Pratt Shares About Pinball, Games & More
by Adam Pratt, Arcade Galactic & ArcadeHeroes.com
Spring is here once again, and with the flowers blooming and temps rising, people will hopefully be out and about looking for fun. The winter was an odd one. Most of the eastern U.S. was battered by cold and snow, while the western U.S. felt like it skipped winter and lazily held spring instead. Here in Utah, we had record-low snowfall, which is not a good spot to be in for the summer when you live in a desert.
I may sound a bit like a broken record lately, but my mall arcade business hasn’t been the greatest. Thankfully, it’s been stable, but the issues I’ve been experiencing the past few years remain unresolved. I have explored moving, which would really change things up, but I need more capital to make that realistic.
One thing we’ve continued to do that has helped maintain stability is run pinball tournaments. In February, we had a tournament on three of the four Saturdays – all organized by local pinball fans. If you have pinball machines and some regulars, it’s worth talking with them to see if they’re willing and able to organize tournaments for your location. It’s one of the few things that helps my pinball games make some money.
Also, I finally made the jump and got a card system, choosing Amusement Connect. Here’s where I am right now: I had limited funds, so I couldn’t get a reader for every game (I have 25 readers and 72 game cabinets to convert), and I also haven’t installed all of the readers I do have yet. Because I have fewer readers than games, I can’t gut the coin mechs from all machines (some of them have no space for both coin slots and a reader). So, I’m in a bit of limbo right now, hoping to find the money to add the other 50 or so readers, get them fully operational, and enjoy the higher earnings.
On to the Show
As you read this, we just had Amusement Expo, where there were more new games than we usually see. But I’m writing this before AEI, so I can only go so deep into the latest amusements and will ask you to tune in next month for a more detailed rundown.
It is typical to see a lot of IAAPA repeats at Amusement Expo, and that’s not a bad thing, especially if you didn’t make it to the Orlando show. And even if you did, you might not have had a lot of time to play the games, so it’s nice to get another chance at it.
Games I checked out at IAAPA that I’d like to play a bit more include Raw Thrills’ Godzilla Kaiju Wars DX, Wahlap’s Storm Racer 2, Bandai Namco’s Speed Rider 4DX, and exA-Arcadia’s Baki Hanma Blood Arena. Each of these impressed me in some way, whether through their graphics, sound, gameplay, cabinet, or a combination of all four. They’d all be on my game room floor if I had the budget.
I hope Bandai Namco had Resident Evil 2: Arcade on hand, since it was to begin testing in Tokyo at the end of March (it has already undergone limited testing in both the U.K. and U.S.). I wasn’t holding my breath for it to be at this event, but if it was, I’ll share my impressions next month. The violent nature of this zombie-shooting game might keep it out of family-centric locations, but you can’t rule out the extremely loyal and vocal fanbase for it. If you had The Walking Dead Arcade on location, this could perform on par with or better than it did.
Amusement Source International indicated they would bring Wahlap’s Storm Rider X over to our shores. Developed by the same company that produced the excellent Storm Racer 2, Storm Rider X uses the same kind of cabinet with a giant 85” 4K screen that is mounted vertically in front of the player. Instead of being a car racer, this one is a motorcycle driver, and it faces stiff competition from the likes of the dominant Super Bikes 3 and the aforementioned Speed Rider 4DX (which features an excellent twin cabinet and an innovative sliding bike controller). From what I’ve seen of Storm Rider X, I think it will hold its own.
Back to pinball, the biggest news in that arena is certainly Stern Pinball’s Pokémon. I had heard about this one through the rumor mill a few years ago, but from the first moment I heard of the idea, I thought it was brilliant. While the demographics of the pinball business are Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, there is always the lamentation that younger people are needed to sustain the market.
The new pinball game market isn’t exclusively based on older themes, as we saw with Jersey Jack Pinball’s Harry Potter and AVATAR, and American Pinball’s Hot Wheels a few years back. Still, we do see more older-adult themes than those that can appeal to a younger crowd. Pokémon is brilliant because it’s multi-generational and has no controversy. If you look at a lot of major IPs, there seems to be some polarizing factor that pits old fans against the new ones. Pokémon doesn’t have any of that baggage, and it has been present on TV, movies, card games and video games from the ’90s until now. It appeals to Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha all the same.
Now does that guarantee that it’ll be a mega-hit? No, but the potential is there since it is in a great position to attract new people to pinball who might not otherwise pay any attention. It’s certainly on my radar, since I do have a few kids who pass through my arcade, rarely looking in pinball’s direction. Also, Stern’s Pokémon doesn’t cost over $10k for the base model, unlike some other IP pins that have kid appeal.
Licensing is big in coinland and Amusement Expo had plenty of games tied to big IPs: John Wick by Blue Motion Games, the Cyberpunk 2077 racing game from UNIS, AVATAR Legends from exA-Arcadia, two different G.I. Joe games (a beat-’em-up by exA-Arcadia and an artillery cannon game from JET Games that was shown at IAAPA), and Butts On Things cranes and toys by Alan-1. I’m not certain which might be the best performer of the bunch, but that last one does appeal to kids and young adults, and as was showcased in RePlay’s February issue, it stands to give ducks a run for their money.
What else has the potential to be a hit this summer remains to be seen, but there is certainly no lack of content. The problem will be the price. Aside from still-inflated prices (not helped by AI trends causing some RAM and SSD prices to skyrocket) and some changes to tariffs, a lot of games are still on the high end.
In addition to new equipment prices, operators have been sharing online lately about the high cost of parts for many games and frustrations over the unavailability of custom parts for some games. (It seems some go out of stock for months on end.) There’s likely enough for an entire column just on the state of parts and service in our industry, but before I write about it, I’d like to talk more with my fellow operators about what they face, both the good and the not-so-good. There’s a lot to be said.
I wish you all a profitable spring and hope you’ll check back for next month’s Endgame on other notable new games at Amusement Expo.
Adam Pratt is the owner and operator of Arcade Galactic near Salt Lake City, Utah, and also publishes the Arcade Heroes blog site. He can be reached at shaggy@arcadeheroes.com.