by cleverly hiding a small plot point about your uninterested dad not being proud of you they managed to make me emotional
probably play this with a controller if i ever do again but it was pretty fun
probably play this with a controller if i ever do again but it was pretty fun
It's lots of fun at the start when you're sneaking away from the laundry stuff to play brief sessions of games and you're quickly unlocking new things. It becomes a slog when you've completed most of the game achievements and the remaining ones just require you to put hours into the games.
I reached what feels like the natural end of the game, but credits didn't roll. I guess it wants you to stick around and unlock the last few arcade games, but I don't feel compelled to do that.
I reached what feels like the natural end of the game, but credits didn't roll. I guess it wants you to stick around and unlock the last few arcade games, but I don't feel compelled to do that.
Arcade Paradise lives and dies by how much you enjoy the fake arcade games, and that's where this game kinda breaks down for me. There are over 35 games to put in your arcade, but I found myself only really enjoying about 8. And as the game goes on and your laundromat tasks become less and less important, you'll be playing a LOT of the arcade games.
The game takes about 25 hours to beat, which feels like a bit much. I think if it was all condensed down to 15, I'd be singing a different tune about Arcade Paradise. Sure, I probably still wouldn't like all the games, but at least my time spent with them would be lessened, and maybe it wouldn't feel as much like a chore.
That's not to say this game is terrible. What it lacks in brevity, it makes up for in ~vibes~. This game is going for a certain early 90s feel (DDR cabinet aside) and I think they nail it fairly well. But maybe I'm just a sucker for doing laundry while listening to fake Cypress Hill.
The game takes about 25 hours to beat, which feels like a bit much. I think if it was all condensed down to 15, I'd be singing a different tune about Arcade Paradise. Sure, I probably still wouldn't like all the games, but at least my time spent with them would be lessened, and maybe it wouldn't feel as much like a chore.
That's not to say this game is terrible. What it lacks in brevity, it makes up for in ~vibes~. This game is going for a certain early 90s feel (DDR cabinet aside) and I think they nail it fairly well. But maybe I'm just a sucker for doing laundry while listening to fake Cypress Hill.
I dropped off the Switch version originally because I found the laundromat sim elements fairly tedious and they prevented me from enjoying the games. This was about 5 hours in when I had 10 machines. I stopped and didn't pick it up until this week.
I just rolled credits on the story, have all 35ish machines, and have cracked 15-17 hours into it. I had basically stopped right before the game got good.
Arcade Paradise is a first-person sim where you manage a laundromat your father gave you and slowly build out an arcade machine in the back of the store. You raise money doing laundry and picking up trash at first so you can buy more machines and gain income from there.
At first, you will barely be playing the arcade games and only be doing tasks at the front of the store, but you quickly gain more machines and rely less on the tedious stuff. Over time, you stop doing laundry altogether and just focus on maximizing arcade income by modifying the difficulty and cost of machine plays and beating challenges to make the game more popular.
It was when I realized the end of doing laundry was in sight that I really started to love this, and it was when I started playing the arcade games that I really started to love the package put together here.
It's not perfect to be sure. About 25% of the arcade games aren't much fun (like a real arcade), and even as you progress you can never fully eliminate tasks like trash and debugging machines (though you can reduce them). Also, I ran into a few glitches and hitches from time to time.
So why is this a 4.5? It is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The arcade games that are fun are really fun, and the feeling of expanding your arcade feels just about as good as expanding your house in Animal Crossing. Watching your daily income go up and the intentionally tedious tasks disappear is also extremely satisfying. Also, the story is really pretty good! A satisfying tale about generational expectations and the meaning of personal potential.
You have to eat your salad before you can get to your steak and dessert, but what's on the other side of that salad is an excellent-but-flawed sim that I believe is well worth anyone's time.
Misc thoughts:
1. Switch version is pretty good. I recommend turning on performance mode, switching laundry to toggle instead of hold (to protect your thumb), and expanding the FOV to limit motion sickness.
