Amusement Expo 2024 is a little over a month from today and LAI Games is here to tease a new title to spice up an otherwise slow week. Well, slow for arcade news. Thanks to Jdevy and Henri in the AH Discord for sharing these, as well as Ted for further information. Let’s take a look:
SMASH DX
Earlier this week, I was told by a distributor that a game called “Smash VX” would be making an appearance at Amusement Expo. That was all there was to it, so I couldn’t run a story on that. I’m also glad to have waited, since VX must have been a typo.
Here’s a teaser trailer:
Developed in partnership with a Chinese company, Superwin (who in the past have made the original version of what Sega Amusements International localised as Allstars Basketball, as well as a shooter which has been seen under the names of both Interstellar Team and Galaxy Squad), it’s a racing game with an offroad focus. While the trailer doesn’t provide much information more than that, there is a possibility that it is a game spotted on location and test in a few places outside of China recently.
Extreme Offroad
As seen below, there is a new similarly-themed racing game by Superwin called Extreme Offroad. If it’s the same game (and there is a good chance it is, given how similar elements look between the two, or at least a version of it with some differences made on behalf of LAI), then it appears to be a fast-paced, combat-involved arcade racer along the lines of Cruis’n Blast and Dirty Drivin’, particularly the “smash-ing” element with regards to the latter:
The above video was posted by the official GTI Expo account for its launch last year in China, but it has recently been appearing on location test at a few locations elsewhere in Asia. In Japan, the game was placed on trial late last year alongside Bullseye Crackshot (made by fellow Chinese factory Ace Amusement) at the Kawasaki Silk Hat. It has also recently appeared at a TimeZone in Singapore and Fun Factory The Mines in Malaysia, who as an aside just added the first officially connected Initial D The Arcade machines in that country. It’s possible the latter two are not tests though – perhaps Superwin has already started selling it directly to those countries.
What do you think? Is Extreme Offroad the same as Smash DX? Is this a game you’d like to play at your local arcade?
As a note, I will be at Amusement Expo ’24 (AEI24) to play and film the new games on-hand. Stay tuned for a preview of the games that will be there, once we’re closer to the event.
