Day 3 means the home stretch for our coverage of AAA 2025 in China, but it is going to be a long one, rounding up all the other, smaller names who attended the show. Those that had more major new titles on offer can all be found up top, with the latter part of the post covering the rest, from China-only oddities to a few nods for redemption and VR (which is less our focus here).<\/p>\n
Massive thanks one more time to Oga-Shi from Sega Amusements<\/a>, without whom our coverage of Chinese shows would be so much worse off, as well as Ted for bringing it all together. Check out AAA 2025 Day 1 (Wahlap and Bandai Namco) and Day 2 (UNIS and Ace) here<\/a> and here<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n Going by alphabetical order, we first have one of a few proponents of original Chinese rhythm games in this post. Whilst Wahlap sell the officially licensed Japanese games that started it all, this doesn\u2019t stop China\u2019s factories from doing their own thing, and as some rhythm gamers have come to know, Arccer are now one of the most established examples of those (with an additional throughline in pushers \u2013 Bandai Namco sell Tower Island <\/em>by them out West, and they had a couple new ones here).<\/p>\n As well as their Dance Battle<\/em> riff on DanceRush<\/em> out front, the main showcase for Arccer at AAA 2025 was the latest version to their Dance Cube<\/em> rhythm game, Dance Cube Show Evo<\/em>. This series has been going since the 2010s, and was partly made because Sega stopped selling Maimai officially in China for a little while. Evo updates the game\u2019s newest hexagonal-based cabinets, which debuted this past couple years, naturally adding a ton more music and such. By all accounts, it\u2019s evolved into its own thing now, which the company has to be happy about:<\/p>\n Interestingly Arccer seem to have gone above and beyond in promoting this, not just with the display you see there, as TRG, a noted overseas Maimai player who performed well in the game\u2019s recent official tournaments, posted a ton about the game online<\/a> and even appears to have been invited to their headquarters<\/a>. Could it get a proper shot outside China? The biggest issue is whether the music licensing is actually legit\u2026 but a few locations have already started to get their hands on it via some<\/em> sort of means.<\/a><\/p>\n Baohui have been going for about as long as veterans like Wahlap and UNIS on the Chinese scene, but aren\u2019t quite as big or well-known out West. Still, they have worked with names like IGS in the past, and are repeating that with their big debut at AAA 2025: Speed Rider 4DX<\/em>. Previous entries in this series have had some international representation (3 and 3DX were brought to the US by Fun Hoops around 2019<\/a>, although they didn\u2019t seem to sell well), so maybe this one will get a chance too.<\/p>\n The cabinet for this sequel feels like a number of recent racers bunched together \u2013 in shape and size, it looks very<\/em> close to Asphalt Moto Blitz DX,<\/em> but the dot matrix marquee above with the course map brings Apex Rebels to mind. That perhaps runs the risk of blending in too much with the competition, but it should still stand out in action with all the lights and perhaps some new gameplay features.<\/p>\n Though the different names may be confusing to anyone not familiar with them already, all you need to know with Flamestone\/Leon Amusement is that they generally originated the comeback trend for shooting gallery games with metal guns over the past few years. That\u2019s not all there is to them though, as they have been branching out with other shooting games such as Thunderbolt Attack<\/em>, and that approach seems to be continuing from what we\u2019ve seen of their AAA 2025 booth here.<\/p>\n As well as the four player shooter seen at the front of the photo there, the bigger shooter that they debuted was Dragon Knight<\/em>. This appears to be the first traditional stacked two screen mounted gun shooter \u2013 Godzilla Kaiju Wars<\/em>\u2018 cabinet has two also, but only for spectator display purposes of course. In fact this seems to share some small similarities with that, though they look like more subtle design choices than out and out copying (the game itself, like Ace\u2019s Dragon Kingdom<\/em><\/a> from yesterday, seems more like Drakons Realm Keepers<\/em>). It\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess as to who might sell this out West, although at some point I expect someone to slap a Dragonheart<\/em> license onto one of these dragon games, or maybe Eragon<\/em>.<\/p>\n Like Baohui just above, HY Technology ended up in our recent GTI Southeast Asia coverage<\/a>, but like most companies who attended that show, they had a much bigger booth here. That said, they didn\u2019t seem to have anything new-new (at least in video games), however what was there is still interesting. As mentioned previously, they have partnered with Sega Amusements to bring some of their pieces to China, and a big example of that is the Chinese version of Apex Rebels<\/em> on behalf of them and 3MindWave.