Amusement Expo 2026: The Full Rundown

Welcome to Arcade Heroes’ full rundown of Amusement Expo 2026. This was the most recent major trade show for amusements and arcades; ideally our complete coverage would’ve been posted closer to the show’s end, but editing all the videos filmed there took a little while, and me being under the weather health-wise did not help there. Now that is done though, let us waste no time in getting into all the latest arcade games and companies that were there:

Amusement Expo 2026

First, a little bit of background as a primer for anyone that may be new to the blog or industry. Often called the Spring show (or its former AMOA/AAMA Show namesakes) by veterans of the business, Amusement Expo International (AEI) typically takes place in the middle of every March at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with this year’s main event held on the 18th and 19th following the regular educational conferences and talks on the preceding two days. It is a slightly smaller stop on the amusement trade show circuit than IAAPA, but is more dedicated to what has historically been called “coin-op” (though that term becomes more outmoded by the year), with much less in attractions and other business segments. 2026’s show saw it change host hall and hotel to the West Hall and Resorts World, and with that were a higher number of exhibitors, as well as bigger booth spaces than before for some of the companies that attended again.

Unfortunately, the show did see some fairly weak attendance on this occasion. Visitor numbers were down by about 300 compared to 2025, despite the higher number of exhibitors, bigger booths, and a good amount of new product. There were two drivers behind this – one was a major disruptive storm system that blew through the Midwest when many would have travelled (several management-level people could not get in), then the US government shutdown which was affecting elements like the TSA. I would add that it did depend on airport – I got through security both leaving and returning pretty quickly, but others saw hour long lines. A similar problem affected IAAPA 2025, so hopefully we will not get yet another dose of it this November (although there is a different issue regarding the next IAAPA that I am hearing complaints about already… if you are a manufacturer planning to be there and want to share concerns, do let us know).

There is also a small amount of lost video content from the show, thanks to a bad SD card that made several files disappear. I got a new camera on the day that I flew down to Vegas, but never acquired a second battery; as such, I ran out of power a few times and ended up simply using my phone (which does do a fine job at filming 4K, it just is a phone so you lose a lot of the niceties of a proper camera like zooms). Because the space on both my laptop and phone were very close to full, I needed an SD card to store them, so the ones shot on my phone got transferred onto a spare. When I checked on it later though, the folder I had moved all of those to was empty. I tried a file retrieval tool but it saw nothing, so sadly those videos are all gone for good.

The lost content did include the ICE booth tour and a couple of other things, but the vast majority of what was filmed has survived and now gone up onto the YouTube channel at least. You can find all of it below if you are not subscribed to that yet.

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With that out of the way, let’s get onto all the companies that exhibited arcade games and products relevant to us at Amusement Expo. To thank them for their support of keeping the lights on here at Arcade Heroes, we will round up our advertisers first like aways, then cover everyone else.

Raw Thrills

As we had expected, Raw Thrills hosted a close repeat to their IAAPA 2025 booth with Betson, so if you had attended that event, then there was nothing new here. If you  missed IAAPA though, then this would have possibly been the first time for you to see and play Jackpot Racer and Godzilla Kaiju Wars DX, both of which began shipping at the end of last year. They also had most of their other in-production games available to check out, alongside a few pieces from further companies, given that they are co-located with Betson who distribute products from others.

One thing that I had missed filming at IAAPA 2025 was the latest software update to Angry Birds Boom!, adding leaderboards and jackpots. I briefly cover the Series 5 card for Minecraft Dungeons Arcade in the booth tour above, but for those constantly asking, I should actually get boxes with that card this week, so I can do a quick video about it (not that I really need to, as it has been out there for a bit now, but there have been a couple of people who really want to see it).

There was a poster on hand for the new updates that are coming to Big Buck Hunter Reloaded here soon, including the new animal the Mountain Goat; however, the software was not ready yet to play. Contrary to rumors that have now been disproven, none of their other games like Halo: Fireteam Raven are getting a new big software update soon, but minor updates are available if you have them connected to the internet.

