[Thanks to anonTipster for the pics!]
Disclaimer: Please note that where this is a location test, the final game product may differ from what is shown below – sometimes the game may not even be released depending on how testing goes.
Recently revealed through the official Minecraft blog, we have our first look at the highly anticipated Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, by Play Mechanix, Raw Thrills, Microsoft Game Studios and Mojang. If you missed that story, you can take a look here; A summary is that it’s a special exclusive reworking of the console version of Minecraft Dungeons, adapted to work for the needs of the arcade environment. It is also testing with a card vending feature like Injustice Arcade has (as a note though, we have seen where RT tested a game with cards before and the card feature was removed, that being initial units of Cruis’n Blast; That said, I’d be shocked to see an IP like Minecraft not work out with cards, especially given how integrated they are with your equipment settings in this game).
The original blog post mentioned that units would be headed out on test, but it took a little while for some good pics to reach me. I checked with Play Mechanix prior to publishing this story and in regards to how the game has been performing so far they stated: “Minecraft Dungeons Arcade has been outstanding on test. We are extremely excited for more arcades and players to experience the game soon.“
The cabinet looks exactly like the first official cabinet image shared with the public; Test units come with a 65″ screen, although that is one of those things that can change when final production is met. Either way, this will likely be a big game, bigger than TMNT cabinets thanks to the larger screen size and the extra space on the control panel:
The cards work to “customize your quest,” where you get a card from the machine that can then be put into the scanner for unlocking different items such as a melee weapon, ranged weapon, armor, pet and player skin. As you can also see from the pics, the controls are simple, with a joystick and three action buttons at your disposal.
The giant button for each player is just there for buying a card only; The control panel also says that you can “scan cards to change gear any time!” If someone fails to remove their card, the screen will show an error box saying that there’s a jam, but all you have to do is remove the card from the slot.
The game’s leaderboard’s are called “The Hall of Epic Champions,” showing those “brave adventurers” who take on the Obsidian Monstrosity (probably the final boss) and claimed victory. From this, the game uses the classic three-letter input for that part of it.
There are 60 cards that will be available as a part of the Series 1 batch, which also implies that other series may be launched down the road – this of course depends on how successful the game is. Injustice is on Series 3 at this point, and given how popular Minecraft is, I would expect the other series to come along down the road. When a card is scanned, it tells you which of the 60 you’ve got, which series and how rare it is.
While a release date and pricing have not been revealed for this one quite yet, we still should expect to see this showing up at arcades sometime this summer. The game will first be presented to the industry at Bowl Expo 2021 in Kentucky; It’ll then be at Amusement Expo 2021 a few days later in Las Vegas. It would be great if it’s available around that time (very end of June, beginning of July), as many arcades see strong sales when school is out. That and we’ll probably still be enjoying the effects of lockdown cabin fever that will drive people out for entertainment.
With this additional info, what do you think about this game so far?
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About the author: arcadehero View all posts by arcadehero
I’m a lifelong fan of video games and I have been operating my own arcade, The Game Grid Arcade in West Valley City, Utah since 2008.