Welcome to Newsbytes, the series of posts at Arcade Heroes that covers everything happening in the arcade and pinball world. Being so soon into 2025, there isn’t a ton of major news out there, but some of the more notable stories that have popped up since the last one were all concerning different titles on the rhythm game scene (such as Maimai DX going on test in the US again), so consider this a special edition to wrap all of them up in one go. If those aren’t of interest, be sure to still check out some extra Headlines on other smaller topics at the end…
Maimai DX Testing In Chicago
The biggest news of the bunch comes somewhat belatedly, but is worth a mention. Several weeks after it went on test just before Christmas, a few fans of Sega Japan’s famous ‘washing machine’ rhythm game Maimai DX noticed it was back in the USA, this time out in Schaumburg, IL. Not at the Dave & Busters that reopened the former GameWorks at Woodfield Mall last year – or even Enterrium, the former Pac-Man Entertainment/Level 257 owned by Genda since 2021 – a third, lesser-known location at that same mall known as Velocity eSports. This opened just last year, shortly after D&B (its owners interestingly bought up two other closed GameWorks in Las Vegas and Kentucky, but seemingly to compete with D&B here went for a different spot in the mall), and Maimai DX appears to be the the first test they have hosted.
Though it could be the case that the place was chosen specifically for being a quieter, less core player-frequented venue, this brings with it some possible issues. The fact that the test has only just been seen, unlike the previous two where players found them within days, speaks to that. Even then though, other, more established locations around IL might’ve served that purpose better. One notable difference to the two Dallas tests is how the game is now being ran offline – no ALL.Net or Aime card support. That, alongside this trial being done by a relatively smaller operation out in Chicagoland this time, raises the question of what Sega’s strategy is with the game – will it be receiving a wider release, rather than just direct sales to a chain or two with a special relationship? Who knows…
Bubble Bobble In Music Diver
For a bit of fun with another company’s circular rhythm game, Taito recently put out a nice video promoting the addition of a new Bubble Bobble medley in the latest content update for their Round1USA/JP exclusive, Music Diver (a title that isn’t the most relevant out there because of the R1 exclusivity, but certainly has its fans). Who better to demonstrate play than Bub himself?
Street Fighter 6 Theme Added To Chunithm
Once upon a time, Capcom had an arcade rhythm game of their own called CrossXBeats. That didn’t last too long despite being created by former Bemani maestro Naoki, and now music from their games is being added to others’ titles. The latest example of that would be the Street Fighter 6 theme ending up in Sega’s other major arcade rhythm effort besides Maimai DX, Chunithm. This one is still only in Japan and Asia, besides the occasional unofficial import, but perhaps it has a shot at US testing after Maimai DX?
Speaking of SF6, Mai Shiranui gameplay footage is dropping tomorrow.
StepManiaX Content Update #57
An arcade rhythm game that is more widely available is StepManiaX, and one of their own recent content updates added a noteworthy song too. Towards the end of December, Running in the 90s (most famous for its usage in Initial D) joined SMX’s ever-expanding songlist. Due to the apparent licensing shenanigans with Avex Trax this is a newer remix instead of the original, but still pretty cool to see:
As an aside, this video posted to LinkedIn shows a one off redemption feature being added to SMX…
Mysterious New Bandai Namco Trademark
Finally, even before Taiko No Tatsujin’s full release out West and The Idolm@ster Tours’ launch in Japan, we might already have a small glimpse of another future arcade rhythm game by Bandai Namco. Spotted by Ted on their latest trademark registrations, a mysterious new title by the name of PENdaBEATs has appeared. From the looks of the logo design, speculation has been rife that this could incorporate the glowing ‘wotagei’ pens/sticks for dancing that are beloved by wota, fans of Japanese idol singers and bands. Who knows if/when we’ll see this in the testing phase soon though…
More On 2024
While we did a post on what happened in the industry in 2024, I also took the time to hold a livestream on the subject. If you’ve got 3 hours to spare…
Bonus in case you missed it: The game releases of 2024:
Headlines
DPVR (Along With Raw Thrills & LAI Games) Has Another Successful CES
D&D Pinball Gets A Grand Debut At CES 2025 – Art Assets Shared From D&D Pinball
UNIS’ Bigfoot Smash Confirmed To Ship In March – This one turned up on MOSS Distributing’s site a while back so it did look like it was already shipping/coming soon, but good to get confirmation on at least one new UNIS piece.
Special Insert Coin Screening Coming To Chicago On Feb. 11th – Featuring game designer & artist Jack Haegar
Jersey Jack Pinball Teases Harry Potter Again – No official confirmation yet, but rumors & hype are hot
Unboxing An Asteroids Recharged Arcade Machine
An Unreleased & Previously Unknown Atari 2600 Game Was Discovered On A Coin-Op Division Mainframe Backup Tape – When coin-op employees would dabble on home hardware
Densha De Go!!’s Network Services Are Ending On March 1st – This will limit what is playable in the game, which sucks. They should make all of the previously online content available offline
501 Darts (Sold By Sega Amusements) Sees Over 100,000 Plays A Week Around The World
Sega’s Shinobi Arcade Has Been Ported To SNK’s NeoGeo Hardware
Konami Launching Monster Retsuden Oreca Battle 2 In Japan
GENDA Is Aiming To Become Bigger Than Disney [Japanese article]
Talking With Brooklyn Games & Arcade Owner Esteban
[Console Headlines]
My Arcade Reveals New Sega Table Top Arcade Toys At CES 2025 – Also A Namco/Capcom Handheld
Sega Shows Off New Virtua Fighter Proof Of Concept Footage At CES 2025 – Obviously this is too realistic, but if they can get it close to this…
Sega Announces House Of The Dead 2 Remake
Nintendo Getting Lawyers Involved Over Switch 2 Rumors – Maybe if they’d reveal it already, people wouldn’t be rumoring up a frenzy
A New Groove Coaster Is Coming To Nintendo Switch
Tokyo Xtreme Racer Coming Jan. 23rd
That’s all for this special rhythm game focused Newsbytes; which of the stories here (e.g. Maimai DX’s Chicago test) interest you most?