Although it was a little disappointing that they had nothing new-new, Raw Thrills are definitely working on some upcoming projects, with at least one set to reveal itself in the coming months. Having said that, we are unsure if it will launch at any of the upcoming shows (e.g. Bowl Expo, China’s AAA or GTI, even IAAPA Europe), or whether it will go on test and get an unveiling out of nowhere. We’ll just have to wait and see…

TouchMagix

TouchMagix is another instance of an exhibitor having a smaller version of their IAAPA booth, with only single examples of their latest redemption pieces like Pickleball Toss, Minions: Bullseye Mania, and Treasure Chest to enjoy. They were located in a great spot near the front though:

Alan-1

Alan-1 have been coming to Amusement Expo since 2023, but this time they made it their biggest booth of any event that they have attended to date. As a part of that size, they also introduced several new games that weren’t at IAAPA, including the return of the Atari PONG Arcade Cocktail machine, the final production model of Liquid Death (which has a completely different art skin compared to what was seen at IAAPA), and three new Atari Recharged titles, each of which uses a variation of the classic “Pepper’s Ghost” effect.

The Pepper’s Ghost effect refers to the idea of bouncing an image off of glass to make it appear to float, which was used in many pre-video game arcade titles in the 1950s-70s (just about every EM rifle game used this in some form), and it was used in Taito’s Space Invaders or Sega’s Holosseum. Alan-1’s modern take on it borrows from the fairly obscure Taito shooter Wyvern F-0, as it overlays two monitors on top of each other, as opposed to overlapping one monitor against a static backlit background. This creates a 3D effect that does not require glasses, nor comes with a stereoscopic blur, although it does seem that the more scrolling in the background, the better the effect.

Caverns of Mars: Recharged had the best 3D effect due to this, with Breakout: Recharged being the weakest, although Alan-1 is working to change the background effect in that game to address this. There will additionally be some other changes made to address some reflections of the internals (such as LED lighting) that were visible in the glass reflection.

Out of the three new Recharged ports, I enjoy Caverns of Mars the most, but I already felt that way with the console editions of each. CoM is a scrolling shoot ’em up that reminds me a lot of Activision’s classic River Raid. The original was designed by a high school student and came out on the Atari 400/800 computers back in 1981, but it never saw a coin-op release until now. It should be noted that the software includes several distinct changes to it that are not present on the home Recharged version, which brings it back in line with the original game as well (such as needing to escape Mars after you hit the reactor and a few other things of that nature).

Breakout is the game with the highest name recognition, and perhaps has been talked about the most out there. For those who weren’t around the last time the IP graced the arcade scene, that came from a port of an iPad version of Breakout that Coastal Amusements did in 2016 as a videmption piece. There are some changes to this from the console version, namely with the UI; it also had the power-up system which will likely remind one of Arkanoid. The cabinet art additionally pays homage to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who famously worked on the original Breakout prototype.

Last but not least is Yars Recharged, which technically marks the first time that the Yars Revenge IP has graced arcades, although the original Atari 2600 game had started out as a port of Cinematronic’s Star Castle to that system. It turned into Yars once it was realized that such a port was not possible at the time (homebrewers have managed to make the game for the 2600 in recent years).

Like with many of their IP, Atari has never really known what to do with it since it is a bit odd in controlling a mutant fly with superpowers in space, making some weird and unsuccessful offshoots to it over the past decade and a half. But since Alan-1 is bringing all of the Recharged titles to arcades, it gets the treatment as well. Several changes have been made to it to help bring the game more in line with the original, including the return of the Destroyer missile, one shotting the Qotile when in the airborne “saw” form, and some other items. I will have video of this one up this week.

Aside from those introductions, Alan-1 had the home and commercial Atari PONG electromechanical tables on-hand, Dr Pepper Soda Slam!, and perhaps most popular at their booth were the Butts On Things cranes. They made the unusual move of allowing people to actually win the toys (99% of the time, you can play a prize or crane machine, but they block the prize out hole to keep you from winning).

Alan-1 also used this event to hold their 3rd annual Major League eSports World Championship. MLeS is a free app that all of their video games work with; like Stern’s Insider Connected, scan a QR code when starting and it will log you in, then track your score and achievements from the game. While not compatible with the crane machines or the PONG tables, it does work with everything else they have.

