game, you can link up to 4 game cabinets. A stunning selection of 5 exotic supercars and tournament built up of 5 exciting tracks! The header display includes a dazzling LED screen.
In some ways the cabinet reminds me of both Tokyo Cop and Chase HQ2, but they’ve certainly added a bit more LED dazzle to it. There doesn’t appear to be a shifter but instead a giant boost button, and that marquee will likely grab attention. The description doesn’t mention this but it also appears to have an avatar camera too.
I’ve never played NFS Heat so I’m not sure just how different this version will be in comparison but I do imagine that any console-specific features have been removed so that it’s a focused arcade racer (console trailer below). Stay tuned to the site as well as the AH YouTube channel for a deeper 4K look at it later this week!