2. Play with the arcade management settings. Tweak the cost/difficulty until you get the most money per hour you can (usually Medium difficulty at first), then jack it up to hard as you play more and accomplish more goals.
3. There's a bit of a grind at the end that I got through by idling the game while machines built up money. It was a little annoying. Like I said, greater than the sum of its parts.
I just rolled credits on the story, have all 35ish machines, and have cracked 15-17 hours into it. I had basically stopped right before the game got good.
Arcade Paradise is a first-person sim where you manage a laundromat your father gave you and slowly build out an arcade machine in the back of the store. You raise money doing laundry and picking up trash at first so you can buy more machines and gain income from there.
At first, you will barely be playing the arcade games and only be doing tasks at the front of the store, but you quickly gain more machines and rely less on the tedious stuff. Over time, you stop doing laundry altogether and just focus on maximizing arcade income by modifying the difficulty and cost of machine plays and beating challenges to make the game more popular.
It was when I realized the end of doing laundry was in sight that I really started to love this, and it was when I started playing the arcade games that I really started to love the package put together here.
It's not perfect to be sure. About 25% of the arcade games aren't much fun (like a real arcade), and even as you progress you can never fully eliminate tasks like trash and debugging machines (though you can reduce them). Also, I ran into a few glitches and hitches from time to time.
So why is this a 4.5? It is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The arcade games that are fun are really fun, and the feeling of expanding your arcade feels just about as good as expanding your house in Animal Crossing. Watching your daily income go up and the intentionally tedious tasks disappear is also extremely satisfying. Also, the story is really pretty good! A satisfying tale about generational expectations and the meaning of personal potential.
You have to eat your salad before you can get to your steak and dessert, but what's on the other side of that salad is an excellent-but-flawed sim that I believe is well worth anyone's time.
Misc thoughts:
1. Switch version is pretty good. I recommend turning on performance mode, switching laundry to toggle instead of hold (to protect your thumb), and expanding the FOV to limit motion sickness.
2. Play with the arcade management settings. Tweak the cost/difficulty until you get the most money per hour you can (usually Medium difficulty at first), then jack it up to hard as you play more and accomplish more goals.
3. There's a bit of a grind at the end that I got through by idling the game while machines built up money. It was a little annoying. Like I said, greater than the sum of its parts.
An ok game that really got tired and i stopped playing after a hour. It was free though so i can't be all that mad.
4/10
4/10
It's funny that this game is a repetitive, fairly buggy, sloppily executed idea of both a minigame vessel and a management sim, and yet I enjoy every second of it and get horribly addicted to playing it like 4-5 hours a day.
The gameplay loop here is what's doing a hard carry with juggling laundry loads with emptying arcade machines, getting achievements so you boost popularity on said machines, and on top of that little bits and pieces to keep your attention.
Very few of the arcade games are really that fun to play, moreso just a fun take on some older game genres and ideas. One of my favorites is the DLC machine called "Empathy," where all you do is walk in this bizarre, dim, vector landscape and avoid shots as you ponder your life.
There's such a weird quirk to how shallow/buggy the games are, but I feel compelled to play them more because it feels like I have a reason to at all times. The game offers a pretty huge soundtrack and quite a lot of arcade games to play.
If you can grab this on sale and can get past some really rough patches of menuing and some not very fun minigames, there's something here that ticks my brain something fierce.
The gameplay loop here is what's doing a hard carry with juggling laundry loads with emptying arcade machines, getting achievements so you boost popularity on said machines, and on top of that little bits and pieces to keep your attention.
Very few of the arcade games are really that fun to play, moreso just a fun take on some older game genres and ideas. One of my favorites is the DLC machine called "Empathy," where all you do is walk in this bizarre, dim, vector landscape and avoid shots as you ponder your life.
There's such a weird quirk to how shallow/buggy the games are, but I feel compelled to play them more because it feels like I have a reason to at all times. The game offers a pretty huge soundtrack and quite a lot of arcade games to play.