As seen above, eight players were flown in here to compete for thousands of dollars in cash prizes; the Grand Champion ended up being a guy who goes by Yorkies TV, and he pocketed $5000 for his efforts over two days. Congratulations to him

Blue Motion Games

Back at IAAPA 2025, Salim and Alex of Blue Motion let me know that John Wick would be coming to arcades through them, but that the full unveil would take place at Amusement Expo. As such, one hour after the show opened, they held this press conference where we got to see the game in action for the first time. Do note that what you see here is an early prototype, as well as that the below video does not show the motion seat in action:

It was not much of a surprise to see that out of all the new-new game announcements, this video has attracted the most attention (we also published an exclusive first look when the press conference took place). The game puts you into the role of John Wick in his 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1, driving across three locations and blasting bad guys up to a boss fight. There are multiple paths you can take throughout, although I do think it would be nice for them to borrow a page from the House of the Dead games to show you a map of where you went and what you missed, once a level is over.

The final game will also feature redesigned guns, and some changes made to the seat that hadn’t been implemented yet at the show. If you want to play this, as long as you have a Dave & Busters near you then you are in luck, as it will roll out to all North American D&Bs on May 11th. It will be available internationally as of the same date too, but with no venue exclusivity there. We will report on when it is available for other locations to get, once that is announced.

Also in something nice and rare for me, they invited myself (and many others) to attend the John Wick Experience, which is a part of the Area 15 complex in Las Vegas. This was quite the experience, reminding me of the old and long defunct Star Trek Experience that used to be at the Westgate. This is part interactive stage theater, part escape room, part arcade game, and all of the actors that guided us through were fantastic.

I got to go through the experience with two guys who work for Lionsgate and are working with BMG on the development of this game, which was pretty interesting. I would highly recommend seeing it for yourself if you are in the area, even if you know little about John Wick.

Exhibitors

Now onto all the other Amusement Expo 2026 exhibitors from the world of arcades. Do keep in mind that some of the preview information ended up being wrong, thanks to shipping issues that led to no shows for several games – more than one company said that they had product held up at the docks in California. For the most part however, what manufacturers had promised as being there did show up.

Also, note that several companies at the show had similar setups to what they offered at IAAPA, but like Raw Thrills above that does not mean that these companies are sitting on their laurels doing nothing. We will have new-new games to talk about from many of them as the year goes on…

Adrenaline Amusements

As discussed in our preview, we had no idea what Adrenaline would bring to the show as they have little to no presence on social media, with no sneak peeks to speak of. Because of that, in addition to the games we saw at IAAPA they did additionally surprise everyone with Disney Speedstorm Arcade, a port of the popular Gameloft-developed kart racer for home platforms. Looking at the view stats, this is grabbing as much attention as John Wick Continental Pursuit, only lagging behind by less than 100 views.

On Speedstorm (which we already covered in greater detail after the show wrapped), the Disney IP certainly has a lot of power here, although the jury is out on how people will take to the cards. As usual, expect changes on both the soft and hardware sides from what you see here, and whether or not that means they’ll unlock more characters to race as when you first play remains to be seen. That said, cards are not needed for this game to operate. Yes, having the dispenser empty will mean that people have to rely on the basics or on cards they already have, but this will not lock them out from playing. Final pricing on the cards hasn’t been determined yet, but they will sell them in boxes of 200. Adrenaline intends to reach production and shipping on this in May.​

Amusement Source International

There is always something a little different at ASI, with them mixing elements of three different IAAPA booths into this one. A game that I had missed at IAAPA was Bravo Amusement’s Trick Pong, which is an interesting little variation on the classic beer pong arcade game. ASI also brought Sniper Strike II back, alongside Ace’s Dragon Kingdom and a couple of redemption pieces that had been absent from their booth prior. While their previews had suggested that Wahlap’s Storm Rider X would be there too, it was not. They are selling it into the US though, in case you are interested. In its absence, Storm Rider 2 was at least on hand in a set of three, which gave me a chance to give that another play.

Note that I do have video of both Dragon Kingdom and Storm Racer 2 (a new level that I hadn’t captured before), but those will be coming later this week. Keep an eye out for them on the channel…

Andamiro USA

Andamiro USA made a show of force here with all their latest titles, including one that was initially supposed to be at IAAPA 2025 but missed that show and ended up debuting at a couple of other events earlier this year: Nickelodeon Kart Racers Arcade, our second new kart racer seen here for those keeping count. This game was now in healthy supply, with Andamiro themselves having multiple cabinets and Player One/Genda Americas also promoting it heavily.

