Japan Amusement Expo 2025: The Recap

The biggest amusement trade show of November is now only hours away, but before another IAAPA starts we have the matter of Japan’s Amusement Expo 2025 to recap. The two being so close to each other isn’t ideal, for reasons we have already detailed at length, but there’s nothing we can do about that, and it’s best to get this out of the way now before the IAAPA 2025 coverage snows things under for a little while.

Naturally, we couldn’t be there in person for the show, but one great friend of the site (our true blue half-Welsh Arcade Hero ) was, and you can find their information and a few of their photos below – alongside some from elsewhere that are linked when relevant. Special thanks to Ted too for bringing them together:

Amusement Expo 2025

For a quick refresh on the Japanese show, Amusement Expo (formerly known as JAEPO) has been held each November at Tokyo Big Sight since late 2023, rather than the traditional February at the Makuhari Messe venue that previous editions did. Tokyo Big Sight is a more accessible place to get to, which is a plus for all the domestic Japanese attendees and exhibitors who can appear at least.

For an indication of where priorities lie these days, that big booth in the middle of this map is completely dedicated to prizes from the companies who have their own product lines in that area. Granted, the three big spaces at the top for Bandai Namco, Konami and Sega do offset that slightly, but still..

Bandai Namco

Now officially trading as Bandai Namco Experience (though the branding doesn’t really emphasize it, and their overseas arcade subsidiaries names remain unchanged – for now), Bandai Namco have remained one of the biggest companies on the amusement scene in Japan, with their booths usually ending up one of the biggest at these events for a few years now. Though most of the new titles they will be showing off at IAAPA 2025 are going to greatly differ from what they had here this time, rest assured that there’s every chance one or two of them might still come over in the future… just be a little more patient.

Wangan Midnight Speed Ignition

The premier showcase for Bandai Namco was undoubtedly Wangan Midnight Speed Ignition, their new major overhaul of the long-running racing game series (to the point that they had a Nissan GTR on hand as a centerpiece). Originally unveiled and tested earlier this year, its appearance here was a big chance to make a good impression after some of the initial reception was lukewarm – and it seems that has paid off, with the much appreciated confirmation that there will be a data transfer for existing players’ accounts on Maximum Tune, plus tweaked gameplay features that were there for all to try here.

Bandai Namco have also now posted the game’s official trailer, which is similar to the one they broadcasted in China last month for the surprise announcement that Wahlap would soon be carrying it over there. With that and all the noise on its social media pages for planned international expansion (they will have a dedicated overseas producer who is supposed to be visiting several arcades over here soon), as well as a few things Bandai Namco have let slip at US trade shows some time ago, it feels like an inevitability that it will be coming to the West at some point… the only question is when that will be. We shall see…

One Piece Dawn Strike

Getting nearly as much prominence as Wangan Midnight at the front of their booth, Bandai Namco’s new One Piece punching game and coin pusher were promoted heavily, with a big statue of main series character Luffy put up between them and a couple voice actors from the original anime making personal appearances. Despite Bandai pushing the card game and merchandise based on the series extensively out West in recent times, it does seem like there is little chance of these pieces releasing outside of Japan from what we have heard, but perhaps something else could be made using the license:

Penlalive

Not using a licensed IP is Bandai Namco’s new original rhythm game Penlalive. This got less of a major showcase, so it seems they are still testing the waters on the title to some extent, but if you missed our previous coverage of this, they are aiming it to be a casual-friendly piece with the big attraction of the multicolored wotagei penlights. Whether it will become the next Taiko remains to be seen, though… it does seem to have been popular at the show at least, with 70 minute long waits to play.

Others

Bandai Namco naturally had plenty of other games on hand at their booth; Taiko no Tatsujin made its regular appearance alongside the kiddie ride we saw at IAAPA last year and its mini air hockey table, as well as Pac-Man Baller Jr. On the new side of things, there was also the unusual Tekipaki Kitchen, a kid-focused cookery game housed entirely on a tabletop cabinet with a touchscreen and saucepan + knife controllers. There hasn’t been any detailed coverage of how this plays, but it looks neat:

Also unusual is their new, very Asian video redemption goldfish catching game, a glimpse of which can be seen here. Completely absent however were Bike Dash Delivery and Magi Blast, two unique games that BN had been testing over the past few years. It will be a great shame if these have been dropped or cancelled after all, as they both seemed like they were pretty fun and original, but perhaps they didn’t test well.

