Features// SPOnG Visits The Arcade Future

Across the hall on the Bandai Namco booth, there were a couple of hulking plastic arcade beasts that stood out. Firstly the four-player Mario Kart Arcade GP which, although being out in Japan for over a year now, is the first time we’d seen one in the UK.

The game is pretty much a tarted-up version of the Mario Kart we all know and love, presented in lovingly constructed big plastic karts with a 'Nam Cam' that projects the players face onto the screen, as their chosen character (so you can finally sport the famous red hat and moustache on the screen display!). Mario Kart Arcade GP also has a card reader system, so that players can save their photos and playing records and return to the game at a later time.

The other stand-out newbie from Bandai Namco was tank game Panzer Elite Action from IMOtion! The studio’s VP Brian Duke told me why it’s so special:


Wow! We’re sold. Along with the new Über Outrun, these machines are good enough reason already to get involved in the arcades again!

Next up, Konami: perhaps not so much new stuff to write home about here, but some upgraded versions of the timeless classics including Crazy Streets the latest in the high octane Thrill Drive series, plus the latest Beatmania IIDX13 Distorted. And, best of all by far, Guitar Freaks version 3 which – awesomely – can be linked to Drum Mania version 3 for players to jam in unison. Again, we will be searching the UK’s arcades for these two machines in the very near future.

We will have a full update and post-ATEI news from each of the major arcade exhibitors early next week, alerting you to where you can find all the machines mentioned above across the UK. Time to stock up the 50ps.