GANG BEASTS, MOUNTAIN, DONUT COUNTY ARCADE CABINETS COMING TO FANTASTIC ARCADE

After another couple long weekends spent with a few hundred excellent games, the first eight selections of this year’s Fantastic Arcade have just been announced, each of which will be given the full arcade-cabinet overhaul (as above, from last year) and put on public display for all Fantastic Fest & Arcade-goers in Austin, TX from September 18th to 21st.

Once again, the games have been selected by the operators of Austin indie collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS (aka Adam Saltsman, Jo Lammert, Rachel Weil, Wiley Wiggins & yours truly), with some of those games also serving as public tournaments throughout the festival’s five days — full information on each follows below.

Banana Chalice

Developer: Kyle Reimergarten

The next major game from Kyle Reimergarten — creator of Fantastic Arcade 2013 selection (and one of my overall top 2013 games), Fjords — Banana Chalice is a tunnel shooter about cats, bananas and monsters, with all of the off-kilter and lo-fi home-spun charm that by now has become his signature. Reimergarten promises as much mystery and magic out of Chalice as he brought to Fjords, which is to say, a lot.

Donut County

Developer: Ben Esposito

Originally shown at the 2013 installment of HORIZON as Kachina, Ben Esposito has since re-imagined his game about holes (and the things that fall in them) as Donut County. At heart it’s still the same sort of Katamari-in-reverse puzzle-play (where each successive object that goes in the hole grows the hole’s diameter slightly), but here is re-casting through the lens of a magical Los Angeles-based donut shop.

You can read more about the re-imagining of Kachina as Donut County in this just-published Venus Patrol feature.

Fotonica

Developer: Santa Ragione

One of the first games from Italy’s Santa Ragione — since then best known for their 2013 Fantastic Arcade selection MirrorMoon EP — Fotonica is a first-person vector race-em-up that will be in a cabinet as a full four-player marathon, along with (I’ve had whispered to me) possibly at least one exciting musical collaborations…

Gang Beasts

Developer: Boneloaf

Sure to be one of this year’s festival favorites, Gang Beasts is a fully-physical soft-body brawler that’s already gaining well deserved acclaim, and will also serve as one of this year’s tournaments. The uninitiated are almost certainly going to flip for this, even just in spectator mode.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Developer: Asteroid Base

Even if you think you’ve seen Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime already, be prepared to be re-amazed with it in its current form, which is much more objective-driven than its purely-arcadey past, though with no less perfect panic as both players run frantic around their ship defending it from oncoming attack. And, if you can imagine, it’s even more beautiful than ever. Case in point: just look at that screenshot.

Mountain

Developer: David OReilly

David OReilly’s existential “relax em up” Mountain in an arcade cabinet? How’s that going to work? We’re about to find out.

Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon

Developer: Tiger Style

It’s been a while since we’ve had a longer look at Austin local studio Tiger Style’s upcoming Spider sequel, so I’m as excited as anyone to see the game shown off in full arcade form.

Push Me Pull You

Developer: House House

Following its stateside debut at the Venus Patrol/Wild Rumpus GDC party this year, Australia’s House House will be bringing their Noby Noby-inspired and honestly slightly cutely disgusting sports game Push Me Pull You to Fantastic Arcade for both arcade play, as well as another public tournament.

There are still many more Fantastic Arcade game selections yet to announce in the coming weeks, as well as this year’s Gamemaking Frenzy game jam theme and other fun bonus surprises. For more information about attending the festival or its selection, visit the official Fantastic Arcade website.