If you can grab this on sale and can get past some really rough patches of menuing and some not very fun minigames, there's something here that ticks my brain something fierce.
This game had a lot more than I was expecting. Love the fact you can play each game and they’re all incredibly detailed too.
Find the grind can be a bit boring at times, also wish there were more customization options for organizing your arcade. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this game but believe there could be more options available and be a bit less repetitive at times.
Find the grind can be a bit boring at times, also wish there were more customization options for organizing your arcade. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this game but believe there could be more options available and be a bit less repetitive at times.
It's a perfect play-on-mute-while-listening-to-podcasts game. The gameplay loop is simple but satisfying and there's a decent sense of progression with the different arcade games being worthwhile rewards
Joguei por 6 horas e meia, o jogo não é um pedaço de lixo, mas eu dropei pois definitivamente não vale tanto tempo assim. O loop de gameplay é chato, vazio. Não possui NADA, nessas 6 horas, que inove a gameplay.
Lavar roupas, juntar dinheiro, comprar uma nova máquina de fliperama..
Talvez tenha algum twist, talvez tenha alguma história aqui, mas já demorou mais de 6 horas e meia para contar qualquer coisa e me fazer me interessar. Não recomendo.
Lavar roupas, juntar dinheiro, comprar uma nova máquina de fliperama..
Talvez tenha algum twist, talvez tenha alguma história aqui, mas já demorou mais de 6 horas e meia para contar qualquer coisa e me fazer me interessar. Não recomendo.
only sim ive ever enjoyed
Tinha cara de ser só mais um jogo bobinho do Game Pass, mas me pegou rápido e não larguei até terminar, a mecânica de cuidar da lavanderia é chata, mas é legal por ser algo que você quer se livrar logo para ficar jogando joguinhos no arcade.
Quase todos os jogos são muito legais, tanto os autorais quanto os inspirados em existententes.
Até a história me cativou, chegar nos créditos foi bem legal, o único porém foi parar de liberar achievements a partir de certo ponto no jogo.
Quase todos os jogos são muito legais, tanto os autorais quanto os inspirados em existententes.
Até a história me cativou, chegar nos créditos foi bem legal, o único porém foi parar de liberar achievements a partir de certo ponto no jogo.
A metalinguagem desse jogo é absurda, pois traduz exatamente a vida real. Gosto como ele é uma enorme coletânea de clássicos reimaginados, e a progressão (por um bom tempo CHATA) do jogo acaba te fazendo jogar todos os jogos disponíveis.
É como ter uma coletânica de Arcade normal, só que com um incentivo e uma ordem pra jogar todos os jogos.
No endgame, você basicamente só precisa jogar, e é maneiro ver o crescimento do personagem principal no jogo.
A trilha é super subestimada e o fato dela efetivamente começar quando você compra uma Jukebox é até nostálgico, selecionar manualmente as músicas e etc.
É como ter uma coletânica de Arcade normal, só que com um incentivo e uma ordem pra jogar todos os jogos.
No endgame, você basicamente só precisa jogar, e é maneiro ver o crescimento do personagem principal no jogo.
A trilha é super subestimada e o fato dela efetivamente começar quando você compra uma Jukebox é até nostálgico, selecionar manualmente as músicas e etc.
I hate cockroaches
This game is a lot more than I thought, but then also became less. From screenshots and a couple of videos, I thought maybe this was just a little virtual gallery as a way to hide what is only a retro game collection, but no, there is an actual light work sim game in here.
You start off by running an actual landromat, doing people's laundry, with like one arcade cabinet in the back, and the game's major twist is that not only can you actually play the games, but achieving various tasks actually levels up how popular that game is and how much it earns, so there's clear incentive to play and become at least decent at the many arcade games included.
The game, when its at its best, is some 10-15 hours of casually doing some basic laundry, keeping your establishment clean, picking new arcade cabinets and setting some decent scores in order to level them up. All while some classic synth music streams through terrible, static-filled radios older than I am. If you don't like the crappy radio, you can purchase a jukebox that mutes all other music, including the games, so you can keep jamming your favorite synth or album-oriented rock constantly while hopping between tasks. The gameplay is simple, yet cozy, and the vibe is there.
