After going on hiatus in 2020, Minnesota’s largest video game convention finally returns! And this time, I went intentionally! 2Dcon has a gigantic game room with over 100 arcade machines for those who missed the last one.
Since the convention hasn’t changed much from last year, think of this more like an update post than its own article.
Last year, 2Dcon’s arcade filled up fast, so I made it a point to take my photos before it got too busy. As you can see, it was still pretty full, even right after opening.
I want to draw your attention to the row of games on the left. That’s the rhythm game section, once again provided by Snow Phoenix. I won’t be talking about most of these games. The selection was once again amazing, but they’re mostly the same machines as last time. Every machine in part 1 of that post returned this year, with the only exceptions being Gunslinger Stratos and one other machine we’ll get to in a bit (and whatever that indie game was).
For now, let’s take a look at what got added to their lineup.
Holy crap, it’s Maimai Finale! Maimai has been a white whale of mine ever since I started this blog. The only time I’ve run into one was half a decade ago in Las Vegas, where it was broken, so this is my first time getting to play the damn thing.
If you’re not into arcade rhythm games, let me give you a brief rundown. Around the turn of the millenium, rhythm games were a big deal. New franchises were being made constantly to try to cash in on the popularity of DDR and Beatmania. Around 2003, the initial fad died down and a lot of the smaller series were discontinued. The big names survived and kept getting new entries (most are still alive to this day), but new series were pretty few and far between.
In 2008, Konami once again tried its hand at a new rhythm game series: Jubeat. This seemed to be the game that re-opened the floodgates since the following decade would have a nonstop onslaught of new titles. Once again, most of these were produced by Konami and didn’t last very long, but this time Sega (after the success of Project Diva) decided to throw their hat in the ring as a serious competitor.
Maimai was Sega’s second major rhythm game series. It was such a huge success that the more recent versions still crack the top 15 highest-grossing arcade games in Japan (Chunthium, Sega’s third major rhythm game series, is almost always in the top 10).
Looking at the front of this washing machine-like abomination for the first time, it may not be obvious how you’re supposed to play it. Let me break it down for you: Those eight lights around the edge of the screen are buttons. Most of the game is played by pressing them in the same way you would for something like Pop’n Music. The game’s second major gameplay gimmick is the touch screen. Certain notes require you to slide your hand across the screen, like in Osu!. I didn’t get to play the game nearly long enough to master it, but the slide notes felt awkward to me as a new player. I was never entirely sure how fast I was supposed to be sliding them. But beyond that, the game was fun enough. It was the game I played most over the weekend, knowing it might be a while before I find another.
Oh, speaking of Jubeat…
I didn’t notice it until looking through my photos afterwards but look carefully at that Jubeat machine on the far right. That pink object held captive inside the cube is the DDR 20th Anniversary Rinnon plush! For those who aren’t up on DDR’s “lore”, Rinon was a character central to DDR X2’s “storyline”. You had to clear a series of difficult achievements over time to unlock a “battle” against one of Rinon’s clones in a boss song. Clearing all six would unlock the final “challenge against Dark Rinon”, an extremely difficult song known as Valkyrie Dimension. Even a decade later, it’s still one of the hardest songs in the series. Rinon stuck around as DDR’s mascot after that for reasons nobody quite understands.
I’ve got to give credit to Snow Phoenix for putting it in there. Little things like that tell you they love what they do (plus their DDR machine is autographed by the singer of Mermaid Girl!). Consider this paragraph a personal thumbs up to them.
Last year they had Initial D 8. This year, they’ve upgraded to Initial D Zero.
Initial D Zero was a soft reboot based loosely on the 2014-2016 movie trilogy. The biggest change was the old sequential gear shift being swapped out for a 6-speed gear shift. The physics have also been completely revamped. What stood out most was how much smoother the un-upgraded cars felt to control than in 8. That was always my biggest complaint about 8.
