We’ve been having a lively discussion about Capcom and their attitude towards the arcade market in the SSFIV Price Tag comment thread and surely this will continue to stir the debate. Capcom has already stated that there are no plans for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 in arcades, which is something we heard about early on about SSFIV as well. Now we have this video from Japanese news site Gigazine that shows a very arcade-like setup for MVC3 at what I assume is the Tokyo Game Show. We still can’t get our hopes up yet – if it were a real arcade release we would expect to see it in a VEWLIX cabinet and I haven’t seen any “MVC3 coming to Arcades” announcements yet . As such this looks like an ‘arcadified’ kiosk, similar to what we saw recently at PAX in the US so all we can do is dream (or I’m sure people will be planning their own MVC3 home-made arcade cabinets). Once again, this is where the Game Gate VU can come in handy, as that has a modular control panel where you can add arcade sticks to itassuming that MVC3 will be a part of the iGames license which includes Capcom games.
Speaking of TGS, there is some arcade love there at Konami’s booth, who brought Love Plus Arcade to the show and unveiled another arcade title that appears to be a variation on Love Plus called “Happy Daily Life”. More details on that @ 4Gamer.net
It’s been almost a full year since we first revealed the development of a new Konami racer called Road Fighters and now Konami is finally ready to bring the game to market. It has changed quite a bit since the first test, adding 3D support and a slick cabinet and soon we’ll see how the 3D additive helps the game compete against other technical racers such as Initial D and Maximum Tune. The new page for the game mentions e-Amusement support for keeping track of player data as well as online competitive play. They also tap into Konami’s plentiful Bemani library for the background music, which might be a way to help pull in Bemani music fans who don’t mind playing racers either. To round it all off, the game lets the player pick from a diverse line-up of licensed cars, six of which are shown on the product page(click the link below). Road Fighters will be released in Japan next month; there is no indication at this point as to whether this will be getting an official international release and that seems quite unlikely given the game’s hefty price tag of around $35k per unit (that is per AM-Net, unsure if $35k is for a package of four units like we saw with SFIV or just one).
Alternate headline: “Konami strikes back in DJ Max Technika’s hometown”. The location test is actually over at this moment after Konami was able to gather player input over the period of a few weeks. Fortunately we have some extensive videos of the game in action now, it’s like a chaotic version of DJMT with the touchable notes floating all over the place as opposed to sitting on fixed points of the screen. Reflec Beat makes it’s Japanese debut next month in October but Technika 2 will not be far behind with a December release.
I was starting to get a little anxious as it’s a much slower news cycle at the moment than usual but there is some welcome news coming our way via Bemanistyle.com with a report that Konami has begun their first location test of the new Dance Dance Revolution X2 arcade game in North America. The game has already been released in Japan and it has been known for some time that it should be getting an international release but we weren’t really sure when since Konami is still keeping things pretty low key in the US market. As for the location test, if you live anywhere near the Funplex in East Hanover, NJ you may still have a chance to check the game out before it disappears as location tests can last either a day, a week or more depending upon the developers wishes. As for details on the game so far, the pictures @ Bemanistyle show keypads, USB ports and e-Amusement support although it’s highly doubtful that it will include Paseli support that Konami is using for DDRX2 in Japan. The game also has new footpads which should avoid the issues that the terrible DDRX1 pads had.
UPDATE: Thanks to Dan’s comments below here’s an addition: DDRX2 has been testing in the UK for a few weeks already, somewhere in Southend, UK. I would have reported that earlier but I didn’t know about it until now. DasBacon from BemaniStyle says that the UK test is using the old, disliked pads which can certainly affect the test.
The Am-Net Blog has pictures of the marketing materials for a new Konami light-gun game testing in Japan called Space Agent. Not much is known about the new game at this point but what is clear is that it uses a mostly enclosed cabinet, it has e-Amusement features and mounted guns which add an element of “Augmented Reality” to the game. On top of the guns is a screen that has something to do with that AR feature, most likely in finding enemies. In that way it’s actually like Silent Scope but we’ll have to wait and see how similar it might be to SS. The cabinet does look cool as do the guns but they could always tweak the design before the final release.
Space Agent is currently testing at the ROUND Store in Yokohama Nishiguchi, right next to the Terminator Salvation game there judging by the picture to the right here. It’s too bad AM-Net can’t take any pictures or video of the cabinet directly (Konami is usually pretty harsh on photos at loctests, although occasionally they let up on it or people manage to sneak it) but if we’re lucky someone will post some of that soon.
