Has anybody heard of or played either of these? I have been playing the arcade version for years now and I love it so much. 

It is a 5v5 game played on two cabinets (Black is 4v4 online with a few differences but mostly the same). The basic game is that there is a queen and then 4 worker drones and they all work towards completing an objective to win - the objectives are killing the opposing team's queen 3 times, filling up their team's hive with 12 berries, or riding a snail from the middle of the map to your side's goal. At the start of a game there are 5 gates scattered around the map (3 warrior gates, 2 speed gates) and drones are able to upgrade with a speed and/or warrior boost if they stand with a berry in front of a gate that is neutral or their team controls it. The queen is able to fly over the gates to gain control of them. 

Once you play a couple of times it is really easy to pick up but it takes a really long time to master. I love this game so much, especially the arcade version. If you live near a major city in the US there is a good chance that there is a set of cabs and most likely a league night at some location there. Please check it out, it is so much fun!

How to play Killer Queen

Lionheart introduced me to Killer Queen Black maybe a year ago. We played it a bunch of times. It's a very fun, additive game. Good combination of platforming, teamwork and strategy. Had no idea it was an arcade game though and not seen it in an arcade bar, although admittedly I haven't found any particularly good ones in the UK. Don't remember why we stopped playing. Maybe it was a fad that quickly died out.

Dec 2, 2021 20:34:19 GMT Emperor said:

Lionheart introduced me to Killer Queen Black maybe a year ago. We played it a bunch of times. It's a very fun, additive game. Good combination of platforming, teamwork and strategy. Had no idea it was an arcade game though and not seen it in an arcade bar, although admittedly I haven't found any particularly good ones in the UK. Don't remember why we stopped playing. Maybe it was a fad that quickly died out.

I don't think there are any cabs in the UK unfortunately. Hopefully someday!

We stopped playing Emperor because the game died very quickly. It was very fun, but only has 2 Steam players online right now. It’s cross-platform, so there may be enough Switch players to start a game…but last year, it was the same 5 players over and over that were either too shitty or too good to have a competitive game.

Dec 2, 2021 21:58:29 GMT Lionheart said:

We stopped playing Emperor because the game died very quickly. It was very fun, but only has 2 Steam players online right now. It’s cross-platform, so there may be enough Switch players to start a game…but last year, it was the same 5 players over and over that were either too shitty or too good to have a competitive game.

Yeah, I only played Black a few times. I had friends that played a lot but now that you mentioned it I haven't really heard them talk about playing it for a while now. Not sure why the drop-off happened, people just moved along I guess. I was always much more interested in the arcade version because you are playing with people and that feels like the ideal environment to play in. If you are interested in some high level play this is the last championship finals match, with some of the best players from around the country:

Killer Queen Black does not appear to be a spectator game. I had no idea what was going on, impossible to follow everything at once. Don't know how the commentators do it. The queens spend a lot of time hovering around and not attacking other players which is weird. No plays for economic victory, it's all snail and military.

Dec 2, 2021 21:58:29 GMT Lionheart said:

We stopped playing Emperor because the game died very quickly. It was very fun, but only has 2 Steam players online right now. It’s cross-platform, so there may be enough Switch players to start a game…but last year, it was the same 5 players over and over that were either too shitty or too good to have a competitive game.

Really frustrating aspect of online gaming, so many games are such a flash in the pan that it’s near impossible to get a game once the hype dies off.

Dec 3, 2021 22:56:27 GMT Emperor said:

Killer Queen Black does not appear to be a spectator game. I had no idea what was going on, impossible to follow everything at once. Don't know how the commentators do it. The queens spend a lot of time hovering around and not attacking other players which is weird. No plays for economic victory, it's all snail and military.

Yeah looks boring af watching