Amusement Journal Top 5's

Though it is a bit later in the month than I usually post these numbers, the Amusement Journal website has updated their February - March list for the top performing arcade games over the course of the last month. The survey is taken from a select group of arcades who are then polled and quizzed based on revenue earners and plays at the location.

Tekken 6 sits pretty on the top of the list. I'm not expecting this to change much in either the Arcadia magazine list or future Amusement Journal reports. For all intents and purposes, the game has been performing at a level that I would assume at least meets the expectations with some sources (such as The Stinger Report) going as far as saying that it is breaking most expectations and exceeding even some previous tracking highs.

Outside of Tekken 6, there isn't anything new sneaking on to the top 5 list from Amusement Journal. When the Arcadia numbers are available (in the next week or two), we should see a little shake-up with a couple of recently released games, but the smaller reporting by Amusement Journal has led to a fairly static top 5 for the month.

Out of the remaining games scheduled for a release in arcades in 2008, there are only three titles yet to be released that may vie for Tekken 6's top slot. Virtua Fighter 5R may push Virtua Fighter 5 ahead of Tekken for a time, especially if the game adds as much content as it has been promising. Street Fighter IV and King of Fighters XII may also be able to contend when they are released, but both games are subject to a possible slipping release date especially when considering the recent cancellation/postponement of the King of Fighters XII location test (more on that in another post).

Top 5 arcade titles
1. Tekken 6 (Namco Bandai, PS3 Board)
2. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
3. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny vs. Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto/Capcom, System 246)
4. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Arc System Works, NAOMI)
5. Melty Blood Act Cadenza ver. B (Ecole, NAOMI)

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Arcadia Magazine's top 10 for January - February

The latest Arcadia Magazine numbers have been posted on the magazine's website. The rankings look primarily at the top performers in arcades from January to February of this year. There are a few surprises (which I'll get into in a moment), but the top 3 games on the list have all remained solid performers over the course of this last year.

Tekken 6 in its second month on the ranking has shot itself up to number 1. As a result, Dark Resurrection drops off the Arcadia rankings for the first time since its debut back in 2005. A rather impressive run overall, especially considering the fact that for the most part it has spent the entire time in the top 2 or 3 performing games month after month...

The biggest surprise with these rankings has been the push up of King of Fighters '98 and King of Fighters 2002. This has been more than likely due to the anticipation surrounding the releases of King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match this month and King of Fighters XII later this year. Nona (the lead designer for King of Fighters XII), handled most of the illustration work on King of Fighters 2002.

Considering the number of new game releases that were scheduled for March, the next two Arcadia lists may see quite a bit of a shake up in the rankings. Games to watch out for next month: Gundam vs. Gundam, King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match, Arcana Heart 2.

Top 10 Games with Non-Dedicated Cabinets
1. Tekken 6 (Namco)
2. Guilty Gear A Core (Arc System/Sega, Naomi)
3. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
4. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny Vs Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto, System 246)
5. Melty Blood Act Cadenza B2 (Ecole/Sega, Naomi)
6. Street Fighter III Third Strike (Capcom, CPS-3)
7. Deathsmiles (Cave, AMI)
8. King of Fighters 2002 (SNK Playmore, NEO GEO)
9. King of Fighters '98 (SNK Playmore, NEO GEO)
10. Mushihime Sama Futari (Cave, AMI)


Top 10 Games with Dedicated Cabinets
1. beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD (Konami)
2. Mah-Jongg Fight Club 6 (Konami)
3. Sangokushi Taisen 3 (Sega)
4. Drummania V4 (Konami)
5. Pop'n Music 15 Adventure (Konami)
6. Guitarfreaks V4 (Konami)
7. MJ3 EVO (Sega)
8. Answer x Answers (Sega)
9. Mobile Suit Gundam Kizuna (Banpresto)
10. Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (Namco)

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Amusement Journal AOU 2008 Day 2 Breakdown

The second day results from Amusement Journal's AOU 2008 polling have been posted on the Amusement Journal website. The top game should not come to anyone's surprise (Street Fighter IV), however it is interesting to note that there was quite a bit of movement among some of the other titles. Based on the results, it seems that most of the fightings game faired better on the public day than on the business day, as Basara X, BlazBlue, and King of Fighters '98 all moved up in the rankings. The polling breakdown among the top 5 games also had a much closer spread than day 1 where the deviation had a bit of a decline.

