Welcome to Newsbytes, the series of posts here at Arcade Heroes that runs down “byte-sized” pieces of news from around the world of arcades and pinball. There’s still a lot to get through with Amusement Expo 2026, and later this week we’ll have our full review featuring all the videos and information from what took place. Until then, here’s a look at everything that’s been going on outside of Vegas. This includes a ton of pinball announcements, and some more coverage of a few happenings with Japan-made titles that will surely be of interest to most:
Resident Evil 2: Arcade On Test On Japan
First up, one of the main stories of the month before Amusement Expo came along was the imminent location tests for Biohazard RE:2/Resident Evil 2: Arcade over in Japan. As of March 19th, those have now begun, interestingly enough at a Capcom-owned location in Narita rather than a Namco one (or another typical test site). Plenty of people in the country have been going along to check it out, where there are some new photos of the cabinet and gameplay impressions, but a ‘no video filming’ rule has been enforced from the start here (unlike the 2025 US and UK tests), and it seems people have respected that.
There has at least been a third official promotional trailer released to coincide with the test, which shows some more gameplay. You’ll also notice from the thumbnail that they’ve already been making some changes to the cabinet, giving it more artwork. Just for the record, this was not around at Amusement Expo (as expected); it will most likely start showing up at trade shows more towards the end of the year, when the game should be closer to release – the current projected window on that is late 2026/possibly early 2027.
Texas Pinball Festival 2026
Though Stern Pinball were the only company from the pinball scene with any representation at Amusement Expo, pinball is effectively an industry unto itself by this point, with numerous outfits choosing to completely forgo any amusement trade shows and instead focus on the game’s own dedicated events across the country. As proof of that, there have been several new announcements made out of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival, which has been taking place this weekend. For the first and biggest of those, Turner Pinball threw back the curtain on their third release, Yukon Yeti, which debuted at the festival. Turner uploaded their own gameplay footage of it in advance here; 500 units have been produced of this one:
Then France’s HEXA Pinball have came back to the fore with their second game, The 3 Musketeers, based on the old Alexandre Dumas story in a show of some pride in their heritage. They had been teasing this during recent weeks, and it was supposed to appear in person at TPF, but the container with it was ultimately held up in customs, so the company’s own materials will have to do here in previewing it.
Finally, American Pinball is flexing their muscle under the new ownership, as to coincide with TPF they announced their first releases post-buyout: a 100th anniversary edition of their 2017 title Houdini: Master Of Mystery, and as recently rumored, a remake of Bally Midway’s Cirqus Voltaire. Of these, only the former has been fully unveiled so far and is confirmed to be limited to 100 units; a full reveal of the latter will happen at a later date. It would be good to see them at a non-pinball show again soon… especially with their sister company Orbit Games doing more amusement-focused things like Whirl-O-Ball.
Konami Rhythm Games Come To America
Just as Amusement Expo was starting, we had confirmation come of something that was long touted since last year, but we were beginning to wonder when there would be follow through. The first sales of rhythm games to North American locations other than Round1USA have now panned out, as after several delays, Beatmania IIDX, Sound Voltex, and Pop’n Music have officially came to a few select places, who are also due to get the new DDR Universal Model soon. Three of the locations with these are indie arcades that had long been rumored to be receiving cabinets after Konami reached out to them (Ikigai Arcade, Red Note Gaming, and Soft Landing), but an additional fourth also got a Beatmania IIDX – Max Funland in Brooklyn, NYC. That one is a slight surprise, since the rest of their line-up is mainly Chinese imports.
Again though, it is a little disappointing to see Konami choose to begin US sales outside of Round1 locations exclusively in this ‘if you know you know’ capacity, by speaking to a very small number of operators and showing no sign of a wider presence through any distributor as of yet (they had no product at AEI, but I was told Konami personnel were there, including the CEO, and talking to a few people). It does seem that they are still quietly and slowly working towards that angle with just a few simple redemption games to start, since their e-Amusement network’s complexities complicate things for a market that will not accept the Japanese revenue share model en masse. A few locations like those mentioned above will, but not bigger FECs.
Still, Sega’s Maimai DX has been doing pretty well right out of the gate with much more open North American distribution (the first cabinet to reach a Canadian location came this week), and StepManiaX has continually sold in recent years to everyone, so it’s Konami’s call on ever changing things. Perhaps with Pump It Up Phoenix II coming this Summer, Step Revolution developing additional products beyond just SMX, and one or two other names in the business pondering their own investment into rhythm games, that will light the fire under their rears to figure out a model that works…
Monster League Hockey Pinball
Going back to another piece of pinball news, here’s something that’s been happening outside of Texas Pinball Festival (though it was available to play there), with a unique indie effort looking to make a bigger impact on the scene. Homebrew head-to-head pinball piece Monster League Hockey has been bubbling under for a little while, as its creator, Jake Danzig (who runs a custom pinball Facebook group and has made various other pieces of his own), bided his time developing it last year – but more recently, the growing interest in it has seen the title start to appear at various events and arcades in Arizona. It is now set to enter actual production thanks to Ramp’s Pinball, a new entrant out of Florida who are also working on their own upcoming game Road Trip, with a view to building both by Q4 2026.