Konami

Now known as Konami Arcade Games, the big K have really been stepping up their strategy in recent months, and that was very much evident here from the looks of things. Various people have been praising them a lot more than usual thanks to this, from Japanese operators to the players themselves, with them releasing much more product and even crediting their musicians properly again in their rhythm games. Whether they can sustain this momentum in years to come is another matter, but things are currently looking pretty sunny for them (our advice – keep it up and bring that energy West completely).

Pop’n Music High Cheers

Highly anticipated by Bemani fans, the new Pop’n Music cabinet made a pre-release appearance here following its tests in the Summer. Its new software’s name (High Cheers) has also been set in stone now after some flip flopping from its social media presences. This is one game that is confirmed to be coming to the States, as it was among the rhythm games Konami put up for order to select indie arcades over here.

Pop’n wasn’t all for Bemani fans though, as alongside a showcase of the recent Gitadora Arena cabinets and three main Bemani Pro League titles, Konami also announced the existence of a imminent new version for their Sound Voltex rhythm game. The new Nabla edition marks its seventh major update, and has apparently been a long time coming, as its existing Exceed Gear version has now been out for four years.

Demon Slayer Nichirin Battle

Also attracting a lot of attention was Konami’s new Demon Slayer arcade trading card game. By all accounts, the gameplay is pretty simple on this one (being focused more on the ‘kidtainment’ audience), but the sword controller is a nice touch, and the fact of it being the first ever arcade release based on the franchise was enough to make sure that the ticket-based entry to play it completely sold out, within mere hours of sales opening. Again, it would be interesting to see this one tested over here.

Super Punch Mania

One curiosity of Konami’s that recently popped up on test was this redemption revival of their old Fighting Mania concept, albeit with less Asian flavor. That appears to be intentional, as despite its appearance here and tests in Japan, according to stickers on the machine this is only destined for overseas sales only. Whether we will see it appear at IAAPA or other Western shows like EAG or AEI remains to be seen though:

Others

For the rest of what Konami brought, they had their range of medal games, which are occasionally adapted for Round1USA, but most of them here look destined to stay in the East due to their larger sizes. One redemption-influenced title from them that does seem to be releasing in both Japan and the West though is the return of their Gashaaaan! video ball toss game, a series that had only lasted the late 2000s until now. One difference from what was seen previously is it using one vertical screen instead of two landscape monitors, which should cut cost and maintenance (it also now features a character from Mahjong Fight Girl):

Then there’s what is perhaps one of the odder games of the show, Sazae-san Machigai Sagashi (literally translating to Sazae-san Spot the Difference). We first saw this game appear about a year back with the Korean Bbangbbang’s Daily Life cartoon, however, this seems to have been kept exclusive to that territory, with Konami licensing the Japan-specific Sazae-san instead. Apparently it’s been a major surprise over there, due to the IP being very closely guarded by its licensors and something of a classic television legend, so that’s interesting… wonder what they’d pair the license with over here if it were to come out Stateside.

Sega

Despite Sega’s arcade presence diminishing from where it once was in Japan, with their locations being sold off to Genda, arcade development teams merging with the console teams, and remaining amusement businesses becoming Sega Fave, our favorite blue skies company hasn’t ever stopped appearing at industry events over there. After a few years with less expansive booths, they did have an impressive looking setup this time, as can be seen below with the big LED screens marking its front. As always, do also note that the Sega we see in the West is not the same company as this one, being the separate Sega Amusements International, although they do sell some product from them (e.g. Maimai DX).

UFO Catcher Immersive

Though we don’t pay them much attention, crane games have for better or worse have become the main earner for nearly all locations in Japan now, and with 2025 being both their 60th anniversary in Japan and 40th anniversary of Sega’s iconic UFO Catcher, there have been plenty of commemorations of both at this expo. One was a museum area on their booth dedicated to the latter, detailing the design evolution of them over time, but more novel is something new that Sega cooked up alongside it – UFO Catcher Immersive.

