London’s Arcade Show Highlights

Virtua Tennis 3 on Sega’s Lindbergh: First Look

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SPOnG has just returned from a very busy ATEI show over at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre and can happily report back on some hugely impressive arcade hardware and games, including our game of the show, Virtua Tennis 3 on Sega’s new Lindbergh platform. It seems the Arcade is not dead after all, and its well worth considering leaving your living room sometime soon to check out some of the new games which will be hitting an arcade near you in the very near future.

Sega's Lindbergh, the first of its kind to be seen in Europe, was also powering the new House of the Dead 4 and Afterburner 3 on the Sega stand, both of which are still proving to be hugely popular with the crowds. For more information on the Lindbergh, the most powerful Arcade hardware ever developed, check out the specs and pics [URL=http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=731] here [/URL].

Firstly, we popped over to Konami’s booth, where some rather fit girls in tight white t-shirts were showing off two very interesting games. Firstly, the latest version of Dancing Stage Supernova, which is crammed with loads of new features, improved graphics, a global tournament system and over 250 tracks, some new and some of the best from the previous games. The girls demo’ing the system and the eager Japanese boys waiting for their turn to strut their stuff put SPOnG off trying it out. We will return tomorrow for a full report, hopefully when fewer amazing Dancing Stage performers are around to watch!

Next up on the Konami booth was, wait for it, Pro Evolution Soccer 2006 arcade. Yes, that’s right PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2006 ARCADE! Again, we couldn’t get a look in on this today due to queues and lack of time, but we can tell you that PES 2006 boasts one of the coolest features we noticed today - players can bring in their PS2 controller from home into the arcade, if they should prefer to use that rather than the more traditional arcade joystick controller built into the cabinet. This, and the fact that you can play online in leagues with hundreds of other players across the country. Konami might well clean up with PES 2006 Arcade. Watch this space for pics, more info and a full review.

On our way to the Sega booth, we make a quick detour via the Namco booth for a quick gander through the gathered hordes crowding around Tekken 5. Unable to make much headway, we just push our snapper into the melee and hope he gets some half decent pics.

And now to Sega. Finally. And they do not disappoint. Sega have installed a small bit of arcade paradise in the far corner of this cold, draughty old exhibition hall at Earl’s Court. First off, the latest iteration of another of SPOnG’s all-time favourite series, Initial D 3, was being shown in an incredible Cycraft motion simulator. The Cycraft is like no arcade machine you have seen before. Trust us. For now. You’ll have more of our pics as soon as we get that snapper on the blower! It’s an inverted, top-down electric motion system – like a pod hanging off an old skool fairground ride. When combined with Initial D3 it is the best arcade driving experience SPOnG has ever had. Bar none. In the meantime, look [URL=http://www.segaarcade.com/video/cycraft.asp] here [/URL] for more info on this beast.

If you find an arcade near you that has one of these machines, we urge you to go and spend your life savings on it as soon as humanly possible. Forget about the mortgage, the car repayments, the kids and all that. You will have forgotten all those pesky responsibilities and things the second you jolt into Cycraft Initial D3 action. And make all your friends do the same, as the only thing better than Initial D3 played in a Cycraft is Initial D3 played multiplayer against a mate in another Cycraft. Actually no, only spend half the live savings. You are going to need the other half for Virtua Tennis 3.

As SPOnG stepped from the Cycraft, dazed and smiling, we managed to catch a quick glimpse of the very popular House of the Dead 4, again on the graphically unbeatable Lindbergh system. The game looks luscious and boasts a new lightweight sub-machine gun weapon, which allows you to reload ammunition and escape from enemy grabs by simply shaking your gun. Which seems like a nice touch to a great game, sure to be hugely popular.

Finally, saving the best till last, SPOnG sets its eyes on the ultimate arcade prize. Virtua Tennis 3. Simply the best arcade game we have ever played. We want to go back tomorrow and play it from 9am till 4pm, but the boss won't let us. This is a shame, as we are probably going to have to spend all of our next month’s salary on VT3 now in a filthy whore-ridden Soho arcade, as soon as they manage to pimp out enough girls to be able to afford to get the game in.

VT3 on the Lindbergh produces photorealistic graphics and perfect player movement. The control system and the learning curve in the game are the best in the series so far. The game boasts a ton of new features, including new practice and training sessions to help new players. You can and you will want to save your game results on to an IC Smart Card, whereby you can save your players personal data, game records, world ranking and number of medals. Once you have an IC card you can also participate in a virtual “World Ranking” system, where you start at ranking 999 and work your way up to be the top seed.

You can also select, from a number of famous players (yes, including good old Tim Henman, the famous British loser), the best style of player to suit your play – from all-rounders and big servers, through to fast runners, strong forehand/backhand and good counter shot players. In brief, it’s got it all. Go and find it. We urge you.

As mentioned earlier, we also had our pro snapper in tow, so we’ll also be bringing you a load of pics of Virtua Tennis 3, Initial D 3 and all the other new games mentioned above along with pics of the many booth babes and the other weird and wonderful stuff that was at the show as soon as we get hold of em.

Comments

Joji 26 Jan 2006 02:56
1/1
Damn, if they get this Cycraft Initial D3 in at the Troc, I'm gonna have to make a day out in London. It does look damn sexy and it the kind of new shiz that's required to get folks visiting arcades again.

VT3 and HotD looking cool too. We love you Sega.

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