It’s time to catch up on new arcade releases for North America, with three games that are available now to order from Alan-1, Ace Amusement/Amusement Source International, and UNIS/IGS.
Also as a quick note, Jamjam’n Jelly EXA LENTE just finished its test in Japan. As of this publication, it is not up for pre-order, but usually such orders open pretty soon after a successful test. Also, we would be including Bandai Namco’s GoldStorm Pirates here, but still waiting on a confirmation about that to go with it. Stay tuned.
Avian Knights (Alan-1)
Here’s a game that we first reported on under a different name, and saw at both Amusement Expo 2023 & 2024, then the cabinet below went to IAAPA 2024. If you haven’t seen Alan-1’s Avian Knights before, think of Williams’ 1982 classic Joust, although this would be thought of as a spiritual successor.
Available in both 2 & 4-Player models, the game put you onto a giant bird where you need to take out any other birds in the arena – not just through the use of your lance, but also through the use of weapon pick-ups that are scattered throughout each arena. Each weapon can be upgraded 3 times, and each bird has an ability to use in the event that your knight is knocked off. Players have a chance to keep going by laying an egg, then picking up the knight that hatches from within. Coming with 256 waves, this very much taps into that old school, skilled based gameplay that I often hear gamers lamenting is missing from many games on the modern arcade market.
Cabinets also feature “toys” for physical effects, such as wind, rumble, lighting, and a cabinet knocker (think Q*Bert). Then, it’s enhanced with Alan-1s Major League eSports (MLeS) app, which allows players to create a free account for tracking their game progress, high scores, competing in tournaments and earning league points from those, achievements and more. It’ll also let you know when someone beats your score at a particular location. Speaking of MLeS, there will be a world wide tournament in Utah this weekend; I hope to make it over there for part of it and report from the scene.
The cabinet is really something to see in person, following the Atari idea from 1982/83 of covering just about every inch of the game in quality, comic book style artwork. Here’s the side of the game as one example; even the control panel describes how to play the game using a wide comic panel, which is a neat touch.
Priced below $7k on the 2-player model (maybe much lower, but I don’t know what different distributors are selling it for), this is also a great option for arcade bars, retrocades, and routes – much like Alan-1’s Asteroids Recharged. There’s a media kit with plenty more info on it, here.
As a disclaimer, I have been consulting regularly with Alan-1. However, Avian Knights was pretty much done when I started.
Sailor’s Quest 2 VR (UNIS/IGS)
This game from UNIS is a sequel that also might be a December 2025 release. I’ll get to that in a moment. Sailor’s Quest 2 VR is of course a follow up to one of the first mounted gun VR arcade games. You go on an action-packed search for treasure, whilst battling hordes of sea creatures (including giant ones that serve as bosses).
IGS have developed this game, hot on the heels of also doing Kaiju Rampage/Monster Eye 3 for Wahlap. Meanwhile, the cabinet by UNIS has a 65″ HD screen for on-lookers to see what’s going on, uses DPVR VR headsets, and comes with wind effects and a motion base. There are six levels, with some great graphics to accompany it. This is one of the games that was at IAAPA where unfortunately my camera failed me where good footage ended up corrupted. There’s a short bit of it in the UNIS booth tour though, and UNIS themselves have an official trailer here that we’ve posted a couple times before.
Unfortunately I couldn’t confirm when this began shipping, I only know that this is available now thanks to a distributor who showed me a list of currently available UNIS games. This was on there – but it was missing some games that are on the UNIS site, including Dino Storm and Neon Rush.
Super Drill (Ace/ASI)
One game that’s been available for a little while over in Europe via UDC, but is just barely landing in North America thanks to site advertiser Amusement Source Internet, is Ace Amusement’s Super Drill. I came across this at IAAPA 2024 at the Ace’s booth and was pleasantly surprised by what I played. The cabinet is almost a pedestal style, featuring a 65″ HD screen, and three giant joysticks that are translucent and lit using LEDs, while being shaped like wide drill bits.
Gameplay wise, it’s sort of Dig Dug, but you’re always on the move and you’re mining ore (and grabbing food items for the “collection” for bonus points/tickets) instead of hunting. Other players make it something of a race as well. The control takes a small amount to get used to, but it’s straightforward once you figure it out (you steer clockwise or counter-clockwise by pushing right or left). Nice graphics for what it is, and it is a fun game that stood out to me at IAAPA compared to most of the games in its class.
This joins Ace’s Skull of Shadow, which ASI began shipping last November.
What do you think of these new releases? What would you like to see appear at an arcade venue near you?
