Arcade Paradise Review

Arcade Paradise

Release: January 1, 1970
Publisher: Wired Productions
Developer:
Genre: PlayStation 5 Reviews, PS5 Reviews, ReviewsXBox One ReviewsXbox Series X Reviews
PEGI:
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Welcome to Arcade Paradise, the 90’s-fuelled retro arcade adventure. Rather than washing rags for a living, you decide to turn the family laundromat into the ultimate arcade. Play, profit, and purchase new arcade machines, with over 35 to choose from, to build your very own Arcade Paradise!

This game takes the idea of playing retro inspired games but adds another layer on top of it to make it a little more interesting. Instead of just playing a random assortment of retro games, Arcade Paradise is wrapped in the story of Ashley a teenage slacker who is forced to take over one of your fathers’ businesses to prove yourself. Now you are in charge of running a laundromat, and not a very nice one at that. Every day you have to wash and dry clothes, pick up trash and toss in the dumpster, pick gum off of things, unclog the toilets and more (all in the form of very simple little minigames). As you venture into the back room you discover a few arcade machines in the back that are available to play (as well as generate income for you), your goal is to take your passion for gaming and create the best arcade possible.

As you save up and collect your profits from laundry, cleaning and the games, you then reinvest that money back into the arcade purchasing new machines, expansions and more. You also eventually unlock daily tasks to do. Which most of the time involve goals in the actual arcade games to do and you earn a separate currency for (as your father is offshore during all of this monitoring your progress) that currency is used to purchase upgrades to make your job easier and more efficient on the simulator side of things. While the loop is addictive to me at least, I do struggle a little with how slow progression is on your upgrades (via daily tasks) moves. It’s easy to earn money to upgrade and expand your arcade but the other benefits come FAR to slow for me. In my first five hours streaming this game on my YouTube. I believe I only unlocked one or two upgrades. But I still find myself coming back for more, due to the nature of the game.

But besides washing laundry and cleaning trash you do get to play those sweet games in the arcade as well. Many (ALL OF THEM) are copies of classic arcade games like Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Dance Dance Revolution, and more all with a unique theming used for obvious (Legal) reasons. Most of the games are fun to play, but some suffer from some poor quality or controls. Not a huge deal considering how many games there are to experience and none of them are mandatory, so if you don’t like it, doesn’t matter still earns money.

The soundtrack is full of late 80’s/early 90’s synth music and is pretty dark good overall. You can purchase a jukebox for your arcade and unlock more tracks as well (which also helps it earn more money). Controls overall are pretty good, although there are some frustrating angle issues you can run into when collecting trash or emptying the arcade machines to collect money. But nothing really to deter me from playing at all.

All in all, Arcade Paradise offers a unique blend of business simulation and arcade sweetness that keeps you wanting to play more to find out what the next arcade cabinet you can get is. It’s definitely not a game I would recommend to everyone but for someone who is nostalgic for old arcades or enjoys a bit of weird gaming it connected great for me. It’s another stunning example of a game doesn’t need to be AAA to be fun and engaging. If you are interested check out my YouTube channel below for the first 40 min of the game (and more if you are interested as well)

Trailer