<\/p>\n The interesting thing with this one is that besides some design differences, there are the smaller 45\u2033 screen cabinets which were initially promoted out West, but quietly fell off the radar. These do still use the motion base and a LED dot matrix marquee, so the difference in cost wouldn\u2019t be huge, but hopefully a more cut-down, cheaper version could still happen for us too. Then on the other hand, the second game out of this partnership, Bop It! Arcade, <\/em>looks much the same besides the Chinese text:<\/p>\n Back to rhythm games now, as this company who is only now being covered for the first time debuted not just one, but two brand new titles in the genre. In recent years we\u2019ve only came to expect those from Arccer, but the rising success of such titles and the imports from Wahlap has clearly spurred others on to ship out fresh product to compete.<\/p>\n One is the revival of an old name that some longtime dance gamers might be familiar with \u2013 Dance Super Station E5<\/em>. This series has appeared overseas from time to time, but never consistently. At first glance it seems like it is getting the StepManiaX<\/em> DX treatment in a sleeker, more LED lights-heavy cabinet, but the game instruction standees suggest there are a lot of changes to the gameplay too:<\/p>\n Then we have their brand new Stellar Echo<\/em>. This is clearly an attempt to compete with Sega\u2019s Chunithm<\/a>, which Wahlap only started selling officially in China a few years back. It\u2019s to the extent where a cabinet render actually displayed a game screen from it\u2026<\/a> which might not please those at Sega Japan. The game itself is slightly different to that though, using pad controls too and some sort of strange vending feature.<\/p>\n Last up among the big companies who have been around for a while is Superwing. They have slowly been coming up on the Western rails ever since they made Ice Man<\/em>, which popularized that omnipresent genre of kids redemption water gun shooters. Other pieces of theirs like Smash DX<\/em> have came out over here via the likes of LAI Games, and every year they seem to have something new which could release in the same way (though not all of it does). They did have a booth of their own at last IAAPA, and that showcased a Air Strike<\/em>-like piece called Skywalk<\/em>, which already has a sequel. I came across them in the last hour of that show however, and wasn\u2019t able to get any decent footage of the games they had on hand.<\/p>\n It seems they have moved on somewhat from the kiddie water games too, as not only do they now have a sci-fi themed environmental shooter called The Future<\/em> (which was revealed last year, and released in China recently), their new effort in this space is Mini World<\/em>. This obviously borrows Minecraft\u2019s blocky art style, and makes the lesser seen choice of supporting three players on the same motion platform:<\/p>\n Superwing are also another company to be jumping on the two screens bandwagon, as they have produced a title similar to Ace\u2019s Bikers Madness<\/em> in the form of Flash Rider<\/em>. More original however is the alternate cabinet to the right which uses a vertical screen \u2013 you don\u2019t often see motorbike racers with those.<\/p>\n Now onto all the odds, ends, and downright bizarre things that caught our eyes and Oga\u2019s from AAA 2025. There always seems to be plenty of that to go around, though from here on out, expect little to none of these games to leave the confines of China.<\/p>\n First off, you may remember that last year\u2019s AAA Expo saw the showcase of several mysterious multigame cabinets,<\/a> with a heavy focus on SNK\u2019s fighters and the somewhat dubious claim on their booth that they were officially licensed. This year, a number of sleek-looking new ones with LED dot matrix marquees (and a big old Sega Megalo-like cabinet) appeared on the booth of Quanhun Entertainment<\/a>, plus with that, some more information on what\u2019s going on here.<\/p>\n The long story short is that these are<\/em> officially licensed, but only<\/strong> for Chinese sales. This is apparently a case where SNK China has managed to approve everything here, against the best wishes of the head office over in Japan. How that has happened is unknown, but the main crux of it is that they clearly have some bizarre interregional power dynamic issues still going on. To make matters worse, Oga said their catalogues didn\u2019t even make it clear that these are only approved for Chinese sales\u2026<\/p>\n This deal they have with SNK China even extends to newer King of Fighters titles now, which is a bit of a surprise. It would be doubly surprising if these are actual arcade versions of them though and not just an existing one retrofitted into this big cabinet (the DLC screen here seems to indicate that is indeed the case).<\/p>\n If anyone is playing the \u2018two screens\u2019 drinking game, they must be getting tipsy, as for our third example of that in this post (and fifth across all of AAA 2025\u2026), Yuto Games are stacking those screens up too in their new Crazy Drift<\/em> racing game. Surprisingly, this has a more creative use for them, with a rear-view mirror up top and positive affirmations scrolling across as you drive. Rear-view mirrors have never really been prolific in even single screen games though, as most don\u2019t seem to care anyway (only Sega Rally<\/em> and the first-person view in Maximum Tune 5DX+<\/em> come to mind). If you have LinkedIn, you can see this one in action by clicking here,<\/a>\u00a0or there\u2019s this direct capture on YouTube that only shows a single screen<\/a>.