Arcade News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom already has a descriptive name, but its new trailer omits it in favour of a better encapsulation of its pitch: "You're a N64 taxi and there's no jump button?". The video itself is sixty seconds of pure, colourful joy, and it ends on a release date: April 9th.

Capcom has shared a first trailer for Street Fighter 6's next playable fighter, Akuma, who'll be joining the game's steadily expanding line-up sometime this «spring».

Like returning to a beloved amusement park as an adult, Contra: Operation Galuga instantly reconnected me with the 2D run-and-gunners from the quarter-slinging arcade days of my youth. And just like revisiting a childhood fancy, I quickly remembered why I had so much fun with this series, while also feeling a bit underwhelmed by how little things have evolved in all that time. This reimagining of the original Contra offers a perfectly adequate modernization of a bonafide classic that makes for an enjoyable jaunt alongside your friends, but it’s also perhaps overly faithful to its predecessors, allowing for only the slightest tweaks. I don’t regret the handful of hours it took me and my buds to get through all of Operation Galuga, but it’s one of those games that’s likely to fade from my memory just as quickly.

I only had a handful of games growing up, but they were all I needed. I played games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Pitfall over and over again, without ever actually beating them. Instead, I was content to bang my head against them, learning a little more with each failure so I could get just a bit further on my next go-round. What I wouldn’t realize until I was much older was how short those games actually were. If I played my cards right, I could beat Sonic in under three hours. Pitfall, a game I played for years, was barely 40 minutes long. Difficulty meant value.

The ever-industrious Italian outfit Milestone is back with Monster Jam Showdown, which is due out on PS5 and PS4 later this year. Pitched as a comprehensive monster truck experience, with 40 rigs included in the base game and more to follow through free and premium add-on packs, the developer is promising to leverage its “technology and expertise [to] deliver an approachable yet rewarding experience”.

Epic has revealed the next titles it's giving away on the Epic Games Store, with Deux Ex: Mankind Divided and The Bridge getting the freebie treatment from Thursday, 14th March.

You know that it’s a busy year for gaming when a project by an industry legend launches with hardly any fanfare. That’s exactly what happened in February 2023 with Akka Arrh. Created by Jeff Minter and his eccentric studio Llamasoft, the neon-tinted shooter is a remake of a 1982 Atari game that never saw the light of day after being deemed too difficult. Minter got the greenlight to revive the project, bringing it to life as a retro arcade shooter built in his unmistakable style.

DISH-owned streaming service Sling TV announced today the launch of its new gaming platform called “Arcade,” featuring classic arcade games like Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Sweet Sugar, Solitaire Clash, Poker Online and Doodle Jump, among others.

Crema has announced that following updates 1.7 and 1.8, Temtem will not have any more major updates. The team has already confirmed that there will be no more new islands, more Tems, or new additions to multiplayer. In a lengthy open letter, Crema stated the reasons as to why this is the case, and that there is a new project in development, that is not Temtem: Swarm, nor is it a full on sequel.

Formally addressing community unrest stirred in part by recent comments from its CEO, Temtem developer Crema released a lengthy statement explaining the future of the game, why it's sort of but also not really an MMO, as well as the other games it's working on.

Suika is the puzzle gift that keeps on giving. The viral Watermelon Game that launched a thousand non-Switch-exclusive clones has added another promising offering to its line-up of Suika-like twists on the simple fruit-merging game.

Microsoft has revealed a new special edition SpongeBob Xbox Series X bundle that will be available in limited quantities through Best Buy Drops via the Best Buy mobile app.

Crema has announced that following updates 1.7 and 1.8, Temtem will not have any more major updates. The team has already confirmed that there will be no more new islands, more Tems, or new additions to multiplayer. In a lengthy open letter, Crema stated the reasons as to why this is the case, and that there is a new project in development, that is not Temtem: Swarm, nor is it a full on sequel.

Vampire Survivors received yet another update this past week. The Space-54 update adds two new characters, four new weapons, a new relic, and a new bonus stage. It also introduces cross-save support between Steam and Android to the Steam public beta branch.

Computer and video games are the largest and most lucrative form of media entertainment today. But it’s a mistake to think of games as a new phenomenon – at this point, their history stretches back over 50 years. Generations of gamers have grown up and passed on their love of gaming to their children. So why is it so hard to find and play the classic games we enjoyed in our youth?

Finn Wolfhard is often thought of as a good pick to play Link in the upcoming live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, but the Stranger Things star has another idea for a video game movie that probably wouldn’t have occurred to the majority of fans.

