EVO Japan 2024 Day 1: exA-Arcadia Announces New Arcade Fighters

EVO Japan 2024 is now underway, and this year it means new arcade games. Normally we don’t get much location-based entertainment (LBE) arcade news out of EVO, but in large part thanks to exA-Arcadia, that is changing this time. There are a significant number of new announcements that they are revealing over the days of the event, so let’s take a look at the first batch.

Note: A few updates have been added to this post since it was published on Friday night. If you’ve been here around then, scroll below for updates!

The exA-Arcadia EVO Japan 2024 Booth

exA was setup near to Taito at EVO Japan 2024, and from the pics I’ve seen on Twitter, it’s been a fairly busy section of the show since the get-go. It’s also helped that they are holding several tournaments throughout the day:

An exALive stream from EVO Japan 2024 has also been going on; this shows the official tournaments for Arcana Heart 3, Omen of Sorrow, Axel City 2, and Dynamite Bomb that are as mentioned running there.

exA-Arcadia’s ARC-32 Cabinet

While exA has been in the business of producing big stand-up cabinets over in the United States, so far they have not done so for Japan – until now. Following up on the ARC-1 upright cabs, they have announced the ARC-32 Japanese sit-down cabinet. It sports a black/red/white color scheme, is similar in basic design to a Viewlix, and the following features:

Sanwa or Seimitsu controls
0.3 frame input lag
JVS wiring standard & fast I/O
32″ 1080p monitor w/ 1ms lag; rotates between horizontal/vertical
Four speakers + line out; 2x headphone outputs
Works in single configuration w/ 2p control panel or can be setup “Versus” style (1p control panel, linking to another)
Stand to work in upright configuration
Lighting below control panel
Launching later this year

ARC-32 Japanese cabinet by exA-Arcadia

Here’s the pair that are set up at EVO, Versus style and currently running the new Breakers Revenge Chicago. More details on that below.

exA-Arcadia ARC-32

That’s not all however. Here are other games which have been announced today at EVO Japan 2024…

Asuka 120% EXALLENT

Joining Arcana Heart 3, Asuka 120% is of course another all-female 1v1 fighting game that resurrects a series that was the genesis of the whole “rival schools/all-girl fighter” niche. Starting off in 1994 for the Sharp X68000 & FM Towns, most fans seem to know this from the release on the Sega Saturn, despite more releases happening on the PSX (the PSX builds weren’t done by the original dev and are not well-liked by most fans). An arcade version had been in the works back in the day, but was cancelled early. Now that is going to be rectified as exA is finally bringing it to arcades, basing their version upon the most popular “Limit Over” edition of the game.

As with their other titles, this is being developed internally at exA-Arcadia however, fans will be happy to find out that they’ve brought on the original series designer, Masatoshi Imaizumi, to supervise the development of this arcade build. They also have brought back Keishi Yonao to do the music.

Axel City 2: The Final Storm

A paid upgrade is coming to Axel City 2 called The Final Storm. This adds ten new characters to the mix, bringing the total roster up to 50. It also has eight new songs. Existing customers send their cart to exA and once the upgrade is paid for, they get the updated cart. I’ve heard nothing but good things about how this game performs on-site, although I am not aware of the game being installed in the US yet. Perhaps this will be the time to make that happen.

Breakers Revenge Chicago

Visco Games’ rare Street Fighter II-like fighter on the Neo Geo MVS Breakers Revenge is coming back. “Why Chicago?” you might ask – well, that was one of the original prototype names to it. It’s a nice little nod to fans who know that kind of esoteric info. Here’s a pic of the game at the event.

Here’s a promo video; note that I did shoot some video of an earlier version of this at Amusement Expo, but I overlooked on putting a disclaimer on the video to mention that it’s an early WIP. I can’t edit the video until tomorrow as the master file is on a hard drive at my arcade, so I’ll upload then.

Breakers plays much like Street Fighter II, with some additional mechanics such as “dash cancels, chains, juggles, and a breaker system that lets players escape from combos early.” i.e., a deeper Street Fighter II.

For details on this new version:

Key art by Motoki Yoshihara
Three play styles can be chosen: Revenge, Chicago, and Extra
0.3 frames of input lag
A newly arranged soundtrack by the original composer, Kenichi Kamio

Revenge style plays exactly like Breakers Revenge does on the MVs, while Chicago and Extra are different in the same way that other versions of Street Fighter II have their own flow and nuances.

Daybreak Slam

Fans of 2D games have had plenty to ‘get hype’ about here, so what about 3D? Here’s a new game to join Omen of Sorrow: Arising Chaos in the 3D rendered arena – Daybreak Slam, from the same developer who created Omen (AOne Games). The premise behind this newer game pits toys against each other in 1v1 battles. The fighting system is made more to appeal to casuals, while the visuals should draw some attention from anyone. Like Omen of Sorrow, this uses Unreal Engine, which certainly comes through:

Here’s a tweet that shows some shots of the build that’s at the show. I did get to play this at Amusement Expo too, here’s a video:

This is going to follow a similar pattern to Axel City 2, where there are major content updates that are released in “seasons”. The initial cost of the game will be below $1000, then when a new season launches, customers send their carts in to exA, pay for the upgrade, and get it back with the new season. Each season will add something like 10 new characters, although exact numbers might change.

What’s up for Day 2?

So I can’t say exactly what is up next at this time, but exA has much more to unveil on day 2. A few games that were supposed to be announced on day 1 got pushed back, so while originally I was told that there are no announcements for day 3, that could change. Again, check back for more on EVO Japan 2024 here soon!