But, unfortunately, that's also about it. You can't really do much to change the order in which you purchase cabinets, there's basically zero customization for your arcade and the game is too short and just kind of stops when the game runs out of plot. The developer posted on Reddit that they would've liked an endgame where you keep expanding and buying new shops but that it wasn't possible. It's too bad they couldn't even get some basic customization in here, like more free placement of cabinets and maybe some simple wall paint, because the game's biggest problem is how it just stops and it feels like there's little to no reason to continue. Sure, all games end, but this one feels like it ends too early and like there's too much potential left.
You start off by running an actual landromat, doing people's laundry, with like one arcade cabinet in the back, and the game's major twist is that not only can you actually play the games, but achieving various tasks actually levels up how popular that game is and how much it earns, so there's clear incentive to play and become at least decent at the many arcade games included.
The game, when its at its best, is some 10-15 hours of casually doing some basic laundry, keeping your establishment clean, picking new arcade cabinets and setting some decent scores in order to level them up. All while some classic synth music streams through terrible, static-filled radios older than I am. If you don't like the crappy radio, you can purchase a jukebox that mutes all other music, including the games, so you can keep jamming your favorite synth or album-oriented rock constantly while hopping between tasks. The gameplay is simple, yet cozy, and the vibe is there.
But, unfortunately, that's also about it. You can't really do much to change the order in which you purchase cabinets, there's basically zero customization for your arcade and the game is too short and just kind of stops when the game runs out of plot. The developer posted on Reddit that they would've liked an endgame where you keep expanding and buying new shops but that it wasn't possible. It's too bad they couldn't even get some basic customization in here, like more free placement of cabinets and maybe some simple wall paint, because the game's biggest problem is how it just stops and it feels like there's little to no reason to continue. Sure, all games end, but this one feels like it ends too early and like there's too much potential left.
The idea is great. Build your own arcade at the back of a laundromat and have the ability to play on all the machines you buy for your arcade. As you progress, you get more machines to buy and play on as you expand your arcade.
The laundromat management part of the game is designed to be a side hustle to the arcade and to be monotonous on purpose. It ties into the theme of the story in many ways, but even so, you still spend so much time on it that you end up wishing it was more fleshed out. Unless you ignore it completely, which is possible to do, and only play arcade games.
You are at the mercy of the arcade machines, if you don't enjoy them, there is not that much else to do. I liked 5-6 of them, but the rest I had to force myself to play on. The thing is, the more you play on them, the more money they bring in, so if you don't play on them a lot, you are gonna earn slowly, something that comes close to killing the game towards the end where you have some of the bigger expenses.
The laundromat management part of the game is designed to be a side hustle to the arcade and to be monotonous on purpose. It ties into the theme of the story in many ways, but even so, you still spend so much time on it that you end up wishing it was more fleshed out. Unless you ignore it completely, which is possible to do, and only play arcade games.
You are at the mercy of the arcade machines, if you don't enjoy them, there is not that much else to do. I liked 5-6 of them, but the rest I had to force myself to play on. The thing is, the more you play on them, the more money they bring in, so if you don't play on them a lot, you are gonna earn slowly, something that comes close to killing the game towards the end where you have some of the bigger expenses.
A funny little game that's more than the sum of its parts. That's a good thing, because the individual parts are often pretty lacking.
The premise of the game is extremely appealing: you are the college dropout child of a successful businessman who is given a grotty looking launderette to run as a way of learning business. You start off doing people's laundry but there are arcade machines in the back of the launderette which end up making more money and that ends up feeding back into itself and you end up with 30-odd arcade games, which you play in order to increase their earning potential.
