We’ve had another delivery at Blackpool and it’s a good one. Actually, it’s several good ones, ranging from enormous multiplayer arcade machines and Japanese rhythm games to something involving a stick, some coloured balls and absolutely no electricity whatsoever. More on that technological marvel shortly...
First up is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Arcade Edition, SEGA’s arcade take on the Mario and Sonic Olympic series and exactly the sort of game that belongs in Blackpool. Pick your character, pick an event, then BAM, its go time.
Then there’s Tank! Tank! Tank!, Namco’s wonderfully daft multiplayer tank game. You drive a tank, blow enormous things up and, most importantly, blow each other up. It’s big, colourful, noisy and built for a group of people standing around shouting terrible tactical advice at one another.
StepManiaX has arrived too, It’s easy enough to get on and have a go, but like all good rhythm games there’s a fairly terrifying skill ceiling waiting for anyone who decides to take it seriously.
Joining it is CHUNITHM, SEGA’s Japanese rhythm game from 2015. This one uses a touch-sensitive panel alongside motion sensors that detect your hands above it, so you’re tapping, sliding, holding and throwing your hands into the air as notes come towards you. You'll look slightly unhinged playing it no doubt, but hey, thats the fun part!
And then we have Dark Escape 4D, which has already been a favourite at Bury and Leeds and has finally made the trip to the seaside. It’s a two-player horror shooter set in a particularly unpleasant haunted asylum, played inside a huge enclosed cabinet with 3D glasses, vibrating seats, air blasts and even heart-rate sensors built into the handles. Yes, the machine knows when it’s frightening you. Which feels like information it really shouldn’t be allowed to have...
There’s a new pinball arrival too, with Stern’s brand new Pokémon Pinball joining the Blackpool line-up. We probably don’t need to work particularly hard to sell you on the words Pokémon and pinball appearing next to each other, so we won’t. Makes this writers job much easier!
And finally, after years spent hunting down rare Japanese imports, restoring classic arcade hardware and moving enormous machines around the country, we’ve made perhaps our most ambitious acquisition yet.
A pool table. We know. It's about time.
Get some.
