I didn’t want to run this topic in with the other one since this is about the newer titles in general, so I’m starting a new thread.
We know since the later half of the 00’s arcade gaming has died down considerably and pretty much forced a number of locations to close. Of course having just 1 or 2 developers on the scene at that time (Global VR mainly) wasn’t all that supportive, but eventually developers started seeing a rising interest again and let a number of worthy titles fly under the radar. I want to post a couple games that are worthy of checking out, plus I’d like everyone to add their recommendations and discoveries now that there’s so many out in the wild.
Some on my list include:
Skycurser
Killer Queen
GunLord
Gunslinger Stratos
These I really have an interest in playing, plus Killer Queen only got a limited number of cabinets produced for some reason, so player communities can only be organized at those locations if they have them listed. Any NG.DEVTEAM out there is worth spending time on when you see one and I think Round 1 has been keeping a few fighting games for BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Capcom, Namco or SNK based. Pinball has a bit more of a limitation, but I was lucky enough to come across Guardians of the Galaxy only briefly. Japan only titles are a bigger pain since playing card based titles like Sword of Vermillion are impossible in the states and one headliner in the past 4 years was Wonderland Wars. I don’t know if we got Gunslinger Stratos 3 here.
I tried the new Sega GT (Sega World Drivers Championship - https://swdc.sega.jp) in an arcade yesterday. It’s really good fun. Somewhere between arcade and sim really - the core controls and car handling are easy to get to grips with, but you can’t just approach every corner at max speed. There’s a big emphasis on cornering and overtaking and the game ranks every one of your attempts to do so.
I’m thirsty for a home console release now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if an executive at Sega Games discounted the possibility because they’d think players wouldn’t embrace it because it only has a small number of tracks.
I did not know that. I just played it recently that’s pretty cool.
I know that Namco’s arcade division has changed their name to PacMan something or other, so I get everything being so PAC-centric. But can someone tell me how that air hockey game relates to Pac-Man. All the little pucks are ghosts I guess, but does the play field have any function? Does the maze mean anything?
Battle Royale kinda disappointed me when I played it. They had a update process where it went from 3 rounds to 5, but it was nothing but a short playthrough. I’d rather they just took CE and added 4 player co-op.
Round 1 is currently running test locations for NESiCA for some of the newer fighting games (on console of course), but I really want to see this stuff expand to the barcade sceen or otherwise the industry will never grow in that area. EXA is also getting more titles out and I suggested they do the same, even if it’s just for regular bars as I’ve noticed most establishments don’t even have a cabinet anymore (just that Big Daddy crap)
I am a little disappointed that a lot of modern arcade games now come with the same grindy shallow progression systems that you see in a lot of service games. Playing Project Diva Arcade - which itself isn’t that old - is somewhat a breath of fresh air coming from Chunithm, Jubeat and Sega GT. They are great games but the levelling up and car upgrades feel like they don’t need to exist to enhance the game itself.
Not sure if anyone played the original release on iOS and Android, but Aka to Blue received an arcade adaptation (rebalanced around the old controls of course) which seems worth checking out given the quality of the original release: http://tanoshimasu.com/aka-to-blue/type-r/