It's a game of some pretty amazing ambition - 35-plus original games in one, for less than 20 quid? Unfortunately all of them have at least one major issue which seriously harms them. Universally, the big issues are poor controls and obnoxious CRT shaders but many games have other major issues, like the Arkanoid clone with shockingly poor physics, the DDR game with the arrows in the wrong order, the racing game which has corners that you can't take without crashing or the Super Hexagon game which seems to run in slow motion. It's not exactly Cassette 50 but I don't see myself coming back to any of them soon.
It still kept me going for 20-odd hours though; the voice of the character's father is well played and they absolutely nailed the progression. The games being fairly low quality doesn't matter so much when they're constantly coming in. With some more options and a bit of refactoring of things like the controls (especially in the games and on interacting with objects in the world) I think quite a few of the games could be genuinely a lot of fun, and since they're actively patching I think this might be worth revisiting in a few months.
Steam Deck report: After the first patch after a week or so, it just works. Pretty much solid 60 and I played 95% of the game on it. A good time waster.
The premise of the game is extremely appealing: you are the college dropout child of a successful businessman who is given a grotty looking launderette to run as a way of learning business. You start off doing people's laundry but there are arcade machines in the back of the launderette which end up making more money and that ends up feeding back into itself and you end up with 30-odd arcade games, which you play in order to increase their earning potential.
It's a game of some pretty amazing ambition - 35-plus original games in one, for less than 20 quid? Unfortunately all of them have at least one major issue which seriously harms them. Universally, the big issues are poor controls and obnoxious CRT shaders but many games have other major issues, like the Arkanoid clone with shockingly poor physics, the DDR game with the arrows in the wrong order, the racing game which has corners that you can't take without crashing or the Super Hexagon game which seems to run in slow motion. It's not exactly Cassette 50 but I don't see myself coming back to any of them soon.
It still kept me going for 20-odd hours though; the voice of the character's father is well played and they absolutely nailed the progression. The games being fairly low quality doesn't matter so much when they're constantly coming in. With some more options and a bit of refactoring of things like the controls (especially in the games and on interacting with objects in the world) I think quite a few of the games could be genuinely a lot of fun, and since they're actively patching I think this might be worth revisiting in a few months.
Steam Deck report: After the first patch after a week or so, it just works. Pretty much solid 60 and I played 95% of the game on it. A good time waster.
Half arcade running simulator, half arcade game playing. That's arcade paradise. For the low entry cost, seriously 25 bucks for the physical and soundtrack download code, you get a lot of bang for your buck here. Let's break it down between the both halves.
The simulator elements while simple do a great job at breaking up the pacing with the arcade game playing. You start with a dump of a laundry store and eventually build it up to a living breathing acrade of it's own. piece by piece. There is a small story about a girl with an overbearing father and their relationship around the job. I really appreciated these parts as it helps build a connection and feel like i'm a part of someone's every day world as opposed to a digital janitor. I wish they were more fleshed out or deeper but they mostly are good at helping the pacing. It's all about earning money so you can buy more arcade games. At the start of your menial laundry job, washing and drying clothes to keep the place running is nessesary task. However the money you make and more games you add to the side room, the more money you have to make expansions to fit more games and eventually dump the laundry element all togather. Every menial task rewards the player with money. Taking out the clothes, cleaning up the garbage, unclogging the toilet, removing gum splatter, maintaing the machines and more. Everything is tied to a little mini game that keeps the task from becmoing tedious. They are quick and fast and do help from getting quick arcade playing exhaustion. Also everyday there are three tasks that are optinal to complete. They range from doing a specific chore, to obtaining a score in a certain game or playing for a certain time and things like that. Those earn you seperate point that you can use to buy perks or upgrades that make doing certain things easier or buying music tracks to play in the juke box and more things of that nature. Pretty decent amount but some of the things really don't seem to do much or just pad out the store.
