Continuing with our Amusement Expo 2024 coverage, let’s touch on a new piece by Amusement Source International – a surprise by the name of Thunder Attack. Let’s take a look at this new gun game:
Background
Though this is Thunder Attack’s first appearance out in the States, it has been bubbling under for a little while in China and Europe. While it’s hard to tell for sure, it appears that the game was made by Huoshi Entertainment, who showcased it at GTI Expo last year. Huoshi have been responsible for the much-rebadged Top Gun – brought to the US by JET Games as Quick Shot and Europe by Electrocoin as Skill Shooter – with the latter indeed testing Thunder Attack out at their Funland arcade in London not too long ago.
It’s possible that ASI are however carrying another version of the game by another Chinese manufacturer, e.g. Nitto Games; it is pretty hard to verify the exact original source of many pieces out of the mainland at the best of times.
The Cabinet
As it is with any arcade game, the first thing you notice is the cabinet, although with this one, it really stands out. The LED backlighting on the art & 3D lettering looks great, there’s a 65″ screen, padded personal seating, card vendors/readers, and of course, giant chaingun-like guns. That probably stood out to me the most when I stumbled across this, expecting instead to see Zombie Crisis (which wasn’t at the show).
Here’s a photo I took of the cabinet…then had to remove the background.
The guns are really cool, reminding me of a Korean piece from way back called Vulcan-M. That game used spinning chainguns, ejected bullet shells (inside of a protected transparent case) and smoke. This does not have all that but it still has a giant gun, blast shield, air compressor feedback, and a rattling piece that makes it look like a real machine gun cycling through bullets.
Perhaps one of the most surprising aspect of this is the price – under $10,000. These days, such pricing is practically a unicorn. But that’s not all!, as the sales pitch goes.
The Cards
While I might be forgetting an example, this is the first gun game I can recall that uses scannable cards. There are only eight, but each will insert that specific weapon into the game as a power-up. I’m not 100% certain how the recharging/reloading of these guns works, but it did appear that you could scan them in at any time. Up to four can be used by the player; Switch between them by using the thumb buttons on the gun.
Boxes of 540 cards are available from ASI for $135 each (plus freight). One unique aspect is that there is no card authorization system (like you see with Minecraft Dungeons Arcade) – so if you have a bunch of cards left over, you can recycle them into the machine. Just be sure to not place any bent cards in there, as I’m sure that would jam it up.
The Game
Admittedly, I didn’t spend a ton of time on the game, not much beyond the video below. There are four levels, where they appear to be standard light-gun fare. I didn’t catch if there is any voice acting, however, as most of the time I walked by it, it was being played during a boss fight..
As I bring up in the video, the boss battles are really long and feel unfair. Perhaps its more the latter making them feel longer than usual. There’s no way, even with the powered-up guns, to take out all of the circle targets when the boss attacks. Not even with two players trying at it. Since you take damage for failing to wipe all of those circles out in time, it becomes a frustration point. I also noticed while rewatching the footage, that often, there are enemies who require a bit of damage to take out, but they attack you before you can dole out enough to take them down. The game does have adjustable difficulty though, so perhaps that changes this aspect in some way. Still, it feels like it could use some balancing changes for those points.
Did you get a chance to play Thunder Attack? What did you think about it?
The post ASI’s Thunder Attack Now Shipping To Arcades appeared first on Arcade Heroes.
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Original case and manuals in new condition.
1 Comment
I am beyond excited to hear that Thunder Attack is now shipping to arcades! This game has been on my radar for a while now, and I can’t wait to finally get my hands on it. The graphics look absolutely stunning, and I’ve heard the gameplay is incredibly immersive. I can already picture myself spending hours at the arcade trying to beat all the levels and achieve high scores. Thunder Attack, here I come!