AOU 2005: Report from Japan

TOKYO--Last weekend, publishers of arcade games in Japan presented games for the upcoming months at the Arcade Operator's Union (AOU) show. The annual show is one of two major trade-oriented arcade events that take place in Japan.

Our coverage starts at the show's biggest booth, that of Sammy Corp. and Sega.

Sammy, Sega

As usual, Sammy and Sega boasted the largest booth of any exhibitor. While there were no surprise announcements, there were enough games to keep attendees occupied for hours.

Sammy’s section was focused almost entirely on fighting games, with two anticipated titles, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and The Rumble Fish 2, playable. Since the last time we saw NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, the game's roster has increased to 34 historical characters from the Neo Geo platform, which includes some interesting choices, such as Mudman from the World Heroes series.

The tag team-based fighting game adopts a similar system to the King of Fighters series and SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, where you use two buttons for punches of different strengths and two more for kicks. A fifth button is used for switching between tag partners, which you can do at any time during the game.

In single-player mode, you lose the game when either of your two characters gets knocked out. But when you're going against a human player, the game runs until either you or your opponent loses both characters. There seemed to be room for at least two more characters in the character-selection screen. NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is slated for release in the spring.

The Rumble Fish 2 inherits the same graphics system from its previous iteration, where characters moved at the joints, like a quirky Macromedia Flash movie. The Rumble Fish 2 has four new characters: a rather small girl with an eye patch and a wooden sword named Mito; a boxer-type character with a Mohawk named Lud; a huge monster of a man with unusually long arms named Bazoo; and an assassin who fights with wires.

The game adopts a number of new systems, but in particular, it has something called the "boost dive," which can be executed by consuming power meters. Each character will get a special ability when the boost dive is in effect, such as the ability to inflict additional damage when hitting a certain part of the opponent's body or the ability to automatically heal life. The Rumble Fish 2 is slated to hit North American arcades in late March.

Sega's section of the booth focused predominantly on networked games that let players compete against other gamers in that arcade's long-distance network, a system that has quickly become an arcade industry standard over the past two years.

In particular, there was a long line of attendees waiting to try out Sanogokushi Taisen, a real-time card game based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms storyline. You play Sangokushi Taisen by placing trading cards on the arcade machine's sensor-enabled table, and the units on the screen travel according to where you move their corresponding cards. To win the game, you have to keep in mind the different strengths and weaknesses for each warlord card and his troops, such as archers, horsemen, and spearmen.

Another gameplay mechanic that's driving interest is that each of the warlord cards are illustrated by popular manga artists, so they also function as collectibles. Other networked games at Sega's booth included its soccer game, World Club Champion Football European Clubs 2004-2005, and Sega Golf Club Network ProTour.

Sega also had two games slated for release on the Naomi GD-ROM platform on display, one of which was Senkou no Rondo, by Grev, which played like a shooting-and-fighting hybrid. The second game was the fighting game Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, by Ecole, which featured two new characters: Aozaki Aoko, a magician who appeared as the boss in the PC release of the game, and Kishima Kouma, a young man who possesses the blood of demons. Senkou no Rondo is slated for release this spring. Melty Blood: Act Cadenza is slated for release in March.

Konami

Most of what Konami showed in its booth were sequels, upgraded and tweaked by offering network connectivity (such as its Mahjong Fight Club). But sequels weren't the only story: There were some original music games on display as well, such as Dance 86.4: Funky Radio Station and Toy's March.

Both music games played with a selection of cheerful pop tunes, including anime themes. The titles had extremely simple controls, especially compared to previous music games released by Konami. The move is a clear sign the company is taking steps to make its music games more attractive to more-casual gamers.

Dance 86.4, as the title would suggest, has an atmosphere that feels as through you're dancing to the tune of a radio broadcast, with plenty of colorful announcements made by a DJ in between the stages. The game plays similarly to Dance Dance Revolution, except it has only three panels to step on: left, center, and right. The game implements a new subsystem where your combo count resets if you have your foot on a panel when a bomb icon displays on the screen. Toy's March is played as a drumming game that's somewhat similar to Namco's Taiko: Drum Master, except it features English-style toy drums and cymbals.

