It’s time for another game release, although this post may be a little brief, since the game has launched already – in the UK. The game in question being Animal Kaiser+, it’s now available in the US for locations to grab.
Animal Kaiser+ – Quick Details
For a brief rundown, Animal Kaiser+ is a reboot of Bandai Namco Amusements’ kids card vending & animal battling game. First released in Japan back in 2007, the series was mostly popular there and in the UK. It was mainly popular in Hawaii for the US, but not so much in the mainland.
Thus it was a little bit of a surprise when this new game appeared at Amusement Expo 2024. I compiled a bunch of details on it that you can read here, and there’s this video:
The US Release
I’ve confirmed with Frank & Anna at Bandai Namco that the game is now available for the US market, with an MSRP (final price might vary depending upon your distributor) of $4995. That would be quite a price for today’s market, although as you might have noticed this is designed for the niche of kids and cards.
Given that card games have been growing in popularity here, Bandai Namco felt that now is the right time to give the game a shot, which is also why its seeing this reboot as opposed to another sequel.
As one additional piece of information, there was a question that popped up on YouTube, about what happens when the game runs out of cards. Here’s the answer I got from Anna:
Each cabinet comes with a count card, worth 600 card dispenses. Once you receive a box of cards, you will insert the count card into the machine and it will run through 600 dispenses.
Once that runs out, you need to have a new count card inserted before you can even play the game.
To my knowledge, it will not run unless you have a valid count card in there, even if you want to play the game without dispensing.
It will just throw an error.
So yes, it will be unplayable if there is not a count card being read by the IC reader.
This is normal for a majority of card games out there; cards can be ordered from your distributor. Also note that “version 1” comes with 78 cards, and “version 2” will be announced “soon.” They also already have some replacement parts listed on the site.
What are your thoughts on this release? Would it be a good addition to your location?
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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, Arcade Galactic in West Valley City, Utah since 2008. Soft spots in my heart for Atari, Sega, and Nintendo.