Nintendo 64 era-style collectathon platformer Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom will launch for PC via Steam in April, publisher Those Awesome Guys and developer Panik Arcade announced.

Another Thursday, another Epic Games Store freebie to add to your ever-growing backlog, this time in the form of stylish 3D side-scroller Never Yield.

Vampire Survivors might continue to be suspiciously devoid of vampires, but it does now have a bunch of new cosmic sci-fi bits (clearly last year's Among Us collaboration just wasn't space-y enough), courtesy of its latest free update on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and mobile.

Following its decision to cut six percent of its workforce last March, EA has announced another round of layoffs — this time affecting five percent of staff (around 670 employees) — as it moves away from «future licensed IP» toward its «owned IP, sports, and massive online communities».

If Sonic The Hedgehog had come out in the era of tilt controls, there’s every chance that it might have looked a bit like Tumble Rush. 

Today I'm all about discount deals and democracy manifest. Though discounts on it are scarce (beyond this 17% off one with the code OMEN17), Helldivers 2 still holds my attention like the vice-like pincers of a terminid warrior bug. Why? Because even in a squad of randos, you can experience heroic, heart-in-your-mouth moments like these.

It's been a long old wait for UFO 50 — the 50-strong anthology of 8-bit-inspired games from Spelunky creator Derek Yu's Mossmouth studio — but as the seventh anniversary of its announcement approaches this August, Yu has revealed the promising project is currently on track to release in the second half of this year.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Wrath of the Mutants has been announced for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. The game was previously an arcade only exclusive, and this marks the first time it will be available on console, GameMill Entertainment has stated. The beat-em up allows for solo players to go through the game themselves, or team up in four player co-op.

Developers Cradle Games and Raw Thrills as well as publisher GameMill Entertainment revealed today that the classic arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is coming to PC and consoles on April 23, 2024. This expanded version of the arcade beat-em-up marks the first time Wrath of the Mutants is available outside of arcade format.

We're now 20 years on from the release of The Simpsons: Hit & Run and we're still without a sequel. That said, we now have a nightmarish glimpse into what could have been, perhaps, with a Mario Kart parody sequence in the latest episode of the animated series.

It's been a hot minute since we last wrote about UFO 50, the 50-games-in-1 8-bit retro collection from the makers of Spelunky, Downwell and friends. It's been MIA for several years now (and no wonder, given these are 50 full-sized games being made by several different, and likely very busy, developers), but at long last, Spelunky creator Derek Yu has posted an update on Steam saying the project is finally nearing completion. "We should have a complete game in a few months but are planning for a release in the second half of the year to give us time to do more testing and then marketing," he said.

is getting a home release, with the arcade title officially coming to consoles and PC later this year.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is coming to Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC on April 23. The arcade game being ported to new platforms is just the latest development in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles news.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants, the 2017 arcade game by Raw Thrills based on the 2012 Nickelodeon TV series, is coming to all home consoles (read: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam) on April 23. It'll be priced at $29.99.

New trademarks from Bandai Namco hint at potential revivals for classic titles such as Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and Splatterhouse. Bandai Namco may be taking cues from some of SEGA's upcoming reboots and remakes, as both companies have been renewing trademarks for a slew of classic IPs.

A number of developers have expressed uncertainty over the future of Apple Arcade.

A new report claims that the payments made to game developers for their Apple Arcade releases have declined significantly over the years, which has apparently left some concerned for the service’s future. 

The indie studio behind last year's incredible Saltsea Chronicles has halted production entirely, citing difficulty securing funding.

What happens when you combine two great puzzle games? You get one puzzle game which makes me, an accredited professional fool, feel dizzy with noncomprehension. That game is Sokobond Express, which launched yesterday and combines the atom-shoving chemistry of Sokobond with the route-planning puzzling of Cosmic Express. So you have to draw paths around a grid to gather atoms to correctly build a desired molecule. That's all. Just molecular chemistry and pathing, at the same time. Oh, my poor foolish head.

To borrow from Game of Thrones, Minter is coming (please read that in Ned Stark's voice). Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story — an interactive documentary experience for PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch — will release next month, on 13th March.

There have never been more Mario games available on a single console than on Nintendo Switch. There are brand-new entries in the core 2D and 3D series; numerous spinoffs, sports, and party games; a few remakes, including the freshly released Mario vs. Donkey Kong; the best-selling Mario game ever, in the shape of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; plus a roster of classic titles on Nintendo Switch Online as it has expanded to include NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance titles — including among them what are indubitably some of the greatest video games ever made.

Behaviour Interactive has revealed Dead by Daylight's next chapter, All Things Wicked. 

