Bandai Namco Amusements Is Testing A Sequel To DeadStorm Pirates In Japan

The following post is discussing a game that has been seen on location test, which is the arcade industry equivalent of a beta test. This means that there is not much info to go on at this point but also that anything and everything we currently know about the game can change for when – or if – it hits production. 

The arcade business is no stranger to sequels, as any property, be it a game or a movie, that performs well, tends to warrant a sequel at some point. That said, arcades can be slower to do a sequel than other entertainment genres, since arcade games can keep on earning strong well after production of a title has ceased.

Late last year, Bandai Namco Amusement did announce a sequel to their 2010 racing game Dead Heat, called Dead Heat Unleashed. Now, the company has another sequel from around that era in the works presently called GoldStorm Pirates. All we know about it at the moment comes from this tweet (shared with us in the Arcade Heroes Discord server by Ted), which shows the current marquee and a sliver of the attract mode. As mentioned at the top, there’s always a chance that everything about this can change, from the name to the cabinet design and so on. In case that tweet gets pulled, I’ll embed the image here:

Japanese arcade gamer Game Room Aries has now also checked out the test and provided more info in this tweet. The game is in an environmental deluxe cabinet (the kind that is mostly enclosed for you to sit down in) and still uses the same control setup with the two guns and a single steering wheel. You can see part of the wheel in this photo, where it looks a little more detailed than the original one. The cabinet now features wind effects in addition to a motion seat, and of course there is surround sound as these cabinets tend to have. There are new characters as depicted on the sides and back of the enclosure (which also has an unusual 3D-ish design although again I need to stress that this will very likely change from this prototype).

Prior to the above Aries post, I did reach out to Bandai Namco Amusement America and they indeed confirmed that GoldStorm Pirates is legit. However, don’t expect to see this popping up at your local arcade anytime soon. We’re looking at “more than a year away” if it passes testing – this is really the first test of the game out in the wild. Generally we don’t see anything about such games so early on, although thanks to the internet, that’s always changing (funny enough though, I remember Raw Thrills telling me that they were surprised that no one shared pics about Winter X Games Snocross when it had been testing for years and managed to fly under the radar).

On speculation, I would be surprised if they drastically change up the control scheme, although it’s always possible. The original DeadStorm Pirates you’ll recall featured two mounted cannons and a pirate ship steering wheel. I would assume from that pic above that the gameplay will be a little more focused on gold/treasure than previously but we’ll have to wait and see how it pans out. We’ll also have to see if this gets different cab designs like DSP did – that first launched in a Deluxe environmental design, and later received a motion seat version, a smaller upright standard model, and also a rare 4D Super Deluxe version that I only saw once at a tradeshow.  They also released a major software upgrade for the game at one point called Special Edition which added two more levels to the mix.

What are your hopes for this DeadStorm Pirates sequel? And with Bandai Namco in a sequels mood, are there any other games from around the 2010s that you would like to see get the Dead Heat Unleashed and now GoldStorm Pirates treatment?

([5/7/2023] – The story has been updated with more pics and info thanks to another tweet)