I’m leaving for California Extreme (CAX) tomorrow but before I go, let’s get to some location test news – one game testing in Japan; one from Japan that’s testing in the US, then another from my home base of Utah, USA. Let’s start with the new Beatmania Pinky Crush, Godzilla Kaiju Drop, then we’ll touch on Kung Fu Panda.
NOTE: The games discussed on this post are on location test, which is the arcade industry equivalent of a beat test. The final product may differ significantly from the final production release – if the games pass the tests and reach production.
Beatmania IIDX 32 Pinky Crush
Fans of Konami’s original Bemani game (that’s where the term comes from) can be pleased as Beatmania is back with a thirty-second iteration. Ted had posted some info on the game & test, including this non-gameplay announcement trailer, on the AH Discord. Aside from the logo, this tweet shows the test that is going from the 26th-28th over in Tokyo. Naturally, the cabinet has a pink color scheme and I imagine that the songs shown here are new and/or fan favorites.
Pinky Crushロケテ写真 pic.twitter.com/vcSUiLfaOq
— 姫川かごめ (@wagome) July 26, 2024
I wouldn’t expect this to show up anywhere in the US except for Round1USA. Speaking of that…
Godzilla Kaiju Drop
I’m putting this one second as it is not a video game but a new Godzilla themed coin pusher. Surprisingly, this is also developed in part by Taito, who hasn’t exactly been super active on the arcade scene lately (we’ve been seeing one, maybe two games pop-up from them, then hang out for a while). It started testing at an arcade in China a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t expecting to see them try it here so soon. It has a very impressive 3D sculpt of Godzilla in the center and handles up to 3 players. For now, it is only testing out at the famous Puente Hills Round1USA.
If this one passes the test, my assumption is that they will release it through UNIS, whom Taito has worked with in the recent past, and UNIS has the Godzilla license for use in certain games, like their Godzilla Vs. Kong Smasher. If released here, that will give the market four different Godzilla games to choose from.
Kung Fu Panda: The Warrior’s Gauntlet
H/t to Jdevy for this news (and his research)
Last but not least is a new Kung Fu Panda game that was unexpectedly caught in this arcade tour video. The surprising thing for me is that this is not terribly far away (still a little bit of a drive, maybe about 45m). The reason for it testing in Utah is that the company behind it, Night Heron, is located here and they have some amusement VR experience as some of the people working there are said to have worked at The Void. I can’t find out anything else about them for now, so it is unknown if they might be working with anyone else in the biz for this, but when it showed logos, only Night Heron was mentioned. Previously, the site Game Rant had caught wind of this game’s trademark filing, but that hadn’t said anything about it being an amusement VR piece.
This appearance doesn’t mean that it won’t show up for the likes of home VR, although that depends on the success of this arcade version.
This video shows the game very briefly at the 4:23 mark, where you have a rather large, almost square screen. The game has only one tethered VR headset on it, and you can catch a few seconds of gameplay in the attract mode, where it looks like you have to hit various targets by using your hands. They didn’t linger on the game as it is a tour, but also there is a “No photos please” sign on it. Will we see this at IAAPA? Maybe. There’s no Night Heron on the IAAPA Exhibitor list, but it’s not exactly 100% filled out yet, and if they are working with a partner, it would likely debut there instead.
Anything out of these three titles stand out to you?
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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.