If you’ve seen the immersive mixed reality rooms running virtual interpretations of ‘the floor is lava’, this kind of turns that idea on its head, with the players becoming the prizes, attempting to dodge the UFO claw picking them up and beaming them away across several rounds. For some footage of this in action, Sega’s official Twitter/X account posted their president joining in on the fun, whilst Gamer.ne.jp have a full YouTube video. With a little more polish, it would be cool to see this turn up as a permanent attraction at Joypolis:

Giganithm

Also in anniversaries, Sega’s Chunithm has been celebrating 10 years of operations in recent months, and one of the ways they have done that is give it the Space Invaders Gigamax treatment by blowing up its screen in a special travelling Giganithm version. This originally appeared at an event in Tokyo dedicated to the game, and has returned here, alongside a merchandise competition for Sega’s other rhythm titles.

Whilst it’s relevant, given the current Stateside success of Maimai DX and its cousin similarly having an existing international version in other territories, could Chunithm come over next in its original non-Giganithm form? Or will Initial D The Arcade (another game already with a localized non-Japan build for Asia/Oceania) finally return to Western prominence after a long absence officially? Who knows…

StarHorse Party

Away from the attractions, Sega did also have their latest addition to the long-running StarHorse series, now made to be more accessible to casual players. The cabinet design of this one looks pretty nice, with the big LED display on top of the main gameplay monitor for spectators/racing sequences and touch-enabled subscreens. We’ve said before in our coverage of the tests how Derby Owners Club had its fans and players over here, despite it facing issues in deployment, so this could find a place with adjustment:

Others

Receiving as much prominence as all the above exhibits were Sega’s new family-friendly ranges based on the Paw Patrol and Curious George IPs, with their own themed areas bringing them together. These simply consist of a few video-based kiddie rides, a ball toss game, and of course some redressed UFO Catchers, as well as their own tie-in prize lines. Though nothing spectacular, it does show commitment from Sega Japan to doing a little more than just cranes – would be great if Sonic got this treatment again, given his 35th anniversary is soon and it being a little while since he had much new in arcades…

Sega additionally spearheaded the Amusement Music Festival, the regular dedicated side event of music held at the show in collaboration with the other three major arcade rhythm game makers’ sound teams. As always, Takenobu Mitsyoshi put in an excellent appearance and performance

Taito

Though Sega above may not be what they were currently, ever since they were bought out by Square Enix in 2006, Taito have slowed down their arcade developments even more (to the point that of the old Japanese big four, their booths at have been much smaller in comparison for some time now). Still, they have kept on going too, as with an intact location operations business in the form of their Taito Stations and enough variety in what remains, they always have some things of minor interest available. They also tend to have people at IAAPA, although that is generally for representing a licensed product at another booth.

Enter the Death Game

One area in which Taito has been doing a bit still is attractions for their diversified locations, including the Bootverse sport-tainment facilities and Rakugakids interactive children’s play centers, but also the larger Taito X-Station branches with their immersive CUBE system. We’ve seen various examples of these since around 2022/23, and here they had one of their more recent additions, Enter the Death Game. As the name may suggest it is horror-inspired, though not quite like Squid Game (it’s more escape room).

Others

For the rest of their booth, Taito inevitably had focus on prize games, including their showcase of the Taiwanese The Little Bull cranes, and their own Getter Spin D machine, which is being promoted overseas by Wahlap. Something that was gleaned from the stream running through our IAAPA 2025 preview is that Player One Amusement Group will also have the latter on their booth, so that keeps Taito’s name out there.

Similarly keeping their name out there is Zuntata, who despite having fewer games to score have been involved in things as varied as self-serve beer systems for Taito’s barcades. Also, whilst there were hopes that there would be a new arcade version of Bubble Bobble, that turned out to be false, with it only available as a demo alongside an Egret running the original game and a little museum-style history display…

Other Exhibitors

Though the show is roughly 1/5th the size of the larger events we get out West and in China nowadays, Japan’s Amusement Expos have retained a relatively healthy, if small selection of other companies; the rest of this post shall serve to rundown those where relevant, as several did have some things of interest.

