Cosmotrons coming soon to The Garcade; House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn footage analysis
While there hasn’t been anything wildly groundbreaking since the announcement of Exa-Arcadia, arcade news does persist. Today especially, I’ve got two really neat things to share with you all. Keep reading to fill your hype meters accordingly. Today's article is full of links to external sources, because I've decided that I owe it to you all to share as much information as I possibly can. (Note: Links will open in a new tab. If you've already visited all of these official websites and social media pages for arcade games and developers, you don't have to bother clicking on them.)
Cosmotrons is heading to the Garcade in fully playable form
Last night, Arcadeaholics, LLC. dropped some very exciting news on their YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages: The first Cosmotrons “Delux-o-Tron” production cabinet is now available to play at The Garcade in Menomonee Falls, WI. After long last, the wait is over. You can play some deluxe-cabinet Cosmotrons; just head over to the Garcade in a few weeks. Here’s a video that explains/promotes the whole ordeal:
For those of you not the in the know (like myself), The Garcade is a admission-based free-play arcade in Wisconsin. Pay $15 at the door, and you’ll receive an all-day access pass to enjoy over 100 video arcade games, 10 pinball machines, air hockey, and a jukebox. While I certainly do not prefer free-play arcades (they take the credit-based, skill-based tension out of playing games), I do appreciate that Mr. Gar has opened his Garcade up as the landing pad for the very first Cosmotrons Delux-o-Tron production cabinet. And believe me; the Delux-o-Tron is a beauty of a cabinet. (In a retro sort of way, that is.)
On the Cosmotrons Facebook page, it was also announced that “We [Arcadeaholics] will be rolling out announcements for the next locations soon! Let your local arcade know we can keep the arcade scene growing with new well deigned content like Cosmotrons!” This is pretty exciting stuff. I fully intend to contact my local Dave and Buster’s, Chuck-E-Cheese’s, GattiTown, and maybe even my local Wal-Mart or State Resort to ask them to purchase this game. Cosmotrons will be fun, and like every other indie arcade game out there, it will need our support in order to flourish.
My question, however, has still remained unanswered despite plenty of new information trickling out over the past few months: Will Arcadeaholics attempt to land Cosmotrons in FECs like Dave and Buster’s, Round1USA, GattiTown, and Chuck-E-Cheese’s? While this is just my opinion, I think indie developers really need to take a good look at penetrating the FEC market. There are only so many barcades and retrocades out there. Eventually, indies will have to consider entering FECs if they want to be a part of one of the biggest sectors of the arcade industry.
Still, it’s exciting to see Cosmotrons rolling out. Hopefully, Arcadeaholics can achieve widespread success. Killer Queen Arcade (another indie title from BumbleBear Games) is already in 31 arcades with another location on the way. Skycurser (another indie title from Griffin Aerotech) is in 16 arcades. Cosmotrons, like these other games, is a fantastic arcade gaming experience; I’m sure that it can achieve the same success.
For more information about, well, everything, check out the official Cosmotrons website.
A look at some precious House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn footage
Back in January, I took a hugely in-depth look at the announcement of House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn, the fifth game in the iconic arcade series. Now that we’ve got some footage (which we’ve had for a while now, I’m just slow), I’d like to discuss it a bit more. Here’s a video from ThrowBack Tokyo feaking almost 19 minutes of precious gameplay footage and a look at the cabinet.
So far, I’ve been able to ascertain a few things. The cabinet looks beautiful—it’s a REAL looker. Because of its flashy cabinet design, I’m sure Scarlet Dawn is destined for a Western release. The gameplay definitely takes a lot of cues from The House of the Dead 4. Whether or not that is a problem depends on your tastes, but it looks fun to me. At least it isn’t some Let’s Go Island clone, am I right? And those Unreal Engine-powered graphics? They look pretty slick. And from what I heard, the music is going to be the kind of top-tier stuff the series is known for. (Magician Theme, anyone?) Naturally, the voice acting is still terrible. The House of the Dead 3 will go down as the only game in the series with good voice acting and a well-executed story. (The campiness is part of the fun.)
I suppose the only real concern anyone has right now is that there won’t be any gore. The first three House of the Dead games were all a bloody mess, but The House of the Dead 4 scrubbed things up a bit. Scarlet Dawn seems to have “dismemberment”, I guess; but in reality, zombies simply turn into burning embers when you kill them. It’s not gory, but as long as the gameplay is impeccable, we will survive—I promise.
If you’d like a little more House of the Dead goodness to hold you over, here’s the official JAEPO 2018 House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn trailer. I think I’ll keep my commentary to a minimum today so that you can derive your own conclusions from all of this footage. It’s more fun that way.
It looks totally fun, though. Color me hype.
So yeah, I guess that’s it. Get ready to play some Cosmotrons in the coming weeks, and get ready to play House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn in a few months. Also, if you missed the news, something else happened in February that blew everyone’s minds: The Exa-Arcadia kit system was announced. If you want to know more, check out my article on it. If you want to know more after that, check out the official Exa-Arcadia Twitter page, the official Exa-Arcadia website (which is kind of barren honestly), and these two Arcade Heroes articles. I’m here to share the arcade goodness!