Fans, Arcade Owners Build Custom Dragon Ball FighterZ Arcade Cabinet, and It’s a Beaut

Dragon Ball FighterZ is easily one of this year’s best fighting games – but it does raise an interesting question. If it’s such a good draw for fans of the genre, why isn’t there an arcade version?

Now, we know that Bandai Namco is focusing more on the home market, but an arcade release would make sense – look at what happened with the Tekken franchise, and the potential promise of a Soul Calibur VI machine.

And so, the owners of a gaming venue in Westminster, Colorado called Akihabara Arcade have taken it upon themselves to build their own Dragon Ball FighterZ game – and, dare we say, they did a very damn good job.

The video, which can be seen above, shows just what kind of work went into the machine. Not only does it feature all the action on a crisp monitor, but you can see that the controls are set up similarly to any given Capcom or Bandai Namco game. On top of that, they’ve decked out the unit with custom art work from top to bottom, and made it in a super-deformed sort of mold, similar to a lot of the arcade games they have there.

“Finished this new cabinet!” the team confirmed. “Just in time for Free Play Friday!” (That indicates you should be able to play Dragon Ball FighterZ to your heart’s content without dropping a single quarter.)

And, again, this has us thinking – could this game be primed for some kind of arcade run? It’d obviously do some big business overseas with the gaming and anime crowds, and here, it’d be sweet too, especially if Dave and Buster’s helped put it together.

Maybe the Akihabara Arcade guys can make their way to EVO as well, so players can check out this FighterZ set-up the way it was meant to be played, with joysticks and an exciting arcade cabinet design. Fingers crossed that they can make the trip.

So if you’re around Colorado this weekend, make sure you stop by and check this game out. I sure will – and I might just take a few chumps along for the ride.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.