…Although even they couldn’t keep the Bishibashi Channel machine working. People were playing that thing constantly. By the end of the weekend, only one of the four inputs was working right.
Snow Phoenix weren’t the only ones doing good work at 2Dcon 2021. Another new “travelling arcade” called Psychic Drive decided to weigh in this year! These machines are normally housed in Detroit’s Replay Cafe but make the rounds to contentions.
This lineup was something to see. Even I was impressed!
Psychic Drive mainly specializes in candy cabs. And if it’s candy cabs, you know they’re going to be full of fighting games. They had Soul Calibur II, 3rd Strike, MvC2, and some other fairly standard stuff I won’t be talking about (don’t worry, this is far from all they had).
Unless I’m wrong, they were also the ones who organized most of the fighting game tournaments this year. Thanks to them, I discovered the Twin Cities have a huge Street Fighter III 3rd Strike community. But what really surprised me was another game that got a LOT of tournament entries.
But I’ll lose track of which machines I’ve talked about unless I go in order, so that one will have to wait.
Windjammers, one of the most beloved Neogeo MVS games. I wanted to use this convention as a chance tosink my teeth into the game and learn what it was all about, but I just couldn’t find an opponent. Maybe next year.
If puzzle games are your thing, they’ve got you covered on three sides. Magical Drop 3 was the one that I saw grabbing the most attention over the weekend.
I’m really surprised at how rarely I see this machine. It got a decent-sized release in America, so it’s not super rare. I know of at least one kid’s pizza place in Chicago that had it up until recently. Is this board really expensive because of Sonic collectors or something?
If you want proof that the machine’s owner knows their stuff, look no further than Namco Classics Collection Volume 2. Most people would assume this kind of game is just another Namco complication and ignore it. But this game is more than meets the eye!
What you’re looking at on the screen right now is the legendary Pac-man Arrangement, an obscure 1996 sequel to the original game! Among those who know about it, this game is considered one of the best iterations of Pac-man ever created! It expands on the original game with loads and loads of new mechanics. Everything from boost pads to each ghost having a unique upgrade to an actual final boss fight! It’s a spectacular game on all fronts!
And when you thought it couldn’t get any better, they bring out Twinkle Star Sprites! This is a player vs player shoot-em-up released for the Neogeo MVS. Unlike Windjammers, I got PLENTY of opponents for this one, most of them playing for the first time. It’s such a unique game, simple in its gameplay and yet deep in its mechanics that anyone can have a good time with this.
It’s such a cult favorite that a few indie games rip off its mechanics wholesale. There’s one of the ArcadiaEX system (whose name I won’t bother to look up) and another lesser-known game called “Touhou 9 Phantasmagoria of Flower View”. I played the latter once for myself. It’s EXACTLY like Twinkle Star Sprites, right down to the charge mechanic. Shame on you, Touhou 9! You can’t just slap shrine maidens on a game and claim it’s yours!
Here’s another deep cut. This is Akatsuki Blitzkampf, the sequel to an extremely popular WWII-themed doujinsoft fighting game that got a full arcade release due to its popularity in the Japanese fighting game scene.
I’ve said on this blog many times, but fighting games aren’t something I like to talk too much about. I’m just not knowledgeable enough about them to do them justice. The only remark I can make objectively is that the CPU AI is terrible. I had to get up and leave in the middle of a match. When I came back, the enemy player hadn’t moved an inch. He just stood there crouching and spamming jabs at the air in an infinite loop.
This machine rotated games a few times throughout the day. I forgot to bring my camera on Sunday, so I completely missed my chance to get a shot of Canon Spike, Capcom’s crossover shooting game. I can confirm it’s not a very good game if nothing else.
Oh, and here’s Demolish Fist, a wacky 3D beat-em-up in the vein of Die Hard Arcade. I didn’t like it that much, but it was worth mentioning just because I’d never seen it before (there’s an arcade in the area that has it, but I haven’t been able to make that trip yet).