<\/p>\n One company covered a bit as part of last month\u2019s GTI Southeast Asia Expo was Joint Fun, who only featured for the first time on the blog last year (none of what they have made has had any major representation overseas yet). Most of their newer games were represented well there, but one that debuted at AAA 2025 is this Saga of Knight<\/em>, which goes for a concept we don\u2019t see often: knighting crossed with horse riding. Oga also sent over a photo of a game by another company using this concept, so interest must be peaking in it, but not confusingly at all (!) it uses the same name as the earlier Dragon Knight<\/em> shooter.<\/p>\n A third new rhythm game now, with this being represented by at least one company that we saw at the GTI Southeast Asia Expo last month (Raisefun). Magic Sound<\/em> has a similar basic shape to Stellar Echo<\/em> above, but is completely controlled by touchscreen, a choice that though prolific with arcade rhythm games during the 2010s (think ReRave<\/em> etc) is less so nowadays. This is also an example where we\u2019re not sure who actually developed it, as Oga couldn\u2019t find that information anywhere, and it looked like it was set up in as many as two or three different booths at the show.<\/p>\n One of the remaining virtual reality companies out there who we haven\u2019t mentioned before is EnjoySport. They showed off a few VR Agent<\/em>-like cabinets seen below, with the difference of them being a lot more sci-fi\/UFO looking. In the background you can additionally see the sequel to a 3D glasses shooting game called Galaxy Squad<\/em> (also known as Interstellar Team<\/em>), which was seen on test in the UK a while ago but disappeared after that. Everything that had been seen of it before pointed towards this being a Superwing game, but it appearing here with the logo of another company (Maiteng Animation) is all very strange:<\/p>\n Now onto a couple redemption-focused producers, as though they are not our niche here at AH, some are growing. The biggest example of that would be Playmore, whose salvo of pushers has been coming over via LAI Games, and others like Sega Amusements have been doing business with them too on their High Five<\/em> crane. At AAA 2025 they unveiled three more pushers which we\u2019ll likely see soon with a license rebrand:<\/p>\n The other big name in pushers is Tong-Li, who have worked with Andamiro and UNIS in making their successful releases in that genre. Even if redemption was covered more, in this case a lot of their new original products would not be shown, as they all had photo sharing bans. It seems that they are rapidly expanding about as much as both Playmore and Ace though, from the sounds of things:<\/p>\n As they\u2019re still worth a brief nod, here\u2019s also one of the innumerable neon crane manufacturers out there these days, Yingpin. There has been a huge volume of locations focused on these opening up in the West over the past months, but that boom now seems to have burst somewhat (a few AH readers have said how they\u2019ve seen places near them closing within weeks of opening, and their equipment flooding the used market). Cold feet over the tariff situation or a novelty already worn off? You decide\u2026<\/p>\n Finally, a few more unusual AAA 2025 things that Oga highlighted for us (there were others, but these are the best). One is this huge armored jeep-based shooter, with support for not just two but four players. This weirdly has the vibes of games we might have randomly seen out of China some 10-15 years ago.<\/p>\n Someone has clearly been studying the old Sega Super Circuit<\/em><\/a> attraction from many years ago, as this all but brings that concept back to the fore again:<\/p>\n Elsewhere was this retro 8-bit style card game cabinet, which Oga took a shine to. Apparently he wants to change the cabinet to a mid-century style, and use Shogun<\/em> or something similar as background music\u2026<\/p>\n Then possibly the strangest of all: a digital\/electromechanical hybrid golfing simulator, where when you pull the tee handle, the golfer doll below swings. But if that wasn\u2019t enough, if you score a shot, a little pigeon comes out of the cabinet! According to Oga, \u201cThis is what an arcade should be like\u201d:<\/p>\n All in all, it looks as if AAA 2025 was a definite success. Despite the fluid challenges posed by the tariffs situation, it sounds like there was still an increase in English speakers at booths compared to pre-COVID-19 times, which is good news. And although the number of Japanese-made products has decreased there, the merchandising of Japan-originated IPs by various companies might mean increased interaction with players and fans compared to previous years for the Chinese factories.<\/p>\n One key trend Oga pointed out to us after the show ended was that most companies are exploring various themes after a phase of car racing games, moving on to bikes, dragons, and airplanes. This reminded him of the NAOMI era at Sega and the wider Japanese arcade industry when various offbeat themes emerged. While it\u2019s easy to welcome this diversity, it can\u2019t be forgotten that trend coincided with a wider decline for the industry over there. Still, hopefully it ignites more creativity in this case.