We’ve got two quick bits of news to share with you today about new releases for the arcade industry, including one game that just began shipping. But before we get to that, let’s update you on the status behind a couple of games, one of which is highly anticipated among arcade players out there.
GoldStorm Pirates & Carnival Shot Coming In April
I reached out to my local Betson representative today for the shipping on a few new arcade titles: Bandai Namco Amusements’ GoldStorm Pirates, and UNIS’ Carnival Shot, Neon Rush and Dino Storm. Regarding the latter two, he said they weren’t on the latest list that UNIS had sent to him; they did at least put up this video about Dino Storm the other day, so perhaps that one is on its way soon. Things are much more positive on the former two games now though…
For Carnival Shot and GoldStorm Pirates (the latter of which I know many of you reading will be interested in most), they should both be shipping in April, as per what my Betson rep said. If Alpha Ops VR Strike is all done on schedule for the projected April-at-earliest timeframe last given too, that will make it a busy month for new shooting game releases.
Of course that could still change, as there is an ebb and flow to production. Note that I’ve been trying to get a hold of reps at both Bandai Namco and UNIS (via email and phone, where I have the latter) about all of these games officially since December, but unfortunately I have not had any luck. This gets us up-to-date on those particular games for now anyway.
Cambria Sword Another Cry AC Now Available
For a game that is shipping, exA-Arcadia have now started their next year of releases off. They are looking to ship out almost a dozen games by the second quarter of 2025, with Cambria Sword: Another Cry AC leading this.
exA describe the title as “the shooter spectacle of the year”; they have notably redesigned it into a sequel as opposed to a remaster. This brings numerous improvements and enhancements so that it works better as an arcade game, such as reducing its completion length vastly from four hours. Instead of setting it up that way, the AC version has branching paths like Darius, where every time you play, it picks from a different pool of pre-designed levels. This operates at 1 frame of input lag, and has a heavy metal soundtrack.
With six ships to choose from, 72 selectable weapons (you can have 12 at a time), 80 bosses, and multiple endings, there’s some good replay value too. The character design is all based on creatures from the Cambrian Period of the Earth (well before dinosaurs and even most plants inhabited the planet), which makes it stand out from the typical space ship battle set up that most shooters use. As you can also see from the videos above, the game’s aesthetic is unusual, using vibrant color and tons of 2D sprites.
It comes as a standard exA kit, as you see here; the game is available from a number of exA distributors from around the world.
What do you think about Cambria Sword AC? Would you like to see it at an arcade near you?
