Newsbytes: Stranger Things Arcade Hits Dave & Buster’s, StepManiaX In Japan, Wild Gunman Restored & More

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Welcome to another edition of Newsbytes, the series of posts here at Arcade Heroes that rounds up byte-sized stories from across the worlds of arcades and pinball. We’ve hit another dry spell in terms of big news (which seems to keep being the case this year when we’re between trade shows and events), but as always there has been a few things happening in the background, so this is where these posts come in.

Stranger Things Arcade Starts To Hit Dave & Buster’s

While there has been no official announcement out there about Raw Thrills’ Stranger Things Arcade game, social media channels have been flooding with people sharing photos (and sometimes video) of it arriving at many – perhaps all – Dave & Buster’s locations. In lieu of any official announcement, but with Raw Thrills having touted it in a teaser, we can safely assume that this is a D&B timed exclusive. What the media shared also confirms is that this is a ball tossing video redemption game, with gameplay along the lines of NERF Arcade… just without the mounted guns. That may be disappointing to those who were expecting a full scale shooter along the lines of Godzilla or Jurassic Park, but doing something different can always be a boon. While we’ve seen ball toss games a few times before, none have come with a license.

We are actively checking with D&B and RT for more on this, but there is no comment on it for now, so hold tight if you’re interested in STA.

StepManiaX In Japan

Over on the other side of the world now, with a game that isn’t new-new but something definitely of note for a certain country. For a long time, Dance Dance Revolution and Konami’s other titles in the genre have had the monopoly in terms of dance games in Japan, give or take the occasional Pump It Up and In The Groove installation. But things could change if this new location test for StepManiaX gains any traction. This is the first ever time an SMX DX cabinet has came to the territory; apparently there was a single standard cabinet over there at one point, but it got removed a while ago, so this test may be the start of something. For anyone in Japan, it can be found at the rural Amusement Space Komimaru Alibaba Ogaki arcade.

Step Revolution have also pushed update #76 in conjunction with this, adding three new songs. It’s also worth noting that this is not the first time they have tested something in Japan, as they tried out ReRave there too (and I ended up picking up that cabinet after said test; I sold it off a few years ago, but did operate it for around a decade). That didn’t go anywhere, but again, we’ll have to wait and see what happens here…

Restoring Nintendo’s Wild Gunman

Thanks to Kevin Williams who sent this new video our way, where a collector recently managed to restore Nintendo’s super rare pre-digital arcade game, Wild Gunman. This was their first ever foray into the world of coin-op, with the ironic factoid that owing to their lack of inhouse sales infrastructure here at the time, Sega distributed its 1976 North American release – but given that it was originally made in 1974, surviving examples are rather hard to come by nowadays. Thankfully, 74XX Arcade Repair took it upon himself to restore and resurrect one of these, and you can watch the fascinating process below:

Pickleball Rivals Single Player

Something that seemed likely from chatter on the show floor at Amusement Expo 2026 was an updated single player cabinet for UNIS’ Pickleball Rivals, which was only announced and seen there in a twin form. The company have wasted no time in promoting and confirming its existence, as over on Linkedin they have been recently posting about one now being available. Alongside the main draw of Cyberpunk (which we’re trying to get more information on) there was some interest in the game at AEI, so hopefully this pleases any of the operators who wanted it in a more compact package.

Cotton Rock With You Releases

We covered this one recently when it went on location test last month, but it has now released – albeit only in Japan. The latest Cotton shooter from Success (a spiritual successor to Cotton Rock n Roll) is seeing action in arcades, exclusively through Sega’s APM3 (ALL.Net P-ras Multi 3) service. exA-Arcadia were originally going to get this one too, but haven’t in the end, so it’s come to APM3 with none of the enhancements an exA version would’ve had. However, this arcade release is at least a few months in advance of the home versions (out in August), which is something for any Japanese fans out there.

Arcade April Fools 2026

Speaking of exA. they were one of the companies who were attached to April Fools jokes this year, which we participated in too (as always) with our Bubsy pinball mock-up. For a brief belated look at the others in case you missed them, FK Digital (developers of Chaos Code) had the exA one in the form of a not-for-sale mini “ARC-65536 MAC” made out of little toy bricks; meanwhile, Taito touted a new underwater turtle-friendly submarine version of Music Diver, Sega let a penguin make a strange special update to Chunithm, and Stern tore Tommy Wiseau fans apart with their fake The Room pinball…

Jersey Jack Teases Their Next Game At Pintastic

Jersey Jack has had their latest game, Harry Potter, out for a while now, so naturally people have long been wondering (and rumoring) what is next. Well, at the latest Pintastic New England event, the top brass at JJP sat down to discuss how things have been going and what is coming. While they didn’t say so in this video below, they all but confirmed a long-standing rumor that their next game will be based on a certain famous blue hedgehog, as covered in detail by Knapp Arcade. The game features over 6,000 voice call-outs, and is being worked on by Steve Ritchie, who calls it “the fastest game I’ve ever made”; word on the street is that it will be revealed very soon, so that’s something to look forward to. You can watch their full panel below:

Metal Slug Turns 30 & The NeoGeo AES+

Every year has a bunch of gaming anniversaries to celebrate, and today, April 19th, marks the 30th anniversary of SNK’s Metal Slug coming to arcades. Of course, it’s been ported to all sorts of consoles since, and received numerous sequels. Fortunately, SNK isn’t missing out on celebrating, putting out this 30th Anniversary Retrospective and launching a new social media account to promote it. I currently own the original, X, 2, and 6; the end of this trailer does tease a new one and even shows it in an arcade cab, although that might just be as a prop for a console release. It would be great to see a new Metal Slug grace arcades, as the ones I have on the floor still can grab coins (and I was always surprised to see MS6 charting in RePlay Magazine’s earnings charts throughout the 2010s). What do you think it will be?

On top of that, most fans seem to hold up the 3rd entry in the series as the best, but what say you?

Also in SNK news, you may have heard that SNK & Plaion have announced a new NEOGEO AES+ console that can play your old AES carts, if you have any. While there have been other retro remake consoles to accomplish this, there is one major difference that the AES+ is touting that I’ve never heard of before – it’s not an emulator box, nor is it an FPGA, but they are recreating the original hardware. That would be why the price on this is also a bit high, although if you look up original AES cart prices, $90 a pop for these new re-releases is quite a money saver. This makes me wonder how possible it would be to see an MVS recreation, or an adapter of sorts, but that’s on the crazy talk side. Either way, does this interest you?

Discussing The Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat II Movie Trailers

Finally, we have not one but two Hollywood movies coming out this year which are based on big arcade fighters, although both of them have become something more of a console series in recent times (especially Mortal Kombat). I didn’t catch the first MK reboot movie, and from these trailers, I am a little more interested in Street Fighter, although if I can, I will go see them. Which of these (or both, or neither) interests you?