AAA 2026 Day 1: New Arcade Games Showcased In China

The first day of May’s biggest arcade trade show, the AAA (Asia Amusement Attractions) Expo, is over and out, and that means the beginning of our three daily posts about all the relevant companies and new arcade games seen at it is here. As is tradition by now, we shall start things off with prioritized coverage of Arcade Heroes advertiser Wahlap, and a little nod towards Bandai Namco’s presence afterward too.

As always, it’s worth issuing the reminder that many (though not all) of the games seen here will reach Western territories, either directly or via distributors. Many thanks to Wahlap for providing official photography of their presence once again, and our half-Welsh, true blue Arcade Hero for the photos of Bandai Namco at the end 🙂 With that out of the way, let’s check out AAA 2026:

AAA Expo 2026

For a little background first to inform anyone not familiar, AAA Expo is one of two major amusement trade shows hosted in mainland China every year (the other being GTI Asia China Expo each September). Part of the Grandeur World Culture & Tourism Industry Expo, this year’s show marks the 22nd time it has been held, and though we can only cover the event through our trusted sources and associates at the moment, it feels like every time it gets bigger and bigger from the sheer amount of product on show, covering all types of arcade machines but also rides and attractions.

To give an initial demonstration of that, here’s the show map, encompassing numerous areas of the exhibition venue to a dizzying extent. For our specific areas of interest, Area A features the main action across seven different halls; then there’s all of the others for further adjacent amusement produce and co-located events. It’s a lot, and one that’s seemingly daunting for even a three day show, but for those who can’t make it, that’s where this coverage comes in…

Wahlap

Every year, Wahlap well and truly wow us with their Chinese trade show booths, which are much more expansive and than most any spaces for arcades seen at the likes of IAAPA. Most of the major companies who attend AAA and GTI tend to go bigger than those over here anyway, but along with UNIS (still to come in the day 2 coverage), China’s first arcade company to be listed on the stock market unsurprisingly takes the cake in particular. You can take a look at some of the extravagance in motion with this below highlight video, featuring one or two familiar faces from the industry (the biggest is in the thumbnail):

Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade Plus / Asphalt Moto Blitz Plus

As spotlighted in our preview the other day, Wahlap’s big name debut here is of course the new Plus update to Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade, adding new content such as a ticket redemption mode on top of a vertical screened cabinet. As it turns out, despite not announcing it in advance they have also used this opportunity to present the equivalent for Asphalt Moto Blitz – both are debuting alongside each other, much like Storm Racer 2 and Storm Rider X (which had the vertical screens first). It does seem like the latter isn’t as far along in development as its car counterpart (it’s apparently at 70%), but both are already looking good:

It would be very surprising if neither of these turn up at IAAPA this November, though exactly who through is not known for certain. Common sense would say LAI Games, given they have sold the other Asphalt arcade games, but there could be a twist as Wahlap and IGS’ titles are not exclusive to one distributor.

Demon Hunter 1892

As well as their update to Asphalt, Wahlap have got a new-new, original game making its debut here too: Demon Hunter 1892. For those who may have missed the preview, this is their first self-made, original lightgun shooter for quite a while; usually they have worked with IGS or licenses in this genre, but we have seen the occasional home-grown title from them like Teratoma over the years. This latest one chooses demon hunting in the late 1800s as its theme and aesthetic, with quick time events, randomized stages, and branching endings aplenty.

It’s also a case of shooters increasingly using more than two players as the standard, since it is only available in the four player cabinet design originally made for Monster Eye 3 Unite, meaning no environmental booth cabinet fun here. Will be interesting to give this one a play whenever it turns up out West:

NBA Superstars

Taking center stage at one of the main corners of Wahlap’s booth this year is something that released for us back in 2024, but is reaching China this year in a slightly altered form. Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix’s NBA Superstars is now set to shoot some hoops out in Asia too, with the added appeal of card vending and even some new progression features tied to specific players. Of all their big showcases, Wahlap really went to town on this one; you can see some of the costumed booth babes and people making special appearances in the day 1 highlights video linked earlier.

Unfortunately it does not look likely that any of the differences this Chinese version has will be reflected in ours. The reasons for that are probably multi-faceted – not only are the cabinet designs seemingly different, meaning that ours may not be easily upgradeable, the Chinese market has more adoption of systems like this (much like Japan).

Monster Eye 3 Plus

This super deluxe version of one of Wahlap and IGS’ recent releases is appearing at an event for the first time here, being practically a booth within a booth due to its sheer size. Monster Eye 3 Plus is the latest in a long line of deluxe, full-size theater attraction versions for shooting games (mainly made by Sega and Namco up to now), and has been done here with big cutouts of the giant monsters found in the game:

Wahlap’s booths are never ever big enough at trade shows outside of China to ever fit something like this, but it sure would be neat if they tried to break with convention and size things up for one. We’ll have to see if it ends up over here:

 Eggy Hop / Step Dash

Wahlap didn’t really promote these two new kiddy pieces in advance, but they are worth a small mention, as they are both video-based. These are a couple of original active entertainment games, one being a pogo stick racer in the style of Taito’s Hopping Road and UNIS’ Jump Master, whilst the other (which is a little confusing, since it seems as if the name is Eggy Party from the banner but it actually isn’t) looks kind of like their previous Skip Time game in design.

It also almost looks as if Step Dash has screens in the platforms, but in looking at other photos, that doesn’t seem to be the case as the graphics stay the same. More likely that these are lit very well:

Others

Booths as big as Wahlap’s always end up featuring a lot more than just the new video games seen above, and for a selection of the others, see the below slide. Among them are their new card games, such as Geeese!, Card Storm, Infinite Tower and the Chinese version of Elaut’s Smurfs, as well as returning mainstay titles they have licensed from the big Japanese brands, like Maimai DX, Chunithm, Initial D The Arcade, Taiko no Tatsujin, Bombergirl and Jubeat. Then for one of their own properties, Wahlap are making interesting moves – their Kingdoms Fantasy card battler is now receiving a decent push in physical merchandise, with playing card tables and more. That game seems to have been a success for them out in Asia, so hopefully this expansion does pretty well.

Bandai Namco

As well as Wahlap, Bandai Namco are usually at the forefront of our Chinese show coverage, since their presence as a Japanese company is an interesting one (they returned to appearing at these expos in 2024, after some time away). That said, they don't have anything new-new to show off here; they have used both AAA and GTI to debut the occasional fresh piece before anywhere else on the quiet, but it looks like there aren't really any around on this occasion.

In terms of what they have brought... as can be seen in our above photo, the uncommon Asia/Oceania-exclusive motion deluxe version of Dead Heat Unleashed has came back, and GoldStorm Pirates is also available. Last September at GTI, UNIS had this on their booth in the enclosed Japanese design, but Bamco have it here in the 'open top' one we got. As well as that, they had their latest Pac-Man machines on hand again too:

Something new to the region at the very least seems to be the return of something that originally released in Japan a few years ago now - the Pokémon Mega Get Nagetore BOX. This kiddie ball toss/card game hybrid is now coming to the rest of Asia too, although like other Pokémon arcade games (besides Stern's new pinball), any hopes that it may end up elsewhere should immediately be tempered, as the cabinet artwork expressly states it is only for sale there.

That ties a bow on the first day of AAA 2026 coverage, but check back tomorrow when we will be running down what UNIS and Ace Amusement have brought to the show. In the meantime, if you'd like to take a look at some other photos from Wahlap's booth, check out this livestream going through many others from the folder of hundreds that they sent us. What games in their AAA 2026 lineup interest you the most?