…and there’s a Puyopuyo machine I forgot about when mentioning the puzzle games.
Last but not least for Psychic Drive’s games, we’ve got three anime-style fighting games. Don’t quote me on this, but I BELIEVE they were Persona 4 Ultimamax, Undernight In-Birth, and Guilty Gear Strive. The last one surprised me the most since it was one of the biggest fighting game tournaments at the event. I had no idea it was that popular.
Overall, I absolutely can’t complain about Psychic Drive’s lineup. I’m totally going to check out their physical location one of these days. (it happens to be right next to a few other places I want to visit)
The third “major” supplier of arcade games to this year’s convention was Eau Claire Games & Arcade, a smaller hobby shop/arcade hybrid out in Wisconsin. I haven’t gotten out there myself, but the actual arcade is a lotmuch more interesting than you’d expect from this bog-standard lineup. I think these were just the machines they were getting rid of, since most of them had price tags. I’ll have to check this place out someday, too.
The fourth major arcade supplier had this row of old 80s games in the back. That would be Paradise Arcade Shop, an online parts seller that happens to be located right here in the Twin Cities. Sadly, most of their cool machines are elsewhere now, so they couldn’t bring their A-game.
Let’s look at a few of the more notable machines they provided.
Here we have Captain Commando and Snacks ‘N Jackson. The latter has a pretty interesting history, but I’ll talk about that again.
Snack ‘N Jackson here is also notable for being the ONLY machine in the entire convention that I NEVER once saw anyone play. And trust me, I was keeping tabs on what games were popular this year.
Last year there was a whole sea of cocktail cabs that absolutely nobody wanted to play. This year, it’s been brought down to three. I’ll never understand the appeal of these things beyond 80s nostalgia. They were mostly phased out by the early 90s for good reason.
This is another of Paradise’s pickups. It’s a ticket game where you lead a ball through a maze, except with the ticket aspect removed. Much like every other machine Paradise provided this year, it’s alright.
The last game I want to point out is this one. Like nearly every other game here, it’s currently sitting at a local arcade. I’d rather talk about it then.
It REALLY bothers me that Eua Claire arcade was put up a big advertisement for themselves, but Starcade didn’t. That’s a big reason I haven’t done a blog post about them. I just can’t think about that place without being put into a state of frustration. It’s a shame, since their game lineup isn’t that bad.
Overall, Paradise’s offerings couldn’t stack up to Snow Phoenix or Crystal Drive. These were some of the least popular machines at the convention. I can’t really hold it against them, since they did have a much better lineup last year.
I’m not sure if these machines came from a single provider (the ones in the right image look like they did), but they upped their pinball game this year. But this isn’t a pinball blog, so you’ll have to settle for these photos.
Last up is the row of random machines. Most of these were provided by con-goers in exchange for a free pass, but a couple (like Monkey Ball here) were extra machines from Psychic Drive.
Monkey Ball was, by far, the single most popular machine at the convention. In this photo, you can see the ONLY time I saw the machine empty. Another huge shout-out to Psychic Drive for recognizing the demand for this machine.
I don’t know who provided this NeoGeo, but they have some real taste to put Money Puzzle Exchanger on it. But it’s using the fan-made marquee that got the title’s first two words backward…
My, it seems we have quite an enthusiast attending, don’t we? This is one of Cave’s shooters, Ibara. It’s NOT a cheap arcade board by any stretch, usually going for several thousand dollars for the board alone. I’d have loved to meet whoever provided this one.
Here’s the rest of the fan-brought machines. Lots of pretty good beat-em-ups, but nothing I haven’t seen before. (the game in the Sports Shooting USA machine is the Fist of the North Star fighting game)
And that’s the end of the blog post. I don’t have much in the way of closing thoughts since the convention wasn’t much different from the previous year. Again, this is more of a supplement than a stand-along article.
