The slow, quiet return of Konami into the US arcade market continues with another game on test, this one carrying the highest name profile of anything that the company has done in the US as of late. Everyone knows the Dance Dance Revolution name, but when they think of the game, that hasn’t normally (or ever – I think) involved tickets. That might change to some degree with the new Dance Dance Revolution Stomp Arrows game that has been spotted at the Round1USA Puente Hills Mall location in California.
Dance Dance Revolution Stomp Arrows
I should note that everything we have so far comes to us from social media; unfortunately, while Konami has been making some “behind-the-scenes moves” in recent months, we’ve had no direct contact with anyone running their renewed arcade operations. Hopefully that changes soon.
Reports of this new videmption version of DDR started to pop up yesterday on rhythm game-focused Discord groups, then spread onto more public social media sites. Here are some photos of the setup, although I do not know which exact Discord server they were originally posted to:
I’m not sure how long it took to put together; that can depend on how many people you have to help, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a few hours given that it has an enclosure. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first time that DDR has used an ‘environmental’ cabinet design:
Then, here’s the game in action over on Twitter/X (unfortuantely, WordPress has become dumb about playing embedded tweets). I haven’t read much in the way of fan reaction yet, but there has purportedly been a lot, and I’m sure that anyone with experience in the industry will realize in advance that DDR plus redemption is going to make for a simplified experience. The video shows as such, although we have no idea what songs it happens to have.
The other question up in the air is: will this see any action outside of Round1USA, or will Konami Amusement continue to serve as a kind of first party developer for the chain? It again has to be said that several reports did come in of their representatives looking to do business with other companies and US arcades on the floor of IAAPA 2024 and Amusement Expo International 2025. DDR was apparently at the heart of that, so whether their approach means this or the actual game (or both) remains to be seen. What can be said for certain is that the rumor mill went into overdrive from this news…
For now though, what are your thoughts on Dance Dance Revolution Stomp Arrows? Would you like to see Konami selling this and other games to US arcade locations again?