Top 10 Arcade games of AOU 2008
(Full list for day 2 is available on the link above)
1. Street Fighter IV (Capcom - Type X2)
2. Gundam vs. Gundam (Banpresto - System 256)
3. Lord of Vermilion (Square Enix - Type X2)
4. Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu (Cave - AMI)
5. BlazBlue (Arc System Works/AMI - Type X2)
6. Quiz and Magic Academy 5 (Konami)
7. Taiko Drum Master 11 (Bandai Namco)
8. Fate Unlimited Codes (Capcom - Type X2)
9. Action Deka (Konami)
10. Sengoku Basara X (Capcom/Arc System Works)

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Amusement Journal's AOU 2008 Day 1 breakdown

Amusement Journal has already posted the first day poll results for AOU 2008. It's readily apparent that Street Fighter IV stole day one at the show dwarfing the other games by an almost 2:1 margin (I can't help but think though that had King of Fighters XII been playable, Street Fighter IV may have been met with some bitter competition). Amusement Journal points out that with Capcom's hopes that a new era of fighting games may be hitting very close to the truth, it was a bit cocerning to see almost half of the arcade games pulled comprised of vs. fighting releases.

Titles may be a dime a dozen, but is the market ready to sustain all the new releases?

Top 10 Arcade games of AOU 2008
(full list for Day 1 is available at the above link).
1. Street Fighter IV (Capcom - Type X2)
2. Gundam vs. Gundam (Banpresto - System 256)
3. Lord of Vermilion (Square Enix - Type X2)
4. Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu (Cave - AMI)
5. Action Deka (Konami)
6. BlazBlue (Arc System Works/AMI - Type X2)
7. Jubeat (Konami)
8. Fate Unlimited Codes (Capcom - Type X2)
9. Quiz and Magic Academy 5 (Konami)
10. Answer x Answer (Sega)

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Amusement Journal top 5 arcade games for November/December

Amusement Journal has released their top 5 performing arcade games for late November to late December. Though most of the spots have been occupied by the "reigning" heavyweights of the Japanese arcade scene in 2007, Tekken 6 was able to slip surprisingly onto the list despite its release being fairly limited even into late December.

I fully expect that this is the last time that Dark Resurrection will be appearing on the top five from the Amusement Journal, but it may stick around on the Arcadia lists for a little while longer...

Top Games on non-Dedicated Cabinets
1. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny vs. Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto/Capcom, System 246)
2. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
3. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Arc System Works, NAOMI)
4. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai, System 256)
5. Tekken 6 (Namco Bandai, PS3 Board)

Top Games on Dedicated Cabinets
1. Mahjongg Fight Club 6 (Konami)
2. Drummania V4 (Konami)
3. Initia D Stage 4 (Sega)
4. Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of War (Banpresto)
5. Sangokushi Taisen 2 (Sega)

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AM-Net's most anticipated arcade games of 2008 (final results)

A couple of weeks ago, I first mentioned Am-net's poll that was asking the public what was the game they were most eager to play in 2008. Early this past week, the polls closed and the final results were tallied. Out of the 998 votes cast, Derby Owner's Club 2008 Feel the Rush took the top spot away from Tekken 6 with a slim margin (7 votes) separating the two. The final results are below with their genres so you can see the breakdown.






