The 20th anniversary of Bandai Namco’s popular arcade racing series, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune (also known as WMMT or WM), is upon us this next year and to celebrate, the company is prepping a new edition of the game for launch. Unfortunately for fans outside of greater Asia, this news doesn’t really apply, since there are no announced plans to bring this title to North American nor European shores. Given what I’ve heard from Namco up to this point, I highly doubt that they would bring this update to the mix when they haven’t done so with other versions of 6. Still, it’s worth covering so let’s dive in.
The following was written up by NSM, Ted & Randy on the Arcade Heroes Discord server. H/T to them for that. This is all gleaned from a livestream event held the other day, so in case you don’t speak/understand Japanese, we’re here to help.
Breakdown of WMMT6RR+ News Provided by Arcade Heroes Readers
WM6RR+ was recently announced for release by Mar 24 in Japan and — given how WM6RR was released — could be also for release in Asia/Oceania by Jun 24; No announcement has been made so far on whether China and/or North America [as MT6RR+] will receive this update[AH Editors note – see my statement above for the chances there]. Similarly, there was no new announcement on a new/updated driver unit and terminal units. See the teaser site, here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB_gZxJb8Eo
The livestream announcement was brought to my attention by @choongie, which led to discussions in general with @nsm and @ted90909 translating parts of the livestream, and my edits due to my knowledge of the series are below:
The WM6RR+ “Hero Car” is the Nissan RZ34 [known in Japan as the Fairlady Z]; previous Hero Cars include:
• WM6RR: Nissan R50 by Italdesign;
• WM6: Porsche 718 Cayman S [982H20] and Porsche 911 Turbo S [991MA171] given the new licensing agreements which saw their RUF-equivalents migrate to Porsches in WM6;
• WM5DX+: Lamborghini Aventador [LP700-4] and Honda NSX [NC1];
• WM5DX: Audi R8 Coupe 5.2 FSI Quattro and Dodge Viper SRT-10;
• WM3DX+: Nissan R35
The BMW logo on the select car menu has been updated; The Nissan logo was updated in WM6RR but may have received another update in WM6RR+, but I need to look at this to confirm.
7 previously-limited edition cars are now available for selection via the main menu:
• Honda S2000 [AP2];
• Nissan Leopard [model];
• Mini Cooper [via BMW] [model] this Japan-exclusive is yet to be confirmed due to potential licensing issues for the Asia/Oceania market;
• Nissan Fairlady Z [280ZT Z31];
• Mazda MX-5 RF [model];
• Toyota GR Supra RZ [DB42, aka A90];
• BMW M4 Competition [G82].
The Honda S660 has not been confirmed for release at this time, despite being in the in-game files for quite some time.
WMMT6RR+ will be exhibited next month at the Japan Amusement Expo. [AH Note – My assumption is no MT6 at IAAPA 2023 here in a few weeks but I’ll be there to report if it does. Just don’t get your hopes up.]
Additional Changes/Updates
There are some small changes to the physics, e.g., on low gear to give the oomph push.
Dress-up changes for some vehicles, including the return of straight-neon underglow (straight); this may mean the arch-neon underglow may be removed especially if the dress-up 67-level system is not modified.
Wangan Navigator now includes the ability to see which players recently visited particular Venues; however, in the Discord Community I admin, there were concerns raised about privacy and whether player accounts may opt-out of being visible in Wangan Navigator.
In-store rankings may now be viewed via Wangan Terminal rather than passively waiting for the attract screen loops or pressing the green/red buttons to speed up said loops.
Some Time Attack Courses have further updates to their start/end locations.
There is a new In-Venue Event Mode: 2v2 Tournament.
5 songs have been added by Yuzo Koshiro; which, according to @choongie are:
1) Entry [WM6RR+]
2) Everynight Everyday
3) Moonlight Love
4) Midnight Symphony
5) Maximum Overdrive
Thoughts
Thanks again to NSM, Ted & Randy in the Discord who have put that all together. Visit the official WMMT6RR+ website, here.
It is a little weird that they are using another update on 6 to celebrate 20 years of WMMT, as opposed to just jumping to 7. I’ve heard from various sources that 7 has been in the works but apart from that, I don’t know what it entails. I’ve seen a lot of people hoping that 6RR+ would be released here in the States and maybe Europe but I also don’t know why Namco would do that when they’ve not released 6, 6R, nor 6RR here. “Never say never,” I suppose, and if 6RR+ was made available as an upgrade kit from 5DX+ machines at a reasonable price, I wouldn’t complain.
What are your thoughts on this one?