The show was my first chance to play NKRA, which is set to hit the market around May/June time. With no motion base or vertical screen, the cabinet is more traditional, which is great for smaller venues and means it will come in at a smaller price tag than many others on the market. As mentioned in this video, I was confused by the lack of a jump feature, but that will be made clear in the final version (I did talk to the producer for a bit, and she let me know that it would be fixed in time for release).

The only other thing about this game that I hope they can fix is the sense of speed – or lack thereof. At least on the two courses that I raced, it did not feel like I was moving very fast, even when going at top speed. I have not played the console version that this is based on, but I have to assume it comes from that, so it is still an issue that I think needs to be corrected (and I was not the only person to mention this).

That aside, Andamiro had a similar booth setup compared to IAAPA, though they did introduce their new Dragons pusher game (based upon the Dreamworks How To Train Your Dragon movies) as well. Surprisingly, I was additionally told that Pump It Up Phoenix II is almost complete and will be launching sometime this summer, but as is tradition, PIU skips AEI. We’ll have more information on that once available.

Bandai Namco

Many were hoping that Bandai Namco would show off Resident Evil 2: Arcade at AEI, but I was trying to temper those expectations since it had been made clear to me last year that this would be a late 2026 release. As such, it was not at the show, nor were there any games there which were not at IAAPA. Unfortunately I did not get the chance to play some more Speed Rider 4DX or Taiko No Tatsujin, but here’s what their booth was like. It is worth mentioning that they won Manufacturer of the Year in the AAMA awards too – congratulations to all the team at BNAA

Bay Tek Entertainment

Bay Tek had one new release amongst their other redemption titles that had debuted at IAAPA, a single-player version of ICEE Slush Rush. This offers a thermal ticket printer so that the location can do giveaways – such as put the game into a gas station that serves ICEE and play it to win a free ICEE of your choice. Thermal printers like this have been done before, they just have been uncommon. Aside from that, their space was once again essentially the same as IAAPA, just with a few less games.

exA-Arcadia

exA had skipped AEI last year, but this time they were back with a vengeance and two major new debuts as we already covered on the blog that week: Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game and G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra.

Part of the interest here, and what was also apparent from exA’s recent focus, is they are leaning more into IP than they had in the past. Eric of exA did tell me that he could have shown off new EXA LABEL games, but that those tend to get overshadowed by IP titles for what operators want to play. This is just the reality in general with the industry, as I have witnessed many times across companies. That said, I did get to play a pre-release build of Wild Guns Rawhide and it is fun, although I sucked at it (and no filming was allowed on that one).

I was expecting Avatar to soak up most of the attention of these two new intros, but it turns out the opposite is true. Perhaps its the name (as it is based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, but does not specify that in the title), or its one of those internet things where the online reactions never match how people take to something in person. Either way, G.I. Joe has been one of the more popular games filmed here, being based on the beat ’em up that had been released to consoles a couple of years ago.

This game has mixed reviews on Steam, and I could tell you why – it misses too many “beats” that a proper arcade beat’ em up should have (enemies are punch sponges, throws are dysfunctional, etc). Fortunately, exA is fixing those problems and once the game launches this summer, it will present the G.I. Joe brawling experience that fans had wanted in the first place. Read more about this one here if you are seeking out more details.

Avatar Legends is a big name, although I have to admit that I have never watched the series. As such, I know next to nothing about it (similar to Hunter X Hunter: Nen Impact when that came along last year) and how well this game incorporates the characters into a 1v1 fighting game. Approaching it for the first time and giving this a play though, I never felt like I was being punished by the difficulty, although it certainly ramped up in the second match. There was no moveset list so I just had to try the regular stuff and hope that it worked. Like with G.I. Joe, we already wrote more about this one in a post.

I did film more from exA’s booth, but unfortunately those videos were on my phone and have been lost. Among those was a bit more of Baki Hanma, although I got savagely wrecked at it. I was told that there was a new character present in Hunter X Hunter as well, but I did not get footage of it. As a final exA aside, the AEI ARC-32 cabinets have found new homes – at least three of them have been installed into two different Round1USA locations in California. So for those lamenting that you can’t find the games anywhere, keep that in mind – along with Arcade Belgium’s exA game finder. Be sure to play them if you come across any!