1. Derby Owner's Club 2008 (Horse-sim)
2. Tekken 6 (Fighting)
3. The Eternal Wheel (Card RPG)
4. Lord of Vermilion (Card RPG)
5. Street Fighter IV (Fighting)
6. Arcana Heart 2 (Fighting)
7. Quiz Magic Academy 5 (Quiz)
8. Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam (Fighting)
9. D1GP Arcade (Racing)
10. Akatsuki Denkou Senki (Fighting)

11. WCCF International Clubs 2006-2007 (Sports/Card)
12. Initial D4 (Racing)
13. Beatmania IIDX DJ Troopers (Rhythm)
14. Melty Blood Actress Again (Fighting)
15. Taiko Drum Master 11 (Rhythm)
16. Virtua Fighter 5 ver. D (Fighting)
17. Fate Unlimited Codes (Fighting)
18. Pop n' Music 16 (Rhythm)
19. Sangokushi taisen 3 (Card/Strategy)
20. Sengoku Basara X (Fighting)

21. Mamonoro (Shooting)
22. King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match (Fighting)
23. Sega Race TV (Racing)
24. Baseball Heroes 3 (Card/Sports)
25. Winning Eleven 2008 (Card/Sports)
26. Senko no Ronde 2 (Fighting/Shooting)
27. MJ4 (Mah-jongg)
28. Jubeat (Rhythm)
29. Oriental Legend 2 (Beat-'em up/Action)
30. Criminal Action (Action)

31. Dino King 3 (Card)
32. Illmatic Envelope/Illvelo (Shooting)

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AM-Net's most anticipated arcade games of 2008

AM-Net has posted a public poll asking what your most anticipated arcade game is for 2008. Currently, Namco's Tekken 6 leads the voting with just under a quarter of the votes being cast for the latest entry in the company's ever popular Tekken series. Considering the success of Dark Resurrection in arcades over this past year in Japan, this shouldn't be a surprise that most gamers most anticipated arcade release just so happens to be the follow up in the franchise.

The top 10 is rounded out by Derby Owners Club 2008: Feel the Rush, BeatmaniaIIDX DJ Troopers, Street Fighter 4, Gundam vs. Gundam, Eternal Wheel, Lord of Vermilion, Horseriders, Quiz Magic Academy 5, and Arcana Heart 2.

Voting remains open until the 14th of January, so head over to AM-net if you want to cast a vote for a game you look forward to playing this year. If anything can be said about these polls, they definitely showcase the diversity of the Japanese arcade industry.

Arcadia Magazine Top 10 for November

Like clockwork, Arcadia Magazine has posted their top ten lists for the month of November.

After debuting last month on the non-dedicated cabinet lists, both King of Fighters Maximum Impact Regulation A and Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix 2 have been knocked off in favor of two new shooting games (Otomedius and Death Smiles). Currently, this is the most shooters that have appeared on the list since the beginning of this year.

As for the dedicated cabinets, Konami once again has dominated with impressive style, actually locking themselves into the top 5 positions with the strength of Pop N' Music 15 Adventure and Beatmania IIDX 14 Gold. It's an impressive showing for the company and one that I'm sure they are eagerly paying close attention.

For future releases, Tekken 6 should end up appearing on the December lists and I would expect that Virtua Fighter 5 will see some movement (perhaps vying against Tekken 6 for the top spot) based on its latest revision. Outside of that, it's anyone's games really as the arcade industry is still full of surprises.

Top 10 Games with Non-Dedicated Cabinets

1. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny Vs Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto, System 246)
2. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
3. Guilty Gear A Core (Arc System/Sega, Naomi)
4. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco, System 256)
5. Melty Blood Act Cadenza B2 (Ecole/Sega, Naomi)
6. Deathsmiles (Cave, AMI)
7. Street Fighter III Third Strike (Capcom, CPS-3)
8. Mushihime Sama Futari (Cave, AMI)
9. Shooting Love 2007 (Triangle, NAOMI)
10. Otomedius (Konami, System 256)