<\/p>\n In tandem with that, Oga also predicted the further rise in combination of physicality and IP in card and game content. With the prominence of things like Cyberpunk 2077 Turf Wars\u2019 shooting range and card games, he believes there will be a further acceleration in arcade experiences that cannot be replicated at home. This leads on to an important observation from myself\u2026<\/p>\n Once again, we have seen a significant draw backward in virtual reality products, with perhaps more innovation on the AR\/MXR side.<\/a> I don\u2019t find this surprising, given that it seems to be happening across the board right now, but the silence from all of the \u201cVR will replace all other displays!\u201d crowd is noticeable. I\u2019ve already seen a few from that group move those ever-mobile VR goalposts to some other place where it is sure to rule the world next. I wouldn\u2019t buy their promises personally (how many times can VR acolytes pull the \u201cfoooooled you!\u201d<\/a> bit?), although I would leave room for the occasional<\/em> VR success like Godzilla and hopefully Alpha Ops VR Strike<\/em> soon in the arcade arena.<\/p>\n To anyone who still believes it, maybe stop acting like Ready Player One<\/em> is the future \u2013 it is not, at least on our watch. The Holodeck (aka Mixed Reality) holds that promise better because it doesn\u2019t require wearable hardware in a public situation. Nowhere had tried to embrace the VR arcade idea as much as China did, so it is telling that they have decided that it\u2019s not for them either. Although the people who made bank off of it when the technology became hot again sure aren\u2019t complaining.<\/p>\n A more immediate trend should be obvious for what we can expect to see more of \u2013 dual-screens, microLED dot matrix displays, and motion seats. These would also fall under \u201cSimulated Reality\u201d, in that simulating a real-world activity doesn\u2019t go out of style, but it is a challenge to find new ways to innovate that without being derivative of others. A number of photos seen out of the show (which mostly aren\u2019t featured here) did display some very obvious clones and rip-offs by other companies, using the exact same hardware and software as existing pieces\u2026 which is a shame, but somewhat inevitable.<\/p>\n Also trending harder are rhythm games, from those officially licensed examples carried by Wahlap to the newer homegrown Chinese games detailed here. It\u2019s to the point where you have to wonder if anyone in the West is looking at rejoining the fray, given the success of StepManiaX and the big Japanese titles starting to come over; only time will tell on that front (and if the Chinese companies can get their act together with licensing songs properly for their own overseas rollout), though.<\/p>\n In closing, AAA 2025 being a generally strong show is good for the industry at large, and there\u2019s still a decent chance that many of these games will find their way over here. Thanks as always to our true blue Arcade Hero Oga-san for all the photos and insight on them \u2013 which of those seen over the course of these three days would you like to see at your local arcade?<\/p>\nArccer<\/h3>\n
![\"Arccer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/arccer-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dancecube-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBaohui<\/h3>\n
![\"Baohui](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/baohui-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4dx-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFlamestone \/ Leon Amusement<\/h3>\n
![\"Flamestone\/Leon](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/leon-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dragon-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHY Technology<\/h3>\n
![\"Apex](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/apex-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bopit-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLilian<\/h3>\n
![\"Lilian](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/lilian-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/e5-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/chuni-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSuperwing<\/h3>\n
![\"Superwing](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/superwing-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mini-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C424&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/flashr-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Rest<\/h3>\n
![\"SNK\/King](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/snkc-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/snkc-aaa-2025-2.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/snkc-aaa-2025-3.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yuto-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/knight-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/rhythm-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/enjoysports-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/playmore-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tongli-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/yingpin-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/jeep-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/circuit-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/card-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arcadeheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/golf-aaa-2025.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOverall<\/h3>\n
Like this:<\/h3>\n