Separate from the main Bandai Namco Experience booth, Bandai Namco Technica often show up at these events with a variety of imported product from Chinese and Western manufacturers, though it rarely ever finds its way into many Japanese locations. Last year they had Adrenaline’s Drakons and TouchMagix’s Minions Bullseye Mania, among others, and this year 3MindWave’s Alpha Ops VR Strike appeared, here simply VR Strike in a pared-down cabinet from the one out West by Sega Amusements.

After an absence from Japanese shows, Capcom started turning up again at them in the past couple years, though they often have little for arcades proper. Though they have shown off exclusive VR versions of Street Fighter and Onimusha in recent times, on this occasion they did not have those, merely promoting the home (not even arcade…) version of Street Fighter 6 and one or two other things.

Enheart aren’t hugely well-known outside of Japan, but they have done plenty of medal games, including some that would be called video redemption over here. Something new that they’re bringing out as a pure video piece is the four player lightgun shooter Bang! Bang! Bandits, originally released as a Switch game by the company Nippon Columbia but now coming to arcades. This looks like it could be fun:

Marvelous are always a little bit of a wildcard, often suddenly unveiling something new and then leaving it a little while before doing something else. This year that came in the form of them carrying Wahlap’s Kingdoms Fantasy card battler (which had been tested in Japan recently), and a new prize game called TryWall, as well as their ever-popular Pokemon game visible here. Note that their Try Catch and Naruto Emblem Battle pieces will be represented at IAAPA 2025 by Player One Amusement Group.

Japanese distributor Kaga Amusement had a couple of surprises on hand, in the form of Raw Thrills’ Top Gun Maverick, and the odd smaller Monster Eye 3 cabinet we recently saw pop up on test. Many locations in Japan won’t even have the space or ceiling height for Top Gun, which seems to count it out from appearing at many, but perhaps Monster Eye could find its niche with the smaller form factor:

Also in distributing familiar overseas product, Kita Nihon Tsushin (KNT) have now bought big into Ace Amusement’s works, showcasing Parkour Motor 2, Fast Racing, and Jet Ski Racer. A few of Ace’s games did already show up at last year’s Japanese show, though the only one that has appeared at a small number of places there is apparently Skull of Shadow, so who knows whether it will gain more traction.

Though traditional stick and button arcade games were nowhere to be found this year with exA-Arcadia’s absence, the actual parts themselves were in plentiful supply still, with Sanwa Denshi popping up to show off their current selection of wares, found in many a candy cab across the land:

And finally, a little focus on crane games with a special example. Other exhibitors like Safari Games, Standby Amusement and Beyond had their own selections of cranes (many imported from China), with Andamiro and Dreamfuns even coming over to promote theirs, but what you see below is the unique product of a team of college students being led by a former veteran Bandai Namco developer (Junichiro Koyama) to create something fresh – an AI companion-powered crane game. While we’ve had the similar JJ Bot out West, this is different from that, using an anime girl system to interact with the player and automate stock. But will the idea gain more traction and become adopted by the big companies?

Overall

To sum things up from afar, whilst the unavoidable fact of crane game profits driving things is there, the framework of the Japanese arcade scene remains robust enough that most companies here did have more than that – even if most of the examples here on this occasion were more on the family-friendly and gimmick side of things (which is no wholly bad thing).

Though somewhat disappointing that exA-Arcadia couldn’t attend, it is cool to see Bandai Namco and Konami still showcase plenty new games, whilst Sega and Taito make the most of what they can work with. It’s also good (if surprising) that this edition apparently improved on visitor numbers from last year’s, albeit the specific extent to which that is seems unclear.

There were rumors the next show would be held Summer, but the dates for next year have been announced… and it is November again. At the very least, it will be a little earlier on in the month on the 6th and 7th, placing it about a week before when IAAPA probably will be, so for what it’s worth there will be something of a gap between the two (however small the difference is).

That’s it for this Japan Amusement Expo 2025 recap; stay tuned for our IAAPA 2025 coverage now, with early information and media coming out on our social media channels in the coming days (and maybe a brief site post if the time is available). Until then, which of the games here interest you most?

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