Top 10 Games with Dedicated Cabinets

1. beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD (Konami)
2. Mah-Jongg Fight Club 6 (Konami)
3. DrumMania V4 (Konami)
4. GuitarFreaks V4 (Konami)
5. Pop'n Music 15 Adventure (Konami)
6. Sangokushi Taisen 2 (Sega)
7. Quiz Magic Academy IV (Konami)
8. Initial D4 (Sega)
9. MJ3 EVO (Sega)
10. Mobile Suit Gundam Kizuna (Banpresto)

Top 5 Arcade Games in Japan

The Amusement Journal has updated their list of the top 5 arcade games in Japan for the month of October. Not much of a shift from last month's numbers, but it is interesting to compare and contrast these with the previously released numbers from Arcadia Magazine. The top 5 is essentially the same, despite different areas "surveyed", but the order is a bit varied between the two lists.

Seed Destiny vs. Z.A.F.T II captured the top spot on both lists really driving home the game's lasting power. With the impending release of Gundam vs. Gundam, Banpresto/Namco Bandai should have another high earner on their hands.

Top Games on non-Dedicated Cabinets
1. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny vs. Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto/Capcom, System 246)
2. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
3. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai, System 256)
4. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Arc System Works, NAOMI)
5. Melty Blood Act Cadenza ver. B (NAOMI)

Arcadia Magazine Top 10 for October

Neo Arcadia has posted the list of the top 10 arcade games in Japan published from the October Arcadia Magazine (and I'm glad they did - I still haven't received my Arcadia Magazine from this month). As always, the list is divided between the dedicated and non-dedicated cabinets.

Not too many surprises on the list. Looking at the last year of Arcadia updates, certain games have remained high performing titles over the course of the time period. It is interesting however to see some "new" releases finally make their way onto the list. Shooting Love 2007, Kinnikuman Grand Prix 2, and King of Fighters Maximum Impact Regulation A are all newcomers to the Arcadia Magazine's top 10 listing.

Konami dominates the dedicated cabinet top 10 with their 6th release of Mah-jongg fight club and their Bemani releases. Sega's Sangokushi Taisen 2 has also jumped a few spots, probably in part due to the announcement at the AM show in September for the upcoming third game in the Sangokushi Taisen series.

I should be getting a top 5 report from another source in the next couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see how the two compare since they use a different cross selection of arcades and judging criteria.

Top 10 Games with Non-Dedicated Cabinets
1. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny Vs Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto, System 246)
2. Guilty Gear A Core (Arc System/Sega, Naomi)
3. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
4. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco, System 256)
5. Melty Blood Act Cadenza B2 (Ecole/Sega, Naomi)
6. Street Fighter III Third Strike (Capcom, CPS-3)
7. KOF Maximum Impact Regulation A (SNK-P, Taito Type X2)
8. Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix 2 (Banpresto)
9. Mushihime Sama Futari (Cave, AMI)
10. Shooting Love 2007 (Triangle, NAOMI)

Top 10 Games with Dedicated Cabinets
1. Mah-Jongg Fight Club 6 (Konami)
2. beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD (Konami)
3. DrumMania V4 (Konami)
4. GuitarFreaks V4 (Konami)
5. Sangokushi Taisen 2 (Sega)
6. Pop'n Music 15 Adventure (Konami)
7. Mah-Jongg MJ3 Evolution Network (Sega)
8. Quiz Magic Academy IV (Konami)
9. Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (Namco)
10. Mobile Suit Gundam Kizuna (Banpresto)

Top 5 Arcade Games in Japan

Here are the top 5 Arcade games in Japan for the month of August, seperated by dedicated and non-dedicated cabinets.

The resurgence of fighting games (especially Virtua Fighter 5 which shot up to number one after being as low as 4 in previous months) is mostly due to the strength of the Tougeki Super Battle Opera which was held in late July. It is no coincidence that 4 out of the top 5 games on the non-dedicated cabinet list were all featured at that tournament.

