The Tokyo Game Show 2023 event was held from the 21st-24th, just wrapping up yesterday. While the show is mainly focused on consoles and other forms of home-based interactive entertainment, there was a little presence from arcades to be seen – so let’s discuss! Thanks to Ted & ShouTime for the info below…
Bandai Namco Amusement
The most prominent of arcade displays came from Bandai Namco, where they had Bike Dash Delivery and Dead Heat Unleashed at a booth. The latter might be due to TGS having an international presence, which could mean they were showing it off for foreigners to see that it’s available in their markets – Namco does do that at times, with signage to make it clear. I believe the only thing that might restrict it from being sold in Japan are the car licenses but that is something that could be resolved if they felt it would sell well.
It should be noted that Bandai Namco will be at the IAAPA Europe Expo today and tomorrow although as far as I am aware, they are not showing off Bike Dash Delivery nor GoldStorm Pirates, but a line of Pac-Man themed sports games like air hockey, an alley bowler, and basketball.
Success
Success had a nice booth, featuring a candy cab and a Sega APM3 cabinet. At the show, they announced a sequel to Cotton Rock ‘N Roll and announced the platforms – the katakana text in black at the bottom translates as “Arcade/APM3/Consoles/PC”. I did some checking and the reason for “arcade” and “APM3” (which is Sega’s answer to Taito’s NESICA digital arcade service) being separate is the same as what happened with the first Cotton Rock ‘N’ Roll. Thus, “Arcade” means this is coming to exA-Arcadia.
In case you missed the first one coming to exA, it did have some changes, namely in faster response through lower input lag and the addition of a 2-player mode:
Speaking of exA-Arcadia, they “signed several games” to their platform at the show, although aside from Cotton 2 there, they didn’t say which ones although perhaps something you’ll see in the discussion below will be among them. There was also an exA board & a Batsugun cart in a glass case at the Tatsujin booth, although I’m unsure as to why they didn’t have a cabinet running the game since it’s still pretty new:
Other Assorted Arcade Goodness & Related Pieces
Taito had an Egret II out to promote their Egret II Mini, but apparently something went wrong with it on day one:
Over at Samsung, they did have a Street Fighter 6 arcade cabinet, although this is not Type Arcade – it’s something custom made for the same. I suppose that’d be interesting if Samsung jumped into producing arcade stuff…[source]:
There was also an arcade board to be found on display (scroll past the SF6 cabinet).
For games that have some arcade DNA in them, we have Black Finger JET, a game that looks and plays like a modern Metal Slug. If I understand the translations I’ve read correctly, some ex-SNK staff who worked on MS are doing this but also some that worked on R-Type. The official site for the game can be found here; As of the moment, it only mentions Steam. There is also a Famitsu article about it here.
A new beat ’em up called Rushing Beat X: Return Of The Brawl Brothers was announced by City Connection. This has some Demolish Fist vibes to it:
Tekken 8 was there of course, and it has a cool Super Ghost Battle mode. It sure is a shame that the series doesn’t get proper arcade love anymore, but things became untenable with it for a variety of reasons. Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] was announced too, but like Tekken 8 there is no indication of an arcade version that I can see. The first one did land in coin-op, on Sega’s aforementioned APM3.
Meanwhile, the Japanese arcade game Magician’s Dead is coming to home consoles, although it had been delayed from when it was supposed to be coming along. It will launch at the end of the year…on the PS4 (why not PS5, dunno).
Combining airsoft guns with video games has been done in the arcade before, most notably with Taito’s OnPoint/Gun Arena. Capcom had an airsoft shooting range featuring Resident Evil guns; while not exactly an arcade product, I do wonder if Capcom might be looking into such possibilities, at least as an attraction that larger locations could add. I imagine even in the US this would be a nice draw to an FEC. There was also some related cosplay to be seen around there.
There might have been more arcade things at Tokyo Game Show 2023, but that’s all I’ve found from items shared with me and from scouring the TGS2023 tag on Twitter. What catches your fancy from the event?
