1/21 - What's Good: SJ Eastridge Monthly Update

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Arcade Hub! Right now, we're currently dusting off the cobwebs on the blog desk and trying to figure out where everything is. It's been a very BUSY couple of months, but we're here now to bring you some (hopefully) delightful news!

Round 1 is going BIG in 2016. This means a lot of things will be happening: new games, new changes and hopefully, new customers and staff! There have been a lot of talks, discussions and meetings with the Round 1 staff behind closed doors and, after speaking with a reputable "birdie", there are some new games to be entering SJ Round 1's doors this year! There are currently no set dates as to when these games will be arriving and installed, but are AT LEAST confirmed to be on order.

Disclaimer: At the current time, we are only allowed to reveal two games in the lineup for SJ Round 1. We will keep you guys updated if more games are allowed to be revealed (of course).

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Music game fans, rejoice! The highly anticipated game, Groove Coaster, is coming to SJ Round 1 in the coming months! Published by Taito, Groove Coaster was originally a touchscreen iOS game, but has now entered the arcade market with a tall, vertical screen and two giant "BOOSTER" controllers! 

Groove Coaster has a fair amount of songs in its tracklist, ranging from J-Pop to Touhou music to Taito published games and so much more! If you are familiar to music/rhythm games, the concept is fairly simple: during the song you play, your avatar will move through an intergalactic journey (a.k.a. a sequence from the beginning to end of a song) where the player has to use the two joysticks to input commands. These commands range from "taps" (press the button on top of the controller), "holds" (press and hold the button on top of the controller), "beats" (press the button repeatedly until it tells you to stop), "scratches" (move the controller itself up and down) and "flicks" (flick the controller itself to the arrow that will appear on screen). The player has a choice between three difficulties which are Easy (SIMPLE), Normal and Hard. Groove Coaster also supports multiplayer play where up to four players can play with each other to earn EXP and other bonuses.

Groove Coaster will require a NESiCA IC card to save any player data, such as level, avatar, titles and any unlockables. It is not necessary to buy a card to play the game itself.

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Shooting game fans, rejoice! Gunslinger Stratos is going to be making its R1 USA debut this year for 2016. A third person shooter published by Square Enix, this game takes arcade shooting games to a whole new level: you dual-wield light guns. 

If you are a fan of third person shooters (or maybe MMO's such as S4 League and GunZ: The Duel), then you may be very much compelled to give Gunslinger Stratos a try! Each lightgun is equipped with an analog stick and buttons to control your character's movement and arsenal as you attempt to shoot down your rival team and empty their team's overall health meter. But besides being able to hold and use two handguns at once, what makes this game cool? By changing how you hold and position your guns, a player can utilize their character's unique arsenal of weapons, ranging from tactical to straight up powerful. Put your guns together horizontally may change what weapon you use. Clip your guns with one on the top and one on the bottom can change your weapon to something deadly and destructive. With the use of a NESiCA card, players can earn points by winning team battles which allow the player to unlock Weapon Packs which, by name, unlocks new and devastating weapons for the player's use.

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While MUSECA has been announced already a month or so ago, we have gotten word that the machines are to be possibly set up at the store during this weekend (1/22 - 1/24). This is currently tentative and does not reflect possible issues such as host/server set-up, software updates, hardware configuration or (of course) shipping and cargo delays. We will keep you guys posted regarding this on our Twitter Page: @round1blogger

We'll keep you posted, but be on the lookout for more to come!

New Addition! School of Ragnarok

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good Halloween! Some of our staff members had been giving out candy to all the good little boys and girls outside of Round 1's entrance and the kids have never been happier!

Today we bring you a special report! School of Ragnarok, a 1vs.1 fighting game created by Square Enix has entered Round 1!

Title screen for School of Ragnarok.

So what is the big deal about this game? Well, for one, it's an arcade game where you can make custom characters. If NESiCA is enabled, you can create a character, save it, be able to use it in-game against other characters. In School of Ragnarok, there are 8 different weapon disciplines that a player can choose from, and the weapon discipline they choose corresponds to a support character they can use in game. Weapon disciplines range from chainsaws to mechanical fists to traditional swords to staff-wielding. (I apologize for any mistranslations from here on out or any odd assumptions. Feel free to send us an email for any corrections!)

Emma, a robotic girl who weirds mechanical, floating fists.

Lucy, a renegade high schooler who dons a spiked bat and chainsaw.

Smile Heart, the Madoka-looking magic girl with a pink staff.

Valhalla, a sword wielding demon.

Once a discipline and support has been chosen, you have the option of learning the game through Tutorial Mode or fight against a CPU. Either way, you will be having to learn the game very quickly as there are many buttons to this game that a player must be able to strategically use.

Starting from the Bottom Left Button up: Guard, Attack, Skill, Shot, Jump and Lock-On (to target). The Gold button calls your support to use their skill and the silver button has your support move to certain locations on the map that will boost your strength, defense or other stats. 

There is truly much more to this game than the "attack" and "move" buttons. Every character has a unique set of skills that you can use during the game through certain button commands. Also, every character has a ranged "shot" attack that they can use on their opponents from afar. Your supports have skills you can call upon (so long as you have your "support" gauge filled to a degree) that can either obstruct your view on the screen, cause damage, and much more. What this game really comes down to at times is your support character's "special skill" that they will bestow onto your character for a very short period of time. This special skill is like the equivalent to using a "Super" in Street Fighter or Marvel vs. Capcom. These skills usually cause massive amount of damage to your opponent and can sometimes change your game for the better or for the worst. Every character has different "special skills" so its worth it for you as the player to try different characters to see what play style and skills will suit you the best.

You are able to choose a set of skills to use in your battle.

Now why is School of Ragnarok an important and big deal to Round 1? First off, School of Ragnarok is solely an arcade exclusive and this is Square Enix's will be one of two games to be entering into the arcade scene from Enix, the other being Final Fantasy Dissidia Arcade which is to be released late November. This game is Japanese and Round 1 gives any American players the opportunity to give the game a try. The second and larger deal of School of Ragnarok being on American soil is that School of Ragnarok uses NESiCA which is similar to Konami's e-amusement network and Sega's banapass network. Since Round 1 stores have some games that support this online server, it is very possible that Eastridge Round 1 will be getting NESiCA very soon! La Puente Hills Mall Round 1, the Flagship USA Round 1, has received NESiCA support already: in particular for Groove Coaster, a music game produced by Taito. 

What does this mean? NESiCA may soon be hitting other Round 1 USA stores very soon! With more and more games running on the NESiCA system, it would prove beneficial (and somewhat mandatory) for Round 1 to get its network running and its cards distributed to stores. Only time will tell. But for now, give the game a shot!