If you thought that Raw Thrills’ Angry Birds Boom! would be the only Angry Birds video game to grace arcades this year, then it would have been a safe bet. That makes this news a bit of a surprise, especially given who is making this new game. Let’s read about DOF Robotics and their first standard video arcade game, Angry Birds: Fury Road.
(H/T to Nick DiMatteo @ FortyfiveGames for the info)
Who Is DOF Robotics?
First we need to start off with who is making this. DOF Robotics is not a name that pops up on the blog often outside of our IAAPA coverage. That’s because they’ve been focused on what is called Medium Scale Attractions (sometimes large). Things like the Monster Jam Gravedigger VR Ride or the Hurricane 360:
They’ve got more, but as you can see, they aren’t exactly in the business of making the class of arcade games that we generally cover. Until now.
Angry Birds: Fury Road
For their first arcade title, they are taking Angry Birds and making a racing game out of it. This wouldn’t be the first time that the IP has dabbled in the genre, as there was Angry Birds Go! released back in 2013 (delisted in 2019 however) for mobile devices, and another mobile game that went into closed beta testing a few years ago, but never released called Angry Birds Racing. It’s unknown at the moment whether Fury Road repurposes either of those or is its own thing; this Angry Birds Wiki page mentions that it is being developed by a company called exient, who developed Angry Birds Go!. Exient demonstrated the game at their booth for an event that took place a few weeks ago called Play-Con.
Suffice it to say, this is another title that it looking to nab some of Mario Kart Arcade‘s glory – UNIS also has Monster Kart coming to IAAPA 2024, giving us at least two kart-style racers vying for attention in 2025.
Here’s the cabinet that I extracted from the flyer:
As often happens, one company handles the software side of things (exient in this case) while another handles the hardware and distribution (DOF Robotics). Naturally, the game uses a motion platform, as that is DOF’s specialty; it is a 3DOF motion base per the flyer.
Also per that sales flyer I received, here are some other features:
- AI generated maps & 4 levels
- 55″ 4K monitor
- Sound, Vibration & Wind Effects
- Link up to 8 units
- Global ranking system
- Optional ticket redemption
It isn’t completely clear what it means by saying 4 levels yet AI generated maps – perhaps the layout of the tracks changes all the time based upon an AI model, but the theme remains the same (procedurally generated is what we used to call that). The global ranking system implies it will connect to the internet and report the times. There are also two cabinet styles available as shown here:
For pricing and distribution info, those are questions I’ll have to get answers to at IAAPA. Most distributors don’t carry DOF Robotics products (PrimeTime Amusements is the only one I can find after a quick search among the several companies), but that also might change when they find out about this game and want to carry it for their customers.
What do you think about this?
