Nippon Marathon TURBO HYPER RUNNING is Coming Soon to Exa-Arcadia, and Pump It Up Prime 2 Receives I
Going into August, I couldn’t have possibly imagined that I’d have so many bite-sized news tidbits to compile into articles. (Here are links for the last two.) But hey, here are we are, and I’m glad. Maybe not every news item needs its own 2,000 word article, but every item certainly deserve to be written about in some capacity.
Ironically enough, both news items today are actually pretty big—there’s just not much to write about them. So without further ado, how about we jump right into the news?
Yet another game has been announced for Exa-Arcadia: Nippon Marathon TURBO HYPER RUNNING.
If you thought Exa-Arcadia couldn’t get any bigger, think again. The glorious new kit system will be graced by another exciting launch title at the late-2018 release: Nippon Marathon TURBO HYPER RUNNING. For those of you, like myself, who had never heard of the game, here are the deets. Developed by Onion Soup Interactive, Nippon Marathon is a “…crazy, physics-driven, four-player party racer…” currently available on the Steam Early Access service. (Yes, it is another PC-to-Exa port. It's also coming to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in Autumn 2018.) In layman’s terms, it’s a game where you run forward and avoid obstacles and it’s super flippin’ goofy.
In fact, that’s exactly what’s so exciting to me about Nippon Marathon coming to Exa. Besides the fact that this will bring the party game genre back to arcades in a fresh, exciting format (four-player foot races!), the title will also bring back…well, a sense of humor. In my opinion, it’s been far, far too long since we’ve seen an really tongue-in-cheek arcade game. I suppose there is a lot of humor in the excellent Big Buck Hunter bonus games, but we haven’t seen anything as bold as CarnEvil or Target: Terror in ages. While Nippon Marathon isn’t irreverent or violent like those two games, it seems to have this hilarious, quirky charm to it. That is something we desperately need.
At the moment, we don’t know how the Exa-Arcadia version of Nippon Marathon will differ from the PC and console versions. At present, the PC version features four playable characters, four courses, and “a few extra surpises.” The full version is planned to include eight playable contestants; at least eight courses; a full, single-player campaign with a proper story, boss battles, and myriad silly shenanigans; at least three side-modes; and more collectibles, awards, achievements, and hazards. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll adapt all of this content for the arcade version. I’m pretty excited, actually.
It’s so good to see a four-player title joining the lineup—especially one as unabashedly silly as this one. I can’t even begin to emphasize how tickled I am, y’all. I’m real, real tickled. Tickled pink, even. You really should go check out the trailer on Twitter at this link, even though I already embedded the YouTube video. I’m totally digging the music. And as always, that Exa-Arcadia logo jingle is oh-so satisfying.
I have a physical need for Exa-Arcadia in my life. Late-2018 cannot possibly come quickly enough to quench my intense hype.
Also, Exa needs to get themselves a YouTube channel. For real, y’all.
Pump It Up Prime 2 is going out with a bang. Say hello to the final update…and then say goodbye to the game itself.
Pump It Up Prime 2, the latest installment in Andamiro’s long-running series of rhythm/dancing games, is set to receive its eleventh and final update, V2.05.0, on Monday, August 27th, 2018.
The final update was announced in a promotional video uploaded to the AndamiroPR YouTube channel on August 20th, 2018. It will feature the following new songs for Pump players to enjoy:
“Breakout” by Lunatic Sounds
“The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog” by Doin
“Visual Dream II (In Fiction)” by Aragon
“BSPower Explosion” by Memme
“Escape” by D_AAN
“Shub Sothoth Remix” by Nato & EXC
In addition to the six new songs, V2.05.0 includes Quest Zone: Chapter 10. Though I haven’t yet gotten into the Pump It Up series (only Dance Dance Revolution), I’d like to think this is a solid final update for fans. I’ve seen some complaints that there should have been more K-Pop songs added for casual players, but it seems that the original songs will be quite fun, as well.
It’s kind of bittersweet seeing the Prime 2 updates come to end. It had a strong, three-year run. Still, we have something great to look forward: the next installment of the legendary dancing series. Could it be Prime 3? Or perhaps an entirely new chapter? I suppose we’ll just have to see in the coming months.
Goodbye, Pump It Up Prime 2 updates! At least we’ll still have your beautiful cabinet in our arcades—and hopefully for a good, long time.
You know, I applied to the local Sonic recently, but I’m actually kind of glad I haven’t gotten the job. Yes, I need the money. But you know what else I need? I need to be here as the news happens, because OH BOY has it been riveting lately. It’s just one awesome thing after another, kiddos.
It’s actually really upsetting that, every time I try to talk to my friends about arcade games, they dismiss it because “No one plays arcade games.” Maybe if mainstream gaming news sites and magazines would write about arcades, people would realize the industry is actually riding on a huge resurgence?
But I digress. See ya ‘round, ya sweaty nerds.