If you have been regularly reading the blog and watching some of the YouTube channel’s videos, it should come as no surprise that exA-Arcadia have been teasing several new game reveals for EVO Japan 2025, the latest edition of Asia’s largest gathering of fighting game competitors and culture. That event’s first day is now over and done with, and with it there are a few announcements to check out already.
Last year exA had the biggest arcade presence out of anyone there, and this time is no exception either, as they are unveiling at least four new fighting games at the event. Their first couple of reveals see two classic mid 2000s arcade fighters make a comeback… read on to find out more.
exA-Arcadia @ EVO Japan 2025
Here’s the exA booth after setup, which appears to be slightly smaller than last time. That said, they still have eight sit-down cabs, four of which are their own ARC-32s:
The first gameplay footage and original reveals of both of the below games can be found on this day 1 exALive stream:
The Rumble Fish 2 Nexus
First up, they revealed a title that would carry the strongest name of what we expect to see, although if by some chance you haven’t heard of it, The Rumble Fish was one of the last original games that Sammy released for the Atomiswave hardware before their merger with Sega. Created for them by Dimps, its original 2004 version was successful enough to warrant an updated sequel the following year.
After a period of inactivity, someone at Dimps must’ve remembered it as the series started to see action again a few years ago, with 3goo publishing new console/PC versions of the sequel and original game (the former having never came home before up to that point). Now, exA-Arcadia are bringing the game back into arcades again for the first time since its 2012 NESiCAxLive port with The Rumble Fish 2 Nexus. This should give the advantage over the home versions once more with some new exclusive content.
As of this time, we don’t know the release schedule for the game, although this image from the trailer above does state “Developed & published by © 2025 exA-Arcadia”, implying that it will be later this year. Whenever it is, it’s good to see this series being prominent once more.
Spectral Vs. Generation Chaos
Revealed right before The Rumble Fish, but with a name that is not as well known, this new exA-Arcadia fighter sees them make another collaboration with Taiwanese arcade developer IGS on one of their titles, Spectral Vs. Generation. In case you are not familiar with this one, it was released by them back in 2005, subsequently receiving several home versions, including a PS2 port that seems to have been the most popular of the bunch. Here’s how the arcade version looked:
More recently IGS’ focus has been on big experience games like Hyper Cross and Monster Eye 3, which have their place, but exA-Arcadia are now bringing their old stick and button efforts back into the arcade limelight with updates. They started on that with announcing Demon Front EXA Label late last year (although we’ve not heard anything about that particular title since said announcement), and next up from them is Spectral Vs Generation Chaos, licensed from co-owners Idea Factory.
Like The Rumble Fish 2 Nexus, this appears to be set to launch later this year, and will have various improvements on the existing versions of the game. If you’d like to see some early footage of this and Rumble Fish 2 Nexus, once again, check out the exALive stream linked above.
Anything Else?
From the side of arcade developments, only exA-Arcadia has made any announcements, however, Bandai Namco did bring a pre-release preview of the latest Gundam Extreme VS game, and Sega have been teasing some reveals for their new console-first Virtua Fighter project. We’ll have more information on them later. That aside, if someone like Sega or Taito did unveil a new fighter (for either the APM3 or NESiCAxLive systems, respectively), then I wouldn’t get too excited on those since they would be restricted solely to Japan and perhaps a Round1USA that has a section of those to play. At least the exA games can find their way over to the US/EU, but I do understand that not every arcade out there has an exA on hand.
How will operators take to these two particular games? It also depends on the region. By all accounts I’ve heard, exA has done pretty well in Asian markets, with some games selling over 1,000 copies and allowing for wide market reach. In the West, many operators dismiss any video game, instead salivating over the next crane machine with a new gimmick, or overly busy coin pusher. As I’ve said before, there are some who won’t follow that track and still give video games a chance. But it would help if video games in general became stronger earners, even at an arcade stacked with redemption, as then the ops who are currently focused on the big earners like cranes, would start to take more notice.
That’s a feat which will need to be accomplished across various companies and efforts from gamers. If you really are into video games, particularly fighters, then you will want to support a local op that has games like these above. This is always tough though when the gatekeepers of the FGC rarely hit up their local arcade as they play them all at home. Getting $30~$40/mo on my Super Street Fighter II Turbo is nice, but hardly tells me that I need to be investing in more fighting games. Many other ops won’t bother and just buy another crane, which will make 50x that amount in a week. I hate it too, but that’s the reality right now.
All that said, exA has at least two more games to announce on EVO Japan 2025 Day 2, so hang tight; one of them should definitely get some attention from Western gamers, and I’m interested to see the reactions on these titles. Stay tuned!
