We are under 20 days left until the giant IAAPA 2023 trade show begins, and we might have a preview of one title that will be there – although nothing has been officially confirmed on this at the moment so you can file it under either “possible” or “rumor.” Thanks to reader @ Jdevy for the discovery.
What Is Air Strike Warplane?
Air Strike, or as it is called on the European distributor page, Air Strike Warplane, is a sit-down aerial combat arcade game. It uses a swivel motion base and can link at least two units together. In the game, players select their plane & pilot, then fly through levels, shooting down enemies for points and tickets. Graphically it looks There might be more to the gameplay than that but we don’t have a whole lot to go on aside from that linked page and this video from a manufacturer, Game Art. As of this moment, Game Art doesn’t list the game on their website, just their YouTube channel. It’s possible it’s made and developed by another company, e.g. Ace Amusement.
Fortunately, that European distributor, Elmac, has this nice cabinet shot(hurray PNG with transparent backgrounds). It has a great marquee with a spinning propellor and what appears to be 43″ HD screens. It uses yoke style steering controller with two joysticks that have triggers. The reuse of artwork from the old Blazing Angels Arcade is an eyebrow raiser but at least the rest appears original.
Coming To The US Via LAI Games?
Now to discuss why I think it might be coming to the US via LAI Games. As you might have read on the site recently, LAI recently published a teaser of four games that they will promote at IAAPA 2023. In that image, it shows a game that looked like an aerial combat game of some kind, and if we take a closer side-by-side look, it does appear to be Air Strike:
While there are some differences in the UI, this could have been changed for what LAI feels is a better presentation; Otherwise, the speed gauge is exactly the same, the 2nd place graphic & font are the same, and the game environment looks the same too. If this isn’t what LAI will bring to the show, I’d be quite surprised.
Either way, I’ll be at the show to find out – what do you think about it, agree with my assessment or no?
