Brace yourselves for this one. The next Halo game on the horizon is a lightgun arcade shooter that will be available exclusively at the American restaurant chain, Dave & Buster’s.
Halo: Fireteam Raven is the result of a collaboration between arcade producer Raw Thrills (makers of such arcade adaptations as Jurassic Park Arcade, Aliens Armageddon, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), arcade developer Play Mechanix, and 343 Industries. The game itself looks like an entry into the familiar lightgun genre that allows up to four players to pick up their peripheral weapons and do battle against a variety of foes from the Halo universe. The story runs parallel to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and follows the adventures of Fireteam Raven who fought alongside Master Chief.
The real story here, though, is the cabinet itself. It’s an absolute monster of a rig that boasts a 130″, ultra-wide, 4K-resolution monitor and four seated controllers that allow players to use turreted controls. You can even scan an available QR code to keep track of certain worldwide records in the game and create a kind of competitive atmosphere. It’s a daunting arcade cabinet that has reportedly taken quite some time to develop.
“Halo: Fireteam Raven is without a doubt, the most spectacular arcade experience we’ve ever made,” said Raw Thrills CEO Eugene Jarvis. “After years of development, it is now ready.”
(Yes, that’s the Eugene Jarvis – veteran designer of such arcade classics as Robotron 2084, Defender, Narc, Smash TV and too many others to mention.)
Speaking about the collaboration, 343 Industries’ Kiki Wolfkill stated that “Arcade games are a wholly different challenge compared to console and PC gaming, and we’ve learned a tremendous amount as we worked with Raw Thrills to make this happen.”
This project is entirely unexpected, but it is undoubtedly impressive. That cabinet is an absolute beast of a rig and the idea of a Halo lightgun arcade title sounds simply satisfying.
We’re not sure exactly how this mad scientist experiment came about, but we do know that we are going to make every effort to locate one of these beasts of an arcade cabinet when Halo: Fireteam Raven is released in the United States and Canada sometime this summer. If it gets a European release, we’ll be sure to let you know.