One company that usually unveils their lineups for Western shows close to the wire is Bandai Namco, and today as IAAPA 2025 closes in, we finally have confirmation of what one will find at booths #1300 & #1600. There are plenty of titles we have previously seen and heard about, but also a couple of surprises that they are now carrying, as can be seen below.
Before we fully dive in, a little thing worth noting. If you’re new to the current arcade industry, the Bandai Namco coverage you’ll see from us in the coming weeks might be confusing, as they will have games from Raw Thrills and Adrenaline Amusements on their booth. This is because of how the arcade arm of Bandai Namco (officially known as Bandai Namco Experience, but also as Bandai Namco Amusement America and Bandai Namco Amusement Europe) operates. In Europe, BNAE is a distributor that represents the likes of Raw Thrills and Adrenaline; IAAPA is an international show, so they present those and perhaps some other non-Namco games there for their buyers to see.
With that now out of the way, let’s see what they’ve got:
Speed Rider 4DX
For one of the games we previously heard about, IGS and Baohui’s Speed Rider 4DX is taking an unusual route to the West, in that it has different distributors for every country/continent; whilst Sega Amusements and a few others are selling it into the UK and Europe, Bandai Namco are the ones who will distribute the game in North America. It’s been a while since they last had a motorcycle racer on the market here; following Dead Heat Unleashed, one might’ve thought they’d make a sequel to Dead Heat Riders (or maybe Nirin, for a deeper cut), but evidently not.
We’ve talked about this one on several occasions recently, so we’ll keep this summary brief, but besides its sleek cabinet this sequel does bring something new and interesting to the table with its drift motion mechanic, allowing players to perform realistic drifts with the ride-on bikes:
The Future
Speed Rider 4DX isn’t the only game out of China that Bandai Namco are carrying, as they have not one but two environmental motion shooters by the company Superwing (who they have worked with before on redemption, but not video games) as part of their lineup now. For the first of those, The Future is one we’ve mentioned briefly once or twice over the past year, with a decisively original sci-fi character that isn’t used by that many titles in this genre (Wahlap’s Teratoma is one).
This is a fully original effort from Superwing, making the Warframe text on the cabinet a little odd, though it would be cool to see an arcade game using that IP. Bandai Namco have not got a trailer up for this themselves, but Superwing have one on their own channel:
Mini World
If The Future wasn’t enough, Bandai Namco are also launching another Superwing motion shooter, Mini World. It is a little surprising they are pushing both of these, considering they’ve had plenty of their own shooters in the works, but these will presumably be cheaper. Unlike the previous example, this one is using an existing licensed IP, though not one that many Westerners will recognize, as it is a more cutesy Chinese take on Minecraft that has been available for mobiles and PCs since 2017:
As with The Future, Superwing have got a trailer for this up on their own channel. They have also promoted one with non-environmental cabinets supporting four players, although it looks like Bandai Namco are only selling the three player (yes, three) motion edition seen above.
Note that GoldStorm Pirates is also available, so this leaves three gun/shooter options for operators to choose from if you’re looking at BN’s selection.
Pac-Man
Bandai Namco haven’t ever forgotten about their most famous creation and company mascot when it comes to arcades, as over the past few years we’ve seen them bring out plenty of Pac-Man product in various forms (usually multigame retro cabinets and active sports games). Unfortunately the newest additions to that (a whacker and kiddie ride) recently seen at September’s GTI Asia China Expo are seemingly not appearing over here just yet, but in their absence is the full existing Pac-Man Street Range, as well as its latest title for the West, Pac-Man Baller Jr.
In addition to that, they will also have the Pac-Man Pixel Bash cabinets, including one of the newer additions to that line, the tabletop Bistro design. The game did previously have a different cocktail cabinet, but this one has only been launched in more recent times, making a quiet appearance at Bowl Expo on AVS Companies booth (which we didn’t place too much focus on). As the name implies, this one is ideal for restaurants, entertainment centers with F&B elements, or homes; it is available with and without the stools seen here:
More
As well as the above new titles, Bandai Namco will also have plenty of their existing titles, including last year’s IAAPA headliners GoldStorm Pirates and Taiko no Tatsujin. There have sadly been a few issues with the North American rollout of the latter (and still no sign of its proposed European release), so this should be a good chance to get some clarity on what’s happening there.
Then besides those they will also have Raw Thrills and Adrenaline Amusements’ new titles, as alluded to above, and a whole host of their redemption options, including Jumpin’ Jupiter, Looney Tunes Red Zone Rush, and Tom & Jerry Kitchen Chaos. I know some of you would prefer to see titles like Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot and Wangan Midnight Speed Ignition than these, but they will have to wait; maybe next year?
As always, we’ll have plenty of coverage of Bandai Namco’s presence at the show posted on both here on the blog and on YouTube once it is over and done. Also look out for some content on their booth at Japan’s Amusement Expo this weekend. where they will have Speed Ignition and a few other interesting things on hand. Until that comes though, what do you think of what Bandai Namco have revealed for IAAPA 2025?
