Updates on the New Tipsy Raccoons Promotional Video; the StepManiaX Location Test; and Gaming Club Y
Why, hello there, my little sweaty nerds. ‘Tis been too long since we last met—a week, in fact. Today, I’ve got a pretty quick news article for you, but I hope you’ll enjoy it. Two are our favorite games here at Wilcox Arcade—Tipsy Raccoons and StepManiaX—are back in the news, and for good reason. But I’m sure you could tell by the title, couldn’t you?
Okay go.
Glitchbit has uploaded a new-and-improved promotional video for the full arcade release of Tipsy Raccoons.
On August 17th, Glitchbit uploaded a “Tipsy Raccoons Drinkcade Explanation” video to their YouTube channel, describing the game features and encouraging operating to purchase a unit. While it wasn’t exactly the highest of quality, it was still professional enough and gave us an awesome overview of the title. Here’s what I picked up.
Obviously, the drinking game portion is still the main shtick. Players set a beverage container into the cupholder to join the game and are prompted to take a sip after each round. One really cool new bit is that the game actually monitors how big each sip is. If a player takes too large of a sip, the game will be terminated. A drinking game that monitors the drinking—what a novelty!
Traditional cash payment is also an option for family-friendly locations and/or regions that don’t allow drinking games. There are several different game modes that can be fiddled with in the operator settings, including Free Play, Drinking Game, Drinking and Cash, 1-Drink Minimum, and Cash Play. I personally think Drinking and Cash will be the most appealing option for players in venues outside of bars. Imagine if you were at a little pizza joint—or heck, a Chuck-E-Cheese’s—and you could still do all the drinking stuff while paying for the game through traditional means? I’d absolutely love that.
Tipsy Raccoons already features “dozens” of minigames, but Glitchbit promises to add more every month through free online content update. They promise no hidden fees—just connect that bad dude to the Internet and you’re set. Minigames will include fun little Raccoon versions of fishing, golf, basketball, and much more. Plus, there are little trivia bit in-between rounds. I’m really excited for the trivia segments. The question we saw in the trailer was, “What is the best-selling video game of all time?” so I imagine we’re in for a nerdy treat.
Even if the promo didn’t have the best…audio quality, it was still such a fantastic video. I am so incredibly hyped for Tipsy Raccoons—more so than I’ve ever been. After watching more gameplay footage and listening to all the deets, I’m convinced that it will be wicked cool. Tipsy Racoons looks like good, silly fun, and I love it.
StepManiaX is now officially on location test—and totally killing it.
This is really, really good news, kiddos. Just last week, Step Revolution released an official promotional flyer for the arcade release of StepManiaX with an announcement that it would be on location test as soon as what was then next week. With that, our dreams were finally realized: coin-op SMX was going to be a thing. All we had to do was wait.
Oh, look at that. The wait is over.
The arcade version of Kyle Ward’s fancy new rhythm game is available to play at 8 On The Break in Dunellen, New Jersey and—get this—Timezone Plaza Singapura in Singapore. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, people are going nuts for it. There's this awesome photo of players swarming 8 On The Break to get themselves some SMX goodness. (Part of that might have to do with both Bemanistyle and DDR Community promoting the game on Twitter, though. Heh-heh.)
Most of the feedback I’ve seen online has been overwhelmingly positive. There’s been lots of praise for the user-interface (which does look quite cool), the cabinet, and, of course, the gameplay. I, from day one, assumed StepManiaX would be a kick-butt game. And though I haven't gotten to play it myself just yet, it really does seem like this is the dancing game we’ve been waiting for.
But honestly, why wouldn't it be a success? We dancing game players have been starved for arcade arrow-based goodness for far too long. Sure, we have Pump It Up Prime 2 and Dance Dance Revolution A, but Pump is slightly more obscure and DDR A locations are incredibly sparse outside of Japan. Step Revolution saw the problem and solved it with StepManiaX. The community is simply repaying the favor by, you know, playing the frick out of it.
These are exciting times, kiddos. I really can’t wait to see how StepManiaX does once the full release comes around. In the meantime, make sure to support the location test!
Year Three of Arcade and Retro Gaming Club begins this Wednesday!
My sweaty nerd video game club is back at my high school starting this Wednesday, August 22nd! It’s been so fun doing this every year. In all truth, it’s mostly an excuse to hang out and play video games after school, but I’ve made a lot of good friends because of it. If you’re curious, here are the two promotional flyers I’ve made so far:
It’s gonna really bittersweet when I graduate and leave Gaming Club behind. Luckily, I’ve got a good friend who can take over for me. Hopefully, Gaming Club will live on forever, even in my absence! Talk about a flippin’ legacy, right there.
Do you ever just stop and think to yourself, “Man, we really are in an arcade resurgence, aren’t we?” Because I do. All the cool stuff that’s happened within this decade would have been completely unfathomable in the 2000s. Things were so different then. But boy howdy, am I excited for the future.
So, with all of that being said, I’m leaving.
Goodbye.