What's next for Unico

Nova Blast 2 or Nova Blast Ultimate: What comes next is on you.

Thank you for years of support to Unico. Since the launch year of Nova Blast, the team has dedicated our hearts to refining the two existing models, U2 and U4. However, some hardware and software shortcomings are indeed hitting their tipping point. That’s why the team decided to declare an overhaul of the entire Nova Blast lineup starting now.

What we find frustrating:

NB (Nova Blast) can be a little tricky when it comes to wiring. Last year, when Danio and Youzhi shot the official unboxing video, they spent an entire segment showcasing how to correctly connect all the wires while managing the cables to ensure the machine would run properly. That’s easy for hardware enthusiasts like those two folks, but not everyone can easily identify what is what on the PCB board.

Like… This is not the most straightforward set up of a back panel (screenshot form the official Nova Blast Guide)

Regular requests that are waiting to be answered

1. Screen Rotation

Screen rotation will always be a priority for us to look into. When we look at classic candy cabs like Sega Astro City and Taito Egret, they all feature a screen rotation axis in the middle to help arcade owners rotate the screen unit easily. The Nova Blast design ultimately did not choose this solution or add an extra rotation axis in order to avoid potential high costs, but we are still activity searching for a better solution.

Right now, after take out the outer panel on the monitor, you can manually unscrew the screen inside and adjust its placement.  

2. Single Player Panel?

Look, we get it. A single player panel is built for versus cab setups. Not everyone likes the approach of sitting next to each other while playing, especially in the fighting game genre. The Unico team originally sampled most use cases from North America, especially here in the States, where folks are already used to 1v1 cabinets being side by side. But a single player panel should be an option due to the needs of different markets and more professional competitive player setups.

What we think

One of the core elements we noticed is that Nova Blast is perfect for beat ’em up, shoot ’em up, and fighting game titles. However, it cannot play games that require a steering wheel or special control sticks to truly enjoy them. To address this, our team has been working hard to find a solution and make Nova Blast Control Panel Replacement Kits possible. There are simply too many great retro 4:3 games that can be played on this monster of a machine.

It goes little something like this.. Right? 

Nova Blast with Games

MVSX is the first hit product from Unico. Despite some issues, we still believe we nailed it with the exterior and software design. We remember the good old days when this machine first put us in the public eye.

This year, we officially launched Raiden U3. This marks the first time the powerhouse candy cab Nova Blast has collaborated with one of the most iconic STG IPs. We love seeing people’s reactions when they first lay eyes on it. That gives us confidence — and here’s a quick announcement: there will be more collaborations between Unico and popular IPs to come.