As for the arcade games themselves there is about 30 different ones. A lot of them are mimics of old popular arcade games such as frogger. pacman and space invaders but there is a big varity to play and you really only need to play them in short bursts so they don't wear out their welcome as fast as you might think. There are clearly a handful of games that are more designed than others but I think there aren't very many that are true clunkers. As for how they play I will say they don't excactly replace any of their contemporaries or make me want to ever play them outside of this game but I will say I didn't mind that much as I thought I would. The games all have built in challanges and scores. Trying to complete them is really a big part of the game but it's not required at all. If your an achievment hunter I think you will get much more playtime out of this than say someone who just wants to see the start and the end and play each thing only once.
Overall I think Arcade Paradise accomplishes what I think it set out to do. I don't think the games themselves make a great mini game compliation but in combination of the simulator elements and quick pacing of the objectives and actual game playing time create quite a nice vibe and it's easy to get lost in. I recommend it to any simulator fans or fans of classic retro arcade games.
Platinum #167
The simulator elements while simple do a great job at breaking up the pacing with the arcade game playing. You start with a dump of a laundry store and eventually build it up to a living breathing acrade of it's own. piece by piece. There is a small story about a girl with an overbearing father and their relationship around the job. I really appreciated these parts as it helps build a connection and feel like i'm a part of someone's every day world as opposed to a digital janitor. I wish they were more fleshed out or deeper but they mostly are good at helping the pacing. It's all about earning money so you can buy more arcade games. At the start of your menial laundry job, washing and drying clothes to keep the place running is nessesary task. However the money you make and more games you add to the side room, the more money you have to make expansions to fit more games and eventually dump the laundry element all togather. Every menial task rewards the player with money. Taking out the clothes, cleaning up the garbage, unclogging the toilet, removing gum splatter, maintaing the machines and more. Everything is tied to a little mini game that keeps the task from becmoing tedious. They are quick and fast and do help from getting quick arcade playing exhaustion. Also everyday there are three tasks that are optinal to complete. They range from doing a specific chore, to obtaining a score in a certain game or playing for a certain time and things like that. Those earn you seperate point that you can use to buy perks or upgrades that make doing certain things easier or buying music tracks to play in the juke box and more things of that nature. Pretty decent amount but some of the things really don't seem to do much or just pad out the store.
As for the arcade games themselves there is about 30 different ones. A lot of them are mimics of old popular arcade games such as frogger. pacman and space invaders but there is a big varity to play and you really only need to play them in short bursts so they don't wear out their welcome as fast as you might think. There are clearly a handful of games that are more designed than others but I think there aren't very many that are true clunkers. As for how they play I will say they don't excactly replace any of their contemporaries or make me want to ever play them outside of this game but I will say I didn't mind that much as I thought I would. The games all have built in challanges and scores. Trying to complete them is really a big part of the game but it's not required at all. If your an achievment hunter I think you will get much more playtime out of this than say someone who just wants to see the start and the end and play each thing only once.
Overall I think Arcade Paradise accomplishes what I think it set out to do. I don't think the games themselves make a great mini game compliation but in combination of the simulator elements and quick pacing of the objectives and actual game playing time create quite a nice vibe and it's easy to get lost in. I recommend it to any simulator fans or fans of classic retro arcade games.
Platinum #167
Minigames are fun, but a bit too much grind
Way too long. By the time I reached the point where I had to buy another three or four machines with costs in the tens of thousands, I decided enough was enough.
The arcade cabinets are fun recreations of old titles that I remember from the 80s and 90s, but for me it wasn't enough to hold my attention for the 20+ hours the game demanded from me.
It's a shame but if the story were shorter, say a dozen hours or so, then this would be a more enjoyable experience. As it is, it outstays its welcome and made me regret the time I'd poured into it.
The arcade cabinets are fun recreations of old titles that I remember from the 80s and 90s, but for me it wasn't enough to hold my attention for the 20+ hours the game demanded from me.
It's a shame but if the story were shorter, say a dozen hours or so, then this would be a more enjoyable experience. As it is, it outstays its welcome and made me regret the time I'd poured into it.
Cool idea, just not one I felt motivated to stick with for 25 hours (if HowLongToBeat is correct and the game is that long).
