Though the trade show may have ended, things are far from done here on Arcade Heroes with AAA 2025. This post is the second in three days’ worth of coverage for the expo; as their main new titles mostly have photo sharing bans, UNIS and Ace Amusement are being brought together here, both also being two companies that have recently been very prolific in appealing towards the West. Because of that, expect the vast majority of new arcade games you see and hear about below to make landfall over here soon.
Thanks once again to Oga-Shi for the photos and information found below, plus Ted for organizing it. If you missed day 1’s coverage of Wahlap and Bandai Namco, find that here.
UNIS
If Wahlap is one half of a ‘big two’ of China, then you can’t deny that the other is UNIS. Maybe it is too obvious a comparison, but they are a kind of yin and yang – where Wahlap has a strong influence from Japan via their partnerships with the big companies from there, UNIS go more for the more West-focused approach (though they have done a bit of work with Japanese companies over the years too – their China-exclusive One Piece kids card game made by Bandai Namco the biggest current instance of that).
That West-focused approach is evident in not just UNIS’ close relationships with the likes of Raw Thrills and the Emoji company, but also much of their game design, with several of their original new titles below and Neon Rush above as examples of that style of gameplay finding its place among their IP. That said, their trade show approach here certainly rivals that of Wahlap’s, featuring big colorful booths and live actors like these above. Maybe one day we’ll see this sort of thing play out at IAAPA…
Amazing Universe
One of the games that UNIS unveiled at GTI Asia China Expo last year was this original new Minecraft Dungeons-like effort by the name of Amazing Universe. It was also among those that had a photo ban, so we could only describe it, but now that has been lifted, we can post the first glimpse (they haven’t tried to market this or their other similar card title out West so far). For a refresh on what it’s like, this applies chibi anime-style characters to the concept and has the difference of only four-way movement.
Due to it using an original Asian property in contrast to most of their other works, it isn’t as likely to see this one coming over as much as the others – but it would be interesting if they tried.
Picture Book Land
The other attempt to respond to Minecraft Dungeons by UNIS, Picture Book Land, has been seen for a little while longer, with it appearing at AAA last year. However it then resurfaced at GTI Asia China with a new licensed theme in the form of the Chinese tokusatsu IP Armor Hero, and like Amazing Universe, a photo ban. This time, that is no longer in effect too, so here is another look at it. This one seems more kiddie-focused and cartoony (the style comparison made to us by Oga-Shi was Castle Crashers). If they changed things up with the theme a bit (maybe use Emoji characters?) this could have a decent shot out West:
Dragon Rider
Now for one of the two photo sharing ban titles UNIS had this time; only the logos of them will be shown to respect that. Unlike the card-based duo, these are both racing games, which seem to expand on the Monster Kart concept with different non-kart bases. This one is pretty self-explanatory, with players riding dragons (though they look a little more like dinos?) and racing them around circuits. The physical ride-on models seem pretty detailed, and the aesthetic has some echoes of AVATAR, but seeing those in full will have to wait for another day…
Super Flyboard
It was a little hard to figure out what was going on with this next one at first, but Oga-Shi told us that it is called Super Flyboard and themed on the old Journey to the West novel (better known to us as Monkey). The control scheme on this one does look somewhat odd though; players stand on what looks like a static platform whilst controlling mini bike-like handlebars for flying characters in-game. That aside, its cabinets do otherwise look similar to Monster Kart, and some of the characters seen here even resemble those used in that, so perhaps this is also a follow-up of sorts to that game?
Top Gun Maverick
Finally, as proof of their strong relationship with the West, UNIS have been selected as the company to carry Raw Thrills’ Top Gun Maverick in China. This one should come as no surprise as they have already collaborated on Fast & Furious Arcade, among other titles, with Cruis’n Blast and Super Bikes 3 getting China-only motion versions from them (Ted even recently found some prototype designs for the former on a ex-UNIS designer’s ArtStation page, if you are interested in that sort of thing).
Ace Amusement
Fourth in line now after Wahlap, Namco Asia and UNIS is possibly the fastest growing company on the Chinese scene right now, Ace Amusement. They have really been ramping up their product line of late, and as Oga-Shi commented on to us, that surprisingly hasn’t came at a cost of machine quality… although it does have to be said that many of their works aren’t the most original ones out there, despite using no major licenses, and they usually seem to be more skewed towards children. That can go for both the game aesthetic and cabinets themselves.
Some examples of their overriding game philosophies can be found below, however most of their new titles, like UNIS’, were also locked behind photo sharing bans. Fortunately, Oga did manage to get his hands on their product catalogue, a few scanned pages from which you can find below. Ace themselves have also now uploaded a few short videos of some, which you can find linked in the games’ titles.
Before that though, one game of theirs that wasn’t subject to a photo ban was Jet Ski Racer. This may seem like a slight retread to some, given that they have only recently made Wave Riders X-Treme, but the difference with this one is that it is now using sit-on skis, making it more like Sega’s Wave Runner than Namco’s Aqua Jet. You can’t say that Ace aren’t trying to cover all the bases…
And here is that product catalogue mentioned. Ace’s games have always been pretty derivative (with occasional neat exceptions like Air Strike and Super Drill, plus possibly this new Crossbow Fishing which seems pretty interesting), but perhaps their efforts to ape Big Buck Hunter and Drakons Realm Keepers with the new Wild Hunting and Dragon Kingdom are too much so… and Racing Xtreme looks a lot like Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade as well. Also note Bikers Madness, which we first saw last year, as like Racing Xtreme it most definitely precipitates a continued interest in all things two-screened.
For some quick thoughts on the two games among those that are most probable to see some Western action soon - Dragon Kingdom is at least eschewing Drakons' LED screen for something more akin to the Western version of Alpha Ops VR Strike (two big monitors mounted vertically next to each other). It can also get a leg up on Drakons if it lets you enter your initials to the leaderboard or offers a way to stay on without inserting more credits, but without more details that won't be known if/when it turns up overseas.
Meanwhile, Wild Hunting is a little bit of a surprise, as it's been a long while since anyone has attempted to challenge Big Buck Hunter's dominance (probably Sega almost 20 years ago with the likes of Extreme Hunting 2). Ace even has a four player cab for it, which Big Buck hasn't done before and could well be this game's niche, but, I don't believe that anyone over at Play Mechanix will be losing sleep over it. Even if Wild Hunting is a fantastic title, Big Buck's loyal fanbase means it would only have to get a royally bad version that drives its audience away for any other game to swoop in and assert dominance.
Others
For a little preview of other games still to come in our AAA 2025 coverage before it closes out, a few posts made on LinkedIn today show that, despite its diminished presence, VR hasn't fully gone away, with VR Starspace having a sizable booth. Elsewhere in attractions, DOF Robotics attended to show off Angry Birds Fury Road. And if anyone has memories of Sega Pinball's old Udderly Tickets, redemption game, it looks like it's back as an indoor play equipment piece...
That is it now for this second day of AAA 2025 coverage; be sure to check back tomorrow for a vast variety of the other companies who attended, from Baohui to Yuto. Which of UNIS' and Ace's new games shown here interested you most?
