We’ve got a quick bit of news to share with you today about the latest developments for the arcade industry, particularly with one game that just began shipping. But before we get to that, let’s update you on the status behind a couple of games, one of which is highly anticipated among arcade players out there.
GoldStorm Pirates & Carnival Shot Coming In April
I reached out to my local Betson representative today, asking about the shipping on a couple of new arcade titles: Bandai Namco Amusements’ GoldStorm Pirates, and UNIS’ Carnival Shot. I asked about a couple of other UNIS games – Neon Rush and Dino Storm – but he said they weren’t on the latest list that UNIS had sent to him. UNIS did put up a video about Dino Storm the other day, so perhaps we’ll have an update on that one here soon.
Note that I’ve been trying to get a hold of reps at both Bandai Namco and UNIS (via email and phone, where I have the latter) about all of these games, but unfortunately I’ve not had any luck. So instead of waiting until the next trade show rolls around, I asked leading industry distributor Betson about the two companies, and he confirmed that both GoldStorm Pirates (Bandai Namco) and Carnival Shot (UNIS) will ship out in April – per the latest.
Of course that could still change, as there is an ebb and flow to production. That gets us up-to-date on those particular games for now.
Cambria Sword Another Cry AC Now Available
For a game that is shipping now, the exA-Arcadia is starting off the year strong. They anticipate shipping out almost a dozen games by the second quarter of 2025, with Cambria Sword: Another Cry AC leading the way.
exA describes this as “the shooter spectacle of the year,” where they have redesigned the game into a sequel as opposed to a remaster. This brings numerous improvements and enhancements so that it works better as an arcade game. This includes changing the length of game, which would take around 4 hours to complete. Instead of setting it up that way, the AC version has branching paths like Darius, where every time you play, it picks from a different pool of pre-designed levels. This operates at 1 frame of input lag, and comes with a heavy metal soundtrack.
With 6 ships to choose from, 72 selectable weapons (you can have 12 at a time), 80 bosses, and multiple endings, this all works together for great replay value. The character design is all based on creatures from the Cambrian Period of the Earth (well before dinosaurs and even most plants inhabited the planet), which makes it stand out from the typical space ship battle set up that most shooters use. As you can also see from the videos above, the game’s aesthetic is unusual, using vibrant color and tons of 2D sprites.
It comes as a standard exA kit, as you see here; the game is available from a number of exA distributors from around the world.
What do you think about this release?
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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.