Arcade Paradise starts slow, and I was initially unsure I'd ever finish it. I was trying all sorts of stuff on Steam Deck to see what would stick, and this was one of the games I landed on.
It wasn't the arcade management sim I was hoping for but what's there, a large collection of original games, are very good.
It wasn't the arcade management sim I was hoping for but what's there, a large collection of original games, are very good.
Always expect the unexpected.
What a nice little gem this game is honestly, amidst the fun gameplay loop I found myself taken back by an aspect of the game I will get to later in the review.
So what is Arcade paradise?
Arcade paradise is a mini game collection mixed in with a laundromat simulator. The basic gameplay loop is you run a laundromat and each day you clean clothes to earn money. Furthermore the money you earn you invest in arcades cabinets to slowly build your arcade. As the game progresses you will begin to earn even more money through the arcade machines as people come into your place making you care less for the laundromat. In addition once you dig deeper you unlock daily tasks as well as goals for each cabinet machine. This is a fun little way to really get you to play each machine wanting to learn the ins and outs of each one to finish these goals. In the end do not go into this game expecting an arcade management game because it is NOT that it is primarily a collectathon of mini games and playing those games a lot.
So what surprised me about this game?
Well…. I can’t really get into it as I usually never talk about spoilers in this game BUT what I will say is this. There is a little story attached to this game that I was not expecting at all and quite honestly really elevated the experience overall as you continue to grow your arcade. It really made the gameplay loop more meaningful past wanting to play mini games obviously. With that being said DO NOT LOOK UP ANYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME OR ITS STORY JUST PLAY IT AND ENJOY IT.
What are the good points?
The mini games overall are fun , they are not great but they get the job done. You will run into a lot of clones like a mr driller, Pac man, Araknoid, and an Out Run clone just to name a few. My personal favorites were Woodgal Jr, Zombat2 and Space race. For the most part I enjoyed a handful of them seeing myself trying to beat records in multiple cabinets. Furthermore I really like how you can’t “lose” in this game it all comes down to how fast you want to progress your arcade. There is no time limit or day limit to when you need to get things done you can simply enjoy your time with the gameplay loop and not have to worry. This makes for a care free gameplay loop allowing you to do whatever you want and always feeling like you are progressing which I enjoyed.
It's also on gamepass :)
Sadly we do run into issues
While I did enjoy a handful of the games I also didn’t enjoy a handful of them. Primarily the Air hockey and Pac man mini games I thought were very terrible. To explain , the air hockey mini controls are insanely clunky; it is not fun to move the paddle around the area. In addition, hitting the puck seemed broken in many ways making for a lot of self goals. With that being said they added a control where you can just press A on your controller and the paddle will move by itself? Once I figured this out there was no reason to even try anymore as you can win with just spamming A lol. On the pac man side of things the mini game is called Racer Chaser where you play as a Criminal??? Running away from cops and grabbing money on the road. I for the life of me could never beat a level as moving around the map was horrible and slow. Furthermore, There were a handful of bugs ranging from not being able to pick up trash to full on softlocking the game. The issues didn’t persist all the time but having the game full on soft lock forcing a hard restart was pretty bad lol. Also there comes a point in the game where certain daily goals are literally undoable but the game still keeps them in? I don’t understand why you can potentially get dailies you can’t even do lol. On the xbox side of things some achievements were bugged as well as achievements taking way too long to pop up, it was annoying lol.To add one last thing , near the end of the game the grind becomes a bit long which I can see being an issue for some people.
Overall thoughts
Arcade paradise was a pleasant surprise that I recommend giving a go on sale OR if you have gamepass since this title is on gamepass. As stated before, do not go into this game expecting a management game because there is NO managing anything in this game.
What a nice little gem this game is honestly, amidst the fun gameplay loop I found myself taken back by an aspect of the game I will get to later in the review.
So what is Arcade paradise?