Other games at Konami's booth included the latest installment in its popular networked table game, Mahjong Fight Club 4; another installment to its pro wrestling strategy game that uses trading cards, Wrestle Arena Battle Climaxx! 2; the second installment in its medal-operated dungeon action game, Monster Gate II; and Bishi Bashi Champ Online, which plays as a collection of minigames that can be enjoyed with gamers in other arcades via a networked connection.

Taito

Taito's booth was all about the upcoming games for its PC-based Type-X arcade board, and the company made three major announcements at the beginning of the show. First, Taito unveiled of a new Type-X-based cabinet, the Nesys TP, which is a network-connected arcade machine that features a touch-sensitive panel, much like Konami's E-Amusement cabinet (Mahjong Fight Club, Quiz Magic Academy). The touch-sensitive panel makes the gameplay more intuitive and convenient for arcade games, especially for genres such as mahjong that traditionally require more than 14 different buttons to be played. Two titles announced for the Nesys TP were the mahjong game Usagi Online and the baseball strategy game Harikiri Online Pro Baseball, both of which can be played against gamers in other arcades using the machine's network connection.

Taito also announced that it's currently developing Battle Gear 4, which will run on a specially customized Type-X cabinet with a high-resolution, noninterlaced 48KHz monitor and 5.1 surround sound speakers.

In terms of third-party support for its Type-X, Taito already has a number of well-known developers in Japan that are either signed up or already developing games. These companies include Arc System Works, Arika, Cave, Success, and Treasure. Taito announced at the show that it will be making efforts to get publishers from outside Japan to develop games for the system, which can be seen as possible first steps toward releasing its Type-X system in overseas markets. Taito revealed at the show that American game studio Raw Thrills will be making games on the system by starting with two titles: The Fast and the Furious and Target: Terror.

The Fast and the Furious is based on the movie of the same name from Universal Entertainment. You'll be driving through the roads of well-known locations, such as Times Square and Hollywood, with a selection of cars, including a Pontiac GTO or a Toyota Supra. Players can use a number of nifty driving techniques, such as a side wheelie and a 360-degree spin to outrun opponents.

Target: Force is a shooting game where you fight terrorists using a selection of seven different weapons found in the game, among them a grenade launcher and a deep-freeze beam. What's unique about Target: Force is the game has a mode that lets you play using two guns with just one credit, though the game's difficulty setting will rise when you dual-wield.

The game that seemed to be getting the most attention in Taito's booth was an unannounced gun game named Akuma, which seemed to have a similar atmosphere to Sega's House of the Dead, only with ghosts instead of zombies. What sets Akuma apart from other shooting games--and the reason why there was a swarm of people taking a look at it--is the holographic imagery on its display monitor. The ghosts seem like they're popping out of the screen.

Other games featured at Taito's booth included the shooting game Raiden III, which seemed to be one of only two shooting games playable at the AOU show. The anticipated shooter Shikigami no Shiro 3 was only shown in the form of still shots during a press presentation. A third shooter, Homura, is also under development for the Type X by Skonec, the developer of Psyvariar 2.

Namco

Namco's booth had only two titles on display, but that was all it needed to gather a crowd. The company showed off its surprise title Mario Kart: Arcade GP, which is basically an arcade port of Nintendo's Mario Kart racing game series. For more details on Mario Kart: Arcade GP, zoom over to GameSpot's impressions of the game at the show.

Namco also had The Idol Master on display. In that game, players take the role of a producer who guides a teenage starlet to the heights of celebrity. Although the game isn't likely to hit the States, it was popular among AOU attendees and required a two-hour wait in line to see it in action. The game was shown at the AOU show last year, but now it's finally slated to be released this summer.

AMI

Aside from the major arcade publishers, there were also a number of smaller companies that had titles garnering attention. In particular, arcade game publisher AMI had Cave's new shooter, Ibara, on display. It's played on a vertically shaped screen, and it looks promising. The game is slated for release this May in Japan. Also on display at AMI's booth was Spectral vs. Generation, a new fighting game under development at Idea Factory that features an all-star cast from its Neverland console game franchise.