Top Games on non-Dedicated Cabinets
1. Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Lindbergh)
2. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny vs. Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto/Capcom, System 246)
3. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Arc System Works, NAOMI)
4. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai, System 256)
5. Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Capcom, CPS-3)

Top Games on Dedicated Cabinets
1. Mah-jongg Fight Club 6 (Konami)
2. Initial D Arcade Stage 4 (Sega)
3. Sangokushi Taisen 2 (Sega)
4. Pop N' Music 15 (Konami)
5. DrumMania V3 (Konami)

Arcadia Magazine's Top 10 for June

Arcadia Magazine has updated its top 10 reports for the month of June for the most popular arcade games played over the past month in Japan.

The following rankings are seperated between the top 10 generic cabinets and the top 10 dedicated cabinets. I've tried to update the rankings with the hardware that the game runs on where I could find it. For more information about Arcadia Magazine, please feel free to visit them on the web at arcadiamagazine.com.

Top 10 Games with Non-Dedicated Cabinets1. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Arc System Works, NAOMI)
2. Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny Vs Z.A.F.T II (Banpresto/Capcom, System 246)
3. Melty Blood Act Cadenza Version B2 (School Software, NAOMI)
4. Virtua Fighter 5 Version B rev.1 (Sega, Lindbergh)
5. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco, System 256)
6. Mushihime Sama Futari (Cave)
7. Street Fighter III Third Strike (Capcom, CPS-3)
8. Muchi-Muchi Pork (Cave)
9. Arcana Heart FULL! (Yuki)
10. Battle Fantasia (Arc System Works/Taito, Taito Type X2)

Top 10 Games with Dedicated Cabinets1. Mah-jongg Fight Club 5 (Konami)
2. BeatMania IIDX 14 GOLD (Konami)
3. DrumMania V3 (Konami)
4. Pop'n Music 14 Adventure (Konami)
5. GuitarFreaks V3 (Konami)
6. Initial D Arcade Stage 4 (Sega)
7. Mah-Jongg MJ3 Evolution (Sega)
8. Quizz Magic Academy IV (Konami)
9. Sangokushi Taisen 2 - Young Jishi Beat (Sega)
10. Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Card Builder (Banpresto)

Arcadia Magazine's Top 10 for May

Arcadia Magazine has updated its top 10 reports for the month of May for the most popular arcade games played over the past month in Japan.

The following rankings are seperated between the top 10 generic cabinets and the top 10 dedicated cabinets. I've tried to update the rankings with the hardware that the game runs on where I could find it. For more information about Arcadia Magazine, please feel free to visit them on the web at arcadiamagazine.com.

Top 10 Games with Non-Dedicated Cabinets1. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Arc System Works, Naomi)
2. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Alliance vs. Z.A.F.T. II (Banpresto/Capcom, System 246)
3. Melty Blood Act Cadenza (School Software, Naomi)
4. Virtua Fighter 5 rev.B (Sega, Lindbergh)
5. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (Namco, System 256)
6. Arcana Heart (Yuki)
7. Mushisimesama Futari (Cave)
8. Street Fighter III Third Strike (Capcom, CPS3)
9. WORLD SOCCER Winning Eleven 2006 ARCADE CHAMPIONSHIP (Konami)
10. Hyper Street Fighter 2 (Capcom, CPS2)

Top 10 Games with Dedicated Cabinets1. BeatmaniaIIDX 14 GOLD (Konami, Konami Bemani DJ-Main)
2. Pop' N music13 carnival (Konami)
3. DrumManiaV3 (Konami)
4. GuitarFreaksV3 (Konami)
5. Initial D ARCADE TRAINING COURSE 4 (Sega, NAOMI 2)
6. Mahjongg Fight Club 5 (Konami)
7. Sangokushi Taisen 2: Young Jishi Happy (Sega)
8. Quiz Magic Academy IV (Konami)
9. Mobile Follows Gundam: Card Builder 0083 (Banpresto)
10. Sega Network Mahjong “MJ3 Evolution” (Sega)