JET Games

Surprisingly, JET Games did not bring the biggest debut they had at IAAPA, G.I. Joe Big Cannon, to this show, thus we did not get to have two competing visions of the IP at the same event. They are working hard on getting it polished for a summer release; this is all to ensure that the piece would be an actual G.I. Joe title (which it was not at IAAPA, aside from the art on the cabinet) rather than a rebranded Chinese game. Meanwhile here at AEI, JET had a little surprise with two other games that debuted at their booth – World Football Frenzy and Tip Off.

LAI Games

LAI’s booth was another of those that were mostly similar to their IAAPA settings, with the exception of it including the older Smash DX off-road racing game from Superwin. For the viewer who has been begging me to film all of LAI’s Ubisoft All Star VR game, I did get one level in which I did not play at IAAPA. Incentive for that user to go outside and find one I suppose. I never got the chance to play more Phantom Vanguard as I had hoped to do though.

Sega Amusements

Sega Amusements’ booth tour has become one of the most watched videos posted from the event, although they did not have any game releases that were dramatically different from what we saw at IAAPA. Only the Tower Ball redemption piece from Komuse was new (and that had been at EAG); Go Go Ducky was also initially slated to appear, but could not be found. Daytona Championship USA Motion Edition did have a slightly different, less colorful art package on show, although it is possible that it was an earlier design (the official cabinet renders out there still reflect the ones shown off before, and the Alpha Ops VR Strike additionally seen here was definitely the earlier prototype).

One year on from its US trade show debut, Maimai DX did return here at least, now running its latest Circle update. This has kept on rolling out across North America and the US in recent months, with the first cabinets even hitting Canada and Hawaii now:

Stern Pinball

There have been instances in the past where Stern announce a new game in the Spring, then they fail to bring it to Amusement Expo, but fortunately that was not the case with Pokémon. That was the natural focus of the booth, with six units (split between Pro and Premium models) on hand to enjoy. I find the game to be fun, although I sincerely wish that they would stop launching half-finished games (as in the code not being v1.0 yet). That affected Pokémon, and I noticed it on Star Wars as well; I had played an early version of Star Wars at the Portland Retro Game Expo that I found to be kind of forgettable, but then the updated version I played at AEI was noticeably better.

On Pokémon, I did hear a couple of comments – or perhaps lamentations – that the game is “not as deep” as some players were expecting, particular that the playfield was “too basic” for their tastes. Granted, some of that criticism on the depth could stem from unfinished code, but I do not think it would be a wise business decision on Stern’s part to make this game an unapproachable labyrinth just to satisfy the hardcore wizards.

As I have already stated elsewhere, the brilliance in this IP is that it will attract a large swath of players from across the generations, but a big potential chunk of that will be kids. If a game metaphorically punches them in the face as soon as they play because of all these deep esoteric rules and crazy layouts that makes grandpa moist, those new players wouldn’t plunk down for a second try. Often in game design, simplicity is the smartest route to take, and I am glad that they did so here.

As for the other games, they had the aforementioned Star Wars there, along with The Walking Dead Remastered and King Kong: Terror of Myth Island. I never got a chance to play TWD to see if my IAAPA play was just a fluke or not, but like I said, I did enjoy Star Wars more than I had before (I still do not think it was a good idea for revisiting the IP again for reasons I droned on about previously, but ignoring that, it is objectively a better game than the 2018 Star Wars pin).

On another brief pinball note, there was a small distributor at the show (I can’t recall their name) who had a few more games there, including Pokémon and a Harry Potter from Jersey Jack. That was the only other representation of pinball that I came across here.

Triotech

Revealed right before the show opened its doors, Triotech surprised the industry here with the fourth Typhoon release (that counts the Mad Wave Motion Theater). This one comes with brand new ride films (six in total), and a giant new two screened cabinet that makes the experience bigger than ever. One thing that they have to change (and I believe they said that they would) is that the seats need to have soft head padding – I was filming a guy riding it and he kept grabbing his head as it smacked him, to the point that he got up visibly angry from the thrashing it was giving him. Even my head after this was feeling a little bit like I had been slapped a few times.

I also think that they need to adjust the screens, as having the top monitor pushed forward in front of the bottom one by an inch or so really makes you notice the seam between them. If those get resolved before this ships this summer, then I have no doubt this will be as big a hit as previous Typhoon rides.