As part of today’s Nintendo Direct, the company announced that five titles from former partner Rare’s back catalog are releasing on their Nintendo Switch Online service.

Heads up! As part of today’s Nintendo Direct, it was announced that Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On, the previously Apple Arcade exclusive remake of the 2014 3DS title, is releasing on Nintendo Switch today.

Why I Love is a series of guest editorials on GamesIndustry.biz intended to showcase the ways in which game developers appreciate each other's work. This entry was contributed by Sigtrap co-founders Gary Lloyd and Luke Thompson, who launched the Time Crisis-inspired Under Cover on Meta Quest earlier this month.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Microsoft are bringing Maneater back to Game Pass. Yesterday they unveiled the next batches of Game Pass additions and two are returnees, with the delightful fighty platformer Indivisible accompanying brutal shark 'em up Maneater. What's more important is that it's adding the game with the cutest little Nurglings, grimdark retro-styled FPS Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. The rhetoric of 'purging xenos and heretics' surely doesn't apply to these darling babies. Read on for all the games coming to (and going from) Game Pass over the next few weeks.

Temtem was a brief mega-hit when it launched in Early Access back in 2020, as a Pokémon-like that was both online and on PC. Now it's getting its own "survivor-like bullet heaven" spin-off called Temtem: Swarm.

Another action-packed week has come to a conclusion, but it doesn't look like many of you will be playing the latest hot release, Skull & Bones. In fact, it's last week's hot new thing Helldivers 2 that's remaining incredibly popular among our team.

Sony’s continuing to bring a hearty helping of emulated classics to PS5 and PS4 courtesy of its PS Plus Premium subscription, and alongside Resistance Retribution, it’ll be adding Jet Moto 2 from 20th February. The original game in the SingleTrac series is already available on the Japanese giant’s contemporary consoles, but this sequel is much more ambitious, with zanier course designs including an active volcano and a dilapidated American city.

SEGA is cooking a new Crazy Taxi game, among several other reboots or revivals. While little information is known about this rebooted arcade driving outing, an interview with its recently established Sapporo studio reveals it’s contributing to the project, which it describes as a AAA title.

It’s been eight years since Street Fighter V hit PC. As you might recall, the fighting game landed with the poise of someone shattering both kneecaps on impact, as complaints about a small roster of characters and barebones story mode - to be filled in later with DLC - were made more egregious by a number of technical issues, including bugs and online issues caused by its wobbly servers.

New arcade shoot 'em up Nidus first caught my eye with its psychedelic bug blast on Screenshot Saturday Monday. Three months later, it has now launched, and for a mere £6 we can all fill our eyes with so many colourful insects. You'd have to pay at least £57 for that sort of fun down the pet shop.

Sega has called its Crazy Taxi reboot a triple-A game.

Capcom has shared a post to celebrate the eighth anniversary of Street Fighter 5, where it apologised for the game's original state at launch.

Ah, Star Wars Arcade. No, not that Star Wars Arcade game. Not that one, either. I’m talking about the 1993 Star Wars Arcade created by Sega. Except I’m not. I’m talking about the 1994 port for the Sega 32X.

Those who adore retro fighting and arcade games should check out this month’s Capcom Humble Bundle. It provides 70 games, including Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Final Fight, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Darkstalkers: The Night Walkers, and many more Capcom titles.

Humble is currently offering a massive bundle that includes every mainline Street Fighter title and over 50 other classic Capcom arcade games for just $20. While the list of games included is truly massive, you’ll also get a 34% discount coupon for Street Fighter 6, the most recent entry in the legendary fighting game franchise.

Apple confirmed three more Apple Arcade titles that will get the spatial game treatment for Apple Vision Pro soon: Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, and Spire Blast.

February's Steam Next Fest demo bonanza officially concluded on Monday, and Valve have now revealed the 50 most played games you all tucked into across the week-long event. Ordered by the number of unique players that spent time with them during Next Fest proper (meaning all those early demo plays from earlier in the month haven't been counted), the most popular game of the lot was one that was only formally announced right at the end of January. So congratulations Dungeonborne - your blend of PvPvE dungeon crawling and fantasy skelly monsters clearly struck a chord with this year's Next Festers.

We’ve reached that stage in the Switch’s life cycle when Nintendo — never averse to raiding its back catalog for material in the first instance — is liberally pulling old titles off the shelf to remake and pad out the aging machine’s release schedule, while its core development teams presumably focus on software for the hybrid console’s successor.

This article is sponsored by War Thunder, get it on PC for free here or through the PlayStation and Xbox store.

Capcom has updated its list of “Platinum Titles“—games that have sold over one million units—providing total sales numbers as of December 31, 2023.

