As of today, we are exactly one month out from IAAPA 2024, where we get to see all of the new arcade games that are coming to the scene in 2025. In the run-up to that, we tend to see early previews of games on test out there, as they fine tune things and prepare to announce them. Today let’s take a look at two of them: first, a new VR game from Sega Amusements, then a videmption piece I definitely didn’t expect to see from Konami. Both are shooters, one an original effort, and the other a very familiar name…
Disclaimer: The games discussed in this article are both prototypes, which have been seen on location (beta) test. Final production models might vary greatly from what is seen below, or one or both could not even be released, if they fail the tests. As such, reserve your final judgments for later.
Alpha Ops VR Strike (Sega Amusements)
Sega Amusements has not leaned hard into Virtual Reality, but they have worked with it to a degree of late, as shown by their promo this week about their VR Agent game. That was also co-developed by 3MindWave out of Hong Kong, who worked with SAI on the non-VR piece Apex Rebels released earlier this year, along with some other arcade racers like ATV Slam and the Wahlap biker sequel Storm Rider 2.
While it wasn’t clear if they might do more VR too, this latest original piece called Alpha Ops VR Strike straightens that out. However, there is only so much that we can glean from what’s available for now – and it incites more questions than answers. Ted initially shared a snap of the game on test in the UK at Gravity Max in Stratford, London from a brief Instagram reel (which was also how we got a pre-release glimpse of Apex Rebels last year), but now we can post a slightly better look at it from a USA test at Dave & Busters’ new Schaumburg, IL location, where GoldStorm Pirates also recently went on trial:
When I first saw this, I thought that it might be a racing game, since it uses the same kind of seats that SAI have done for years on their racers (including Apex Rebels). But that doesn’t fit with the theme – this is of course a shoot’em up along the lines of the aforementioned VR Agent, but with seats and motion. My assumption for the seats being used this time is to make it easier to manage and increase safety for players, since standing gameplay can come with a myriad of problems.
Then we also received this photo of the controls, and that helped to clear things up some more. These use the same basic concept as VR Agent’s headset + gun combo, but have definitely been modified, with a different shell design. I would assume from appearances that these are lighter and easier to handle with a single hand, although there is an action button near the very front of the barrel:
This shot additionally confirms the seats have motion, from the stop buttons in the center:
Expect to see more on this one soon, both on AH and likely at IAAPA next month…
Contra Burst (Konami)
While we weren’t expecting to see another VR game from Sega Amusements, that wasn’t as big a surprise as what I found out is testing at the Round1USA – Puente Hills Mall location. While Konami has been testing out a few concepts in the States through R1USA as of late, this is the first non-BEMANI or medal game piece I have seen them do in quite a long time – Contra Burst.
This is being made with a view to converting out existing Bomberman Arcade cabinets, although I would guess from this photo that it was snapped while the machine was being set up and is not the final-final way that it appears. If anyone comes across a photo of the completed version, we’ll swap this out; it was floating around the internet so I am not sure who the OP was in this case:
While Contra got its start in arcades, it is one of those IPs that has become more of a console experience, starting with the NES port that everyone seemed to own back in the ’80s. There was the oddball Contra Evolution that was released just in China about a decade ago, but otherwise, Konami has not given it any further arcade love. For this test, Contra Burst is focused on redemption play, and instead of joysticks, we have two mounted guns. Those factors considered, I would assume that the game is very simple. I don’t know if they will be testing out a non-redemption version or not, although I would hope so.
Could this one show up at IAAPA, like Alpha Ops VR Strike probably will? Most likely not. Konami has no official arcade presence out here and I can’t recall any of their other R1USA exclusives going to the show, as it wouldn’t make any sense to promote a game there that no one will be allowed to buy. It would be nice to see Konami get back and try to cater to all locations, whether by themselves or with a distribution partner, but who knows what the strategy is there at this point.
Until we get more on them, what do you think of these two new games? Would you like to see Alpha Ops VR Strike or Contra Burst at a location near you soon?