UNIS

Despite UNIS being one of the companies affected by some product not arriving due to shipment issues (Ski Hero and Turbo Nova were nowhere to be seen), they were able to bring two new video games: Cyberpunk 2077: Chrome Rush and Pickleball Rivals, alongside the recent Spin City, Monster Kart and Monster Jet Riders, and a variety of cranes. Aside from that I was surprised by how few pure redemption games were around, though that might have been part of what never arrived.

The one I focused on most was of course Cyberpunk. While this is not the first time that we’ve seen the CP2077 IP in the business, Steven at UNIS filled me in on some interesting details, including that this game started development before LAI Games’ Turf Wars. He also pointed out details that I had missed at first, such as the additional paneling on the sides, or making parts of the artwork look dirty on purpose to fit with the IP feel. Those never influence the gameplay, but they do show some extra care going into the cabinet design, which I appreciate. Steven did state that there would be some changes made to the cabinet though, including how the bike itself is designed. Some gameplay thoughts can be found after this video:

There are four levels, seven characters and seven bikes to choose from; I was surprised at how long the races were, as I was expecting them to be over faster than they were. I am glad that they were not, and I noticed that occasionally there were shortcuts you could take (which I always like seeing in racing games). The wind effects were very good too – sometimes you barely feel them in other games, but that was not the case here. I missed the boost meter on the first few plays, but after noticing it, I like how it works. Another nice touch is how can get a gun by taking out some of the NPCs that would occasionally pop-up on the course.

For some spots that need polishing, I would like to see the NPCs show up a little bit more, and the melee attacks do have some lag to them. That needs to be adjusted so that you are striking as soon as you press the button and not a second or two later. Also on the bike selection screen, you have twenty seconds to go through the bikes, but it takes a second or two for the UI box to pop-up and show the stats. Since this is time sensitive, it needs to show all that data instantly – or they need to increase the timer.

Lastly, it would be nice to have a very quick goal stated at the beginning of the race, or perhaps explained to you whilst you pick a character and bike. Given that Cyberpunk 2077 is about missions and such, I assume that you are on some kind of mission, but there is zero context or story provided. As is, it is just racing to get first place, but no context as to why you fight others. If it was just a quick “get part A to point B whilst keeping it out of the hands of these other guys” sort of thing, then that would help it feel more “in universe” than just jumping straight into the race and fighting people just because.

After the show, I had a contact at a distributor asking me about UNIS’ other new debut, Pickleball Rivals, as he had received multiple inquiries on that one. Since some FECs have been setting up their own pickleball courts, it appears that interest in this one is high as it will cost a lot less to get this game than to build out several courts. The game reminds me of Tennis on Wii Sports, just with smaller courts and even more simplified on the controls. There is no joystick – all you have to do is swing the pickleball paddle at the right time to knock it into your opponent’s court, the game moves your character around for you. The controls are not precise as far as holding the paddle goes (i.e., how you hold it doesn’t translate straight into the game), so it comes down to timing.

I do wonder how it would play using realistic physics vs. the arcadey ones, although with this game it is probably more sensible to keep it simple. It seems like they have spots for additional courts on the menu, and perhaps if it becomes a success they will add more down the road. Granted, the courts never affect the gameplay as they are just “window dressing”, but more options never hurt.

Others

To round up the rest now, as mentioned at the top, I did visit and film the ICE booth, but lost the video. That said, this one was not exactly a major loss as the only new thing they had was a reskinned version of their World Football Pro game. I will have to ask someone at ICE if there was anything changed about the game, but from a glance, it looked to play the same as the other one (which was sitting right next to it). They also had their Odin’s Hammer Strike to showcase, and their stable of staple sports games on hand.

Speaking of ICE, one of their former senior game designers has moved on to join Toccata Gaming International, and they were at the Team Play booth with their new Zombie Snatcher Outbreak. The previous ZS game was a big hit with ICE and this enhanced version will likely make some big waves – six players and cool pucks that have small LED panels built into them. The game is not launching through Team Play (who had the same product lineup as at IAAPA, with Ghostbusters Wheel, their Pix Place photo booths, new redemption games), and will be hitting the market soon.