We weren't expecting Turbo Golf Racing to wind up on PS5, but we're happy it's coming. Yes, the arcade sports title, which has you racing in a car to sink your giant golf ball as fast as possible, has been announced for Sony's system, and it's coming in Q2 of this year (April to June).

Venerable publisher SEGA has been around for a long time. It was founded, appropriately enough, in Hawaii back in 1960. In its latest game, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (which ventures to the tropical locale), SEGA couldn't help but give itself a pat on the back via a fourth-wall-breaking conversation between protagonists Ichiban Kazuga and Kazuma Kiryu.

The Little Mermaid's Ariel has stopped by Disney Speedstorm, the hero-based combat racing game inspired by Disney and Pixar worlds.

Xbox 360 Arcade enjoyers might have fond memories of Geometry Wars, a series of excellent top-down bullet hell shooters that's since made its way to other platforms. Now it's back! Kind of. One Steam Next Fest demo unofficially emulates the series' blinding neon style and inserts it into the Vampire Survivors formula. 

The ’80s and early ’90s were a haven for a very specific type of arcade side-scroller. Ripped heroes brandished blades and vile wizards attempted to stop them at every turn, and that spirit is very much alive in Abathor, which is available to try out as part of Steam Next Fest.

Street Fighter 6‘s third DLC character, Ed, will be released on February 27, Capcom has confirmed.

Beefy boxer Ed joins the Street Fighter 6 roster on 27th February.

Visual Concepts Austin, the 2K Games studio behind sports franchises including WWE and NBA, as well as last year’s kart racing game Lego 2K Drive, has reportedly laid off a number of employees. The cuts come fewer than six months after the last round of layoffs at the Texas outlet.

Rockstar Games has initiated a new weekly event in GTA Online, commencing today, February 8, 2024, in the bustling city of Los Santos. As part of this event, players worldwide are being treated to enticing discounts on various in-game purchases, extending until Valentine's Day on February 14, 2024. This promotional period presents an opportunity for players to make significant savings when acquiring new vehicles or investing in the lucrative Arcade business property.

Sega has reported poor financial results for the past quarter, due to the «weak» performance of some recent releases.

With the release of Tekken 8, I’ve been at a bit of a crossroads. I had no clue what controller I wanted to use to learn and beat the rest of the competition. A standard Xbox controller? PlayStation’s DualSense? A fightstick? Or maybe it’s time I looked to the future and tried out a hitbox controller? That last option is the one I’d ultimately go with, thanks to the Razer Kitsune.

The Year of the Dragon is here, featuring the return of fan-favorite Mischief and Magic prop hunt, past Lunar New Year game modes, new rewards, and all new skins in the shop. Read on to discover what adventures and rewards await when you log onto Overwatch 2.

Retro specialist Hamster Corporation has announced that it has reached 400 titles in its Arcade Archives series.

Bloodborne Kart is a fan game which aims to use From Software's gothic horror action RPG as the basis for a PSone-era kart racer. Or it was. Its developers say that Sony have been in touch and, as a consequence, "need to scrub the branding off." It'll stil come out after it a short delay, but it won't be called Bloodborne Kart anymore.

The April Fool's joke brought to life, Bloodborne Kart, has had to postpone its release following «contact» from IP owners Sony.

There are no current plans to bring Rec Room — the social VR app that's part meeting place, part mini-game hub featuring sporting events, fantastical quests and even games of Charades — to PlayStation VR2. This is because the studio behind it (also known as Rec Room) simply «can't justify the cost», despite its popularity.

Tekken 8's story mode and character episodes have confirmed a popular fan theory that Reina is the illegitimate daughter of the former face of the series - Heihachi Mishima

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth has rebranded all of Kamurucho and Hawaii's Club Sega arcades into GiGo arcades, reflecting a real-life change from 2022.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a labyritnhine Metroidvania with a sprawling map crammed with upgrades like Soma Petals that expand your health bar, Damascus Ingots, those pesky little silver rectangles that are used to give your attacks more power, and many other collectibles that make your life easier as you explore the mysterious ancient kingdom filled with timey-wimey mystery.

Berserk Boy first appeared on Steam in 2022 and immediately impressed as a fast-paced action platformer inspired by classics such as Mega Man. Then it vanished from Steam - and re-appeared, and vanished again, and so on.

While the game may not look too different from past entries in the series, Tekken 8 comes with a lot of new features that can help you get better at the game. Alongside the enhanced Replay features, which provide players some tips on how to improve their gameplay, the latest entry in the series features Ghosts, fighters who recreate the fighting style of real players with the power of AI.