In September of 2018, a mysterious countdown timer was displayed on the record label Hardcore Tano*C’s website, but what the countdown was for, no one knew. Then on October 4th, the countdown timer had finished and WACCA was officially announced to the public for the first time.
For those who don’t know, WACCA is an arcade rhythm game that utilizes a full 360-degree touch ring for complete immersive gameplay developed by MARVELOUS. The song list is handled by none other than the Japanese hardcore techno record label, Hardcore Tano*C. Hardcore Tano*C is the net-label which plays home to heavy hitters such as; REDALiCE, DJ NORIKEN, USAO, MASSIVE NEW KREW, P*Light, t+pazolite, and DJ Genki.
With such a stacked artist lineup who has a proven track record with making music for music games, WACCA is sure to be a success, right? Let’s take a further dive and see what we can find out about the unique title, WACCA.
It’s all in the name
WACCA is a truly unique but catchy name. It’s fun to say, has a ring to it (hue hue), and it’s easy to remember, but not to be confused by the marina of the same name. But what does it mean!? Well, the word WAKKA (輪っか) in Japanese means just that, a ring, or a loop.
This is truly fitting because that’s exactly what the game is, it’s a full 360-degree touch panel surrounding a circular screen.
The game was officially shown to the public in a series location tests spanning across the time frame of 10/19 to 11/4 as 3-day location tests at 4 different stores and then another location test happening from 11/9 to 11/18. On June 18th, 2019, the two companies held a live stream where they announced that WACCA is going to be released to the public on 7/18.
The game was met with pretty decent acclaim considering that this is the joint venture’s first foray into music games, let alone arcade games. That’s not to say there weren’t some hiccups, especially in the North American territories where the game is available as they have still yet to receive an update for the game in any capacity.
Touch all around
Thanks to the innovations in touch technology and the creative minds between MARVELOUS and Hardcore Tano*C, WACCA is the first game that I have personally seen which uses a full 360-degree touch panel surrounding the screen. There are different note types which the player has to obey and touch at the proper time when the notes hit the “timeline” area. Those notes are;
Touch Notes: These are individual notes which fall in random places on the screen. They require the player to simply tap the corresponding location that the note falls.
Hold Notes: These are notes which fall in random places on the screen requiring the player to hold the note until it’s duration ends. These notes can move along the touch area once they start as well.
Snap Notes: These are notes which are indicated by an up or down arrow which indicates to the player which direction they are to “snap” their hands once the note reaches the timeline.
Slide Notes: Similar to Snap Notes, slide notes are indicated by left or right arrows on top of the note itself dictating which direction the note needs to be “slid”.
Put a Ring On It?
Now I’m sure that there are many people who want me to say, “Well, you know, WACCA just isn’t that good and it’s really limited with what it has and you know..”. I am going to say the exact opposite. WACCA is a damn fun game to play and it’s extremely good at what it does.
I know that the USA hasn’t received any updates, and if you have an AIME pass that is used in Japan on WACCA or any other territory for that matter can’t be used, and that there are game-breaking bugs in the initial release of the game, but developer MARVELOUS is quickly addressing these.
All of that included, the game is still EXTREMELY fun to play. If you live near a Round1 in the states or if you’re one of our readers that lives in Japan, you really have no excuse but to go check WACCA out for yourself. It’s jam-packed with high-energy heart-pumping music that frankly is quite better than any of the other music games that line the game center floors. There are exceptions to this, but as a majority, WACCA hits it out of the park.
Take it as a personal recommendation to get up and check WACCA out, as I’ve said multiple times before about other games, you won’t regret it.