Valley Dynamo had a small surprise alongside their usual products in the form of the new Jet B-Ball, which applies the Jet Pong air blast hole technology to the old electromechanical head-to-head tabletop style of basketball game. This was pretty novel, and a definite 1960s throwback, but with enough unique and updated about it to stand out for today’s competitive socializing entertainment market. Hopefully it does well for them with that segment of the industry:

There was some VR at the show, but like we’ve seen for a little while now, the technology is not as prominent as it once was. I mentioned trying another level on the Ubisoft All Star VR game, but I also played the Rilix Rush VR system that I had seen but otherwise missed at IAAPA. They are in a good spot, given that their version of VR costs not nearly as much as their competitors, and the addition of the guns means that people can interact with the games without needing an explanation (you actually can with the regular Rilix games, but a lot of people have never realized that you have to use your hands).

And whilst they did not have any VR, seeing DOF Robotics at the show was impressive to say the least – having a giant dome microLED machine, even a “compact” iteration, is not something that easily goes unnoticed. These are around $350k, and though the size alone makes them unsuitable for a lot of FECs, there are places out there (including smaller theme parks) where something like this would stand out. They were promoting their Angry Birds Fury Road racer on a sign, but it was not on hand in person.

On some of the smaller developers, I spoke with Dan of DSM Arcade very briefly as he was showcasing Perfect Pour Pabst Blue Ribbon Edition at the AVS Companies booth. There were four of them this time, and it looks like this is going to be a big hit at arcade bars. If you operate such a location and have the mentality of “I refuse to buy any video game made after July 1998” or similar, then this is a good point to stop holding yourself back. From the earnings given, it can wreck any aging retro games and most likely the latest brand new pinball machine. It even costs less than any new pin, and should require much less maintenance to boot.

Although there were no new-new titles over at Incredible Technologies’ booth, it was much easier to find than at IAAPA and their space was 4x as large. Most of the focus was on their upcoming release for Silver Strike: League Night. I did nab some footage of that, although part of it was among those lost. It looks nice and had a bit of attention giving it some play. Then one that I missed, and I apologize to them for this, is Unico USA. They were at the show but for whatever reason I missed them again. According to the map they were a lot easier to find than they have been at IAAPA but I had to leave the show a few hours before it ended, so in my rush I did not make it over there.

I also never really visited the Coastal Amusements booth – they were there and I passed by it a few times, but as I looked, it was fairly sparse and had nothing new that was not at IAAPA. They had less in fact, which is unusual for them, and due to shipping issues I believe. I did not pay much attention to the other redemption and crane-focused booths either. There were a few of them, but as I have said before, those kinds of games really need the signal boost less.

Overall

All in all, it was great to see numerous new releases appear again at Amusement Expo, after a long stretch of it usually hosting nothing special. As stated in the preview, this year was better for new titles from the mid-range or emerging companies, rather than the big names, who unlike 2025’s show all largely had repeats of their IAAPA lineups (but are working away on new things in the background).

For something that I mentioned on the LBX Collective discussion about the show, one of the main trends we saw reflected here were the IP-based kart racers. Disney Speedstorm joined Nickelodeon Kart Racers here in offering Mario Kart Arcade GP DX its first serious competition for some time, compounded by the long wait time for new MKAGP DX cabinets to ship from Bandai Namco. It will be interesting to see if anyone else throws their hat into this particular ring; UNIS are also apparently seeing success with Monster Kart, so original IP may have a chance too.

exA’s license-focused lineup with Avatar and G.I. Joe, alongside the John Wick and Cyberpunk Chrome Rush unveilings elsewhere further underlined the broader importance of IP, with both grabbing plenty of attention on the show floor and online. Even in pinball, which AEI has much less now, Pokémon was leading the way forward. There is no coincidence that many of the biggest examples here are either based on video game IP, or IP with a video game that already exists when it comes to the two aforementioned kart racers and exA.

It was a shame about the lower attendance numbers mentioned earlier; even before they were confirmed, these felt visible and amplified by the poor timing of the show slightly increasing in size this year. There have already been rumblings that a few names are electing not to return for 2027’s show due to this, which is understandable considering the costs involved with appearing. But it has been good to have more new game showcases at AEI regardless, and hopefully that continues to some extent.

That is it now for the Amusement Expo 2026 rundown; this has been a decent undertaking as usual, and we hope you appreciated it, whether you came to the show or are observing it from afar. Which of the new arcade games that appeared here interested you most?

The post Amusement Expo 2026: The Full Rundown appeared first on Arcade Heroes.