Resident Evil 2 Arcade heads Bandai Namco's IAAPA 2026 booth lineup

Bandai Namco Amusement America and Europe have detailed their floor lineup for IAAPA Expo 2026 in Orlando, Florida, confirming that Resident Evil 2 Arcade, PAC-MAN Baller Derby, and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Ninja Coin Clash will anchor their booths when the trade show runs from November 16 to 20. According to Arcade Heroes, the company is splitting its presence across three booths (S4409, S4609, and S809) in the south-middle section of the Orange County Convention Center.

None of the headlining cabinets are surprise announcements. Resident Evil 2 Arcade was first spotted during location tests in July 2025 before Bandai Namco and Capcom officially confirmed the project in September 2025. What next week's Orlando show provides is the formal Western trade floor debut for the cabinet, right after Bandai Namco used the Japan Amusement Expo to lock in a worldwide commercial release window of Spring 2027.

A vibrating floor in Raccoon City

Developed in partnership with Capcom, Resident Evil 2 Arcade adapts the 2019 remake of the 1998 survival horror classic into an enclosed light-gun shooter. Modern arcade hardware relies heavily on physical gimmicks that can't be replicated in a living room, so this cabinet blasts players with air jets and uses a vibrating floor to sell the undead ambushes.

The hardware has gone through a few revisions since those early 2025 location tests. The realistic black light guns from the test units have been swapped out for brightly colored controllers, a standard concession for Western family entertainment centers. I'm curious how the pacing of the 2019 remake holds up when converted into a fixed-camera rail shooter, especially given the promotional trailer's bizarre decision to dub loud screaming and laughter over the gameplay footage.

Capcom and Namco have a history of teaming up to turn survival horror into light-gun games. While 2000's Resident Evil Survivor was developed by Tose and published by Capcom with support for Namco's GunCon, Capcom and Namco formally partnered on 2001's Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica, which ran on Sega's NAOMI arcade hardware before hitting the PlayStation 2.

Basketball and ninja coin pushers

While zombies draw the crowd, redemption and sports games pay the rent for arcade operators. PAC-MAN Baller Derby is the newest addition to the Pac-Man Street Range, a line of sports-themed cabinets built around the 1980 mascot. It's a four-player basketball game that links the physical hoops to a large LED display, turning standard free-throw shooting into a first-past-the-post race.

"Early results from major venues in the US and UK show strong performance, with the machine placing second out of 212 titles on initial location testing and earning more than other licensed basketball titles."

Finishing second out of 212 machines on test is a serious earner for a standard basketball cabinet, though slapping Pac-Man on the marquee rarely hurts.

The third headliner is NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Ninja Coin Clash. Bandai Namco hasn't shown the cabinet artwork or form factor yet, confirming only that it's a coin pusher with a physical collectible card dispenser. Coin pushers tied to major anime licenses are already big business in Japan, where Bandai Namco operates One Piece pushers, and Western chains like Round1 and Dave & Buster's have been steadily importing the format.

Alongside the three newer machines, the booths will stock older cabinets like GoldStorm Pirates and Taiko no Tatsujin. Because Bandai Namco's European division acts as an international distributor for several third-party manufacturers, the floor space will also carry cabinets from Raw Thrills and Adrenaline Amusements.