Next up for our IAAPA recap is UNIS. Based out of China with offices in Canada and the US, they tend to have a large booth space with a strong focus on redemption. That has been expanding into cranes in recent years as crane interest has exploded, particularly in Asia. They still do some video games, a couple of which we’ll get into here.
In case you missed/overlooked previous recaps:
IAAPA 2023: The Raw Thrills Round-up
New Fighters For Arcades: Omen of Sorrow
IAAPA 2023: The Sega Amusements Round-up
IAAPA 2023: Pinball (Stern, Jersey Jack, American, Chicago Gaming)
IAAPA 2023: The LAI Games Round-up
IAAPA 2023: The JET Games Recap
IAAPA 2023: Andamiro USA’s Game Line-up
IAAPA 2023: Coastal Amusements Recap
IAAPA 2023: New games From Wahlap & Amusement Source International
Note that all games you’ll see here are slated to begin shipping in Q1 2024. Any game can be ordered through your distributor, right now.
The UNIS Booth
UNIS always has a large booth space as they tend to launch a lot of products at shows like IAAPA. This year was no exception to that rule, with a really strong focus on cranes. In this video, I remembered I had a lapel mic and it was one of the last booths I filmed, so it had real-time commentary:
Bigfoot Mayhem
The principal video game at their booth was their second racing game based off of the Bigfoot monster truck. This will sell for around $16k, making it much closer to Fast & Furious Arcade Standard than the Deluxe, despite aiming directly at the Deluxe in terms of features. Available March 2024.
Lane Master Xtreme
The sequel to UNIS’ popular Lane Master was there, available in a twin configuration. While the optional Power Ball power-up feature was there, it did not appear to be functioning. I didn’t find out the price but I imagine it wouldn’t be super far off from the original twin set price.
Raccoon Rampage
I did not get a chance to play this one but did briefly observe some kids giving it a spin. As a water blaster game, it has gameplay typical for this class, although the presentation is a little more enticing than Wild Things over at Coastal. That’s mainly due to the backlit seats.
Find the product page for this game, here.
Godzilla Vs. Kong
I just saw Godzilla Minus One last night and I was quite impressed. It is my movie of the year and the best Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen. I don’t expect Godzilla X Kong: New Empire to top it, but that one is slated to launch in April of next year. That is a month after this new whacker from UNIS will be available. The model at the show was lit up but not playable and it sounded like there would be some additional changes to it. They are also working on a 2-player model. Either way, having a game to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Godzilla IP is a good place for a company to be.
Redemption & Cranes
As seen in the video at the top, most of UNIS’ booth was focused on tickets & prizes. The games shown:
- Bigfoot Crush
- Dragon Treasure
- Ducky Splash 3
- Dynamic Orbs
- Emoji Frenzy
- Emoji Party
- Emoji Roller
- Fantastic Prize crane (various configurations)
- Octonauts kiddie ride
- Over The Edge
- Parallel Universe
- Power Puck Fever
- Space Raider
- Time Out merchandizer
- Toy Box cranes
- Work Zone crane
There was also Wicked Tuna and Sailor’s Quest VR, which have come along previously, the latter not being a videmption game.
So there you go – quite a booth with a lot of products to look at. Bigfoot Mayhem was the most interesting one to me, naturally. Aside from being a video game, it comes in a great looking cabinet and its one of UNIS’ best (perhaps the best) looking titles graphically. It still has a few more months of development to go however, so perhaps they will tweak the handling/driving/difficulty during that time.
Which UNIS game stands out the most to you?