Completed by Danzig with his Killdozer Studios team, this is being made to support both one or two players (three or four with split flippers), offering “intense competition and fierce combat” in the spirit of real hockey. For those especially interested in the game, LoserKid Pinball interviewed Danzig on it a few months back, Marco Pinball did a showcase, and Knapp Pinball have more details and photos. It’s pretty cool to see more unusual titles like this gaining ground; hopefully we’ll see it out there soon.
Amusement Expo 2026 Post-Show Updates
Finally, a little bit of a preview of what’s to come in the remainder of our Amusement Expo coverage. Something that was only announced at the eleventh hour right before the show began was Triotech’s newly-evolved Typhoon Shockwave motion ride simulator, so as a result we had neglected to mention it on the site until now. This takes the continually profitable Typhoon format and updates it for today’s double screen-obsessed times, although the gap between the two is a little distracting. There’s been some comments from people disappointed that this has no game element whatsoever, but that’s always been the deal with these machines, and if anything it’s helped them do even better than many interactive titles. Plenty of operators still see solid earnings out of existing Typhoon’s, so these virtual roller coasters have a place.
Our first footage of Cyberpunk 2077: Chrome Rush, Nickelodeon Kart Racers Arcade, and DOF Robotics’ Compact Flying Theater is also now up, with more to come from the booths of companies that were there but with no new-new games (Raw Thrills, Bandai Namco, Sega Amusements etc). I also recorded a long discussion on the expo for the LBX Collective podcast’s weekly show, which as of writing this will go live on their channels some time today. While none of this is as extensive as what we get out of IAAPA, it is nice to have the dearth of news that we’ve seen lately come to a close. Stay tuned for both a post and livestream chat that wraps it all up (although the latter we’ll see – I lost my voice at the show and it’s still a little weak).
Headlines
AEI Attendance Was Down This Year, But Spirits Are Up – Mainly due to a major storm system that hit the Midwest at just the wrong time, then also the shutdown that has been causing big delays at certain airports (I actually got through security pretty quick, both in and out).
Eugene Jarvis Receives The AAMA Lifetime Achievement Award – It couldn’t have gone to a more deserving individual. He and I had a nice long chat at the show; Jarvis really loves this business and his games. I’m grateful that he’s still leading the charge here.
Wangan Midnight Speed Ignition’s Producer Marks One Year Since Its Location Test – There’s also been plenty of teasing about this game recently from them, so watch this space on it…
Timothée Chalamet Plays Taiko And Initial D With A Deaf Table Tennis Champion At A GiGO Location In Shibuya, Japan – Possibly the most unexpected video of the month?
Maimai DX Circle Plus Releases In Japan – Reminder that they are ahead of the ‘international’ version that North America gets, but this update will still come in a few months.
Konami Releases Gashaaaan! + Sazae-san Spot The Difference In Japan
Unboxing A Pokémon Pinball Machine
John Wick Pinball Reaches V1.0 Code
Update #75 For StepManiaX Available
The Arcade Games On Display At IAAPI 2026 By Distributor CSML
Dalla Pria Group Shows Off Superwin Titles At ENADA 2026 In Italy
Happy Birthday To Mark Turmell, Creator Of NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, & More
March 7th Was Street Fighter II’s 35th Release Anniversary
Ranking All Of Sega’s OutRun Games As The Series Turns 40
Konami’s Gradius Rendered Entirely With ASCII Graphics
Could We Get A Donkey Kong Arcade Machine Lego Set?
30 Years Of Light-Gun Shooters
American Laser Games FMV Arcade Titles Get A New Lease Of Life
[Home Headlines]
Mojang Had A Plethora Of Minecraft Announcements This Weekend – Minecraft Dungeons II Trailer – I wouldn’t expect this to affect Minecraft Dungeons Arcade at all, since that development already is completely unique and separate from the console version, and Series 5 released for it just recently anyway.
Classic Sega Racing Tunes From Daytona, OutRun And More Added To Sonic Racing CrossWorlds
Alan-1 Releases Avian Knights To The Switch/PS5/XBX|S
Switch 2 Sees Improved Switch Compatibility – List Of Games To See The Best Performance Improvements
US National Videogame Museum Acquires The Fabled Nintendo PlayStation Prototype
Sometimes, You Don’t Need To Spend A Million To Make A Million – A 1990s game development story
Have You Ever Played The Secret Pac-Man Level In Wolfenstein 3D?
A New And Exclusive Horror Game Is Coming To The Sega Dreamcast
That’s it for this Newsbytes; which of the above stories (e.g. Resident Evil 2: Arcade‘s Japanese location test) interests you most?
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