UPDATED: Japanese site Small Room Aries has posted details about the game from the location test. The level provided has you defending New York City from alien attack and it appears that there is a special mode for the cameras mounted on the guns. They mention that the game will often switch into this mode, probably as the aliens are hiding and you have to uncover them. The guns have two firing features, a regular shot and a pump shot, and instead of reloading you have to watch an overheat meter. Even though it’s fairly large, I like the cabinet design. While it’s one of those that could become an infamous “den of iniquity” cabinet due to the enclosure, it’s very eye-catching.
Last year, Konami held tournaments across the US to find the best DDR player in the US. Those tournaments didn’t happen without some headaches but with those lessons learned, Konami is taking a crack at it again with the 2010 DDR Championships, which already began last month starting on the 15th. At the moment they are going through the Round One Qualifier which ends on September 30th. Konami has a page setup for the championships, where locations with a DDR (I assume that it has to be a particular version however) can sign up to be a part of the Round One Qualifiers; Round Two and Three locations haven’t been announced yet.
I have never seen a study been published on whether or not dating simulation video games actually improves ones behavior and/or chances with the opposite sex but either way such games have a following for some reason which eludes me. I find them to be on the creepy side, not like building your own robotic female companion, but creepy nonetheless. A new dating sim arcade game by Konami is no different, but from the looks of things on AM-Net, quite a few people were excited to check out Love Plus Arcade when it was on location test in Akihabara yesterday. The loctest version allowed players to participate in three mini-games where they try to win over the virtual 3D cel-shaded girl. It uses a touch screen, a card system and even has little barriers to keep others from watching your screen. Maybe if they had real women on the other side that male players could try and win over it would be less strange but perhaps I am missing something here and they are fun games that some guys seek out solely for entertainment purposes; or maybe they are effective for some individuals. I still would have zero confidence in a guy trying to win over my daughter in the future with ideas and expectations he learned off of a dating sim. But to each his own, there are worse methods out there, especially on the internet, for people to learn how to interact with one another.
I have never seen a study been published on whether or not dating simulation video games actually improves ones behavior and/or chances with the opposite sex but either way such games have a following for some reason which eludes me. I find them to be on the creepy side, not like building your own robotic female companion, but creepy nonetheless. A new dating sim arcade game by Konami is no different, but from the looks of things on AM-Net, quite a few people were excited to check out Love Plus Arcade when it was on location test in Akihabara yesterday. The loctest version allowed players to participate in three mini-games where they try to win over the virtual 3D cel-shaded girl. It uses a touch screen, a card system and even has little barriers to keep others from watching your screen. Maybe if they had real women on the other side that male players could try and win over it would be less strange but perhaps I am missing something here and they are fun games that some guys seek out solely for entertainment purposes; or maybe they are effective for some individuals. I still would have zero confidence in a guy trying to win over my daughter in the future with ideas and expectations he learned off of a dating sim. But to each his own, there are worse methods out there, especially on the internet, for people to learn how to interact with one another.
First off, Andamiro has finally released Pump It Up Pro 2. The game was first seen at Amusement Expo 2010, where it was well-received by fans and since then the development team has been fine-tuning the game for a final release. According to the PIU blog, the game was completed a week ago and now they are in the middle of producing the cabinets. Already at least one distributor has the game listed for shipping, along with a price tag of almost $11,000 (prices do vary a little between distributors). The game uses a plasma screen which should mean it avoids response time issues that we’ve seen on some LCD music games. Here’s the song list for PIUP2 and here is a recent video of PIUP2 in action.
Also Konami has tested Dance Dance Revolution X2 in the US and the guys at Bemanistyle.com were invited to check it out. Fans who were angered over the shoddy quality of X1 should be happy to learn that Konami took player complaints into account, and fixed the problems that were seen with the X1 pads. In fact it appears that owners of X1 machines will be able to update their machines with the new pads, which means that hopefully the X1 pads will quickly become a thing of the past. Here’s a video from the test, you can find plenty of more details @ Bemanistyle.com
We have a few new details on Konami’s Metal Gear Arcade, which we reported just a couple of days ago would be getting a location test this week. The most significant change to the game since it was last seen would be the option that dictates how the player moves their perspective around. You can pick from either the glasses or the gun, with it working out similarly to first-person titles on the Wii, where the view begins to move once the reticule passes a certain, preset boundary. Stages change after a certain amount of time passes and when a player unlocks new ranks they can play on new stages. Small Room Aries has scans of the pamphlets explaining how the game works out in greater detail (in Japanese) and we also have a couple of short videos from the location test below.
We’re still not quite sure when this may get a test outside of Japan (as it was originally announced to be a worldwide release) but I have heard of the possibility of the game showing up at IAAPA in November. Of course with as complex as this looks and as expensive as it will likely be that makes it harder to sell but at the same time I’d like to see it do well as it’s unique amongst other titles out there right now.
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