Arcade paradise is a mini game collection mixed in with a laundromat simulator. The basic gameplay loop is you run a laundromat and each day you clean clothes to earn money. Furthermore the money you earn you invest in arcades cabinets to slowly build your arcade. As the game progresses you will begin to earn even more money through the arcade machines as people come into your place making you care less for the laundromat. In addition once you dig deeper you unlock daily tasks as well as goals for each cabinet machine. This is a fun little way to really get you to play each machine wanting to learn the ins and outs of each one to finish these goals. In the end do not go into this game expecting an arcade management game because it is NOT that it is primarily a collectathon of mini games and playing those games a lot.
So what surprised me about this game?
Well…. I can’t really get into it as I usually never talk about spoilers in this game BUT what I will say is this. There is a little story attached to this game that I was not expecting at all and quite honestly really elevated the experience overall as you continue to grow your arcade. It really made the gameplay loop more meaningful past wanting to play mini games obviously. With that being said DO NOT LOOK UP ANYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME OR ITS STORY JUST PLAY IT AND ENJOY IT.
What are the good points?
The mini games overall are fun , they are not great but they get the job done. You will run into a lot of clones like a mr driller, Pac man, Araknoid, and an Out Run clone just to name a few. My personal favorites were Woodgal Jr, Zombat2 and Space race. For the most part I enjoyed a handful of them seeing myself trying to beat records in multiple cabinets. Furthermore I really like how you can’t “lose” in this game it all comes down to how fast you want to progress your arcade. There is no time limit or day limit to when you need to get things done you can simply enjoy your time with the gameplay loop and not have to worry. This makes for a care free gameplay loop allowing you to do whatever you want and always feeling like you are progressing which I enjoyed.
It's also on gamepass :)
Sadly we do run into issues
While I did enjoy a handful of the games I also didn’t enjoy a handful of them. Primarily the Air hockey and Pac man mini games I thought were very terrible. To explain , the air hockey mini controls are insanely clunky; it is not fun to move the paddle around the area. In addition, hitting the puck seemed broken in many ways making for a lot of self goals. With that being said they added a control where you can just press A on your controller and the paddle will move by itself? Once I figured this out there was no reason to even try anymore as you can win with just spamming A lol. On the pac man side of things the mini game is called Racer Chaser where you play as a Criminal??? Running away from cops and grabbing money on the road. I for the life of me could never beat a level as moving around the map was horrible and slow. Furthermore, There were a handful of bugs ranging from not being able to pick up trash to full on softlocking the game. The issues didn’t persist all the time but having the game full on soft lock forcing a hard restart was pretty bad lol. Also there comes a point in the game where certain daily goals are literally undoable but the game still keeps them in? I don’t understand why you can potentially get dailies you can’t even do lol. On the xbox side of things some achievements were bugged as well as achievements taking way too long to pop up, it was annoying lol.To add one last thing , near the end of the game the grind becomes a bit long which I can see being an issue for some people.
Overall thoughts
Arcade paradise was a pleasant surprise that I recommend giving a go on sale OR if you have gamepass since this title is on gamepass. As stated before, do not go into this game expecting a management game because there is NO managing anything in this game.
These assholes keep leaving trash everywhere WTF.
(Game Pass) From Laundromat to Arcade of your dreams, this is a great rags to riches management game with lots of games to play as you try to make something of yourself under a tyrant father.
Arcade Paradise is a fun, yet uneven trip through the 80s/90s arcade boom. Whether it was a laundromat, pizza shop, or gas station, you could count on there being at least one arcade cabinet to kill some quarters. While this game captures the aesthetic of that time quite well, it decides to strangely pull you out of that capsule with bizarre cabinets that had no analog from the inspired time period.
The game is split into 2 halves - the arcade business simulator and the mini-games found within. Yes, there is the laundry to contend with from the outset, but you will quickly find yourself ignoring those responsibilities as the arcade revenue grows. The sim management side of the house is a means to an end. There is little value is re-organizing the arcade throughout your business adventure, so it's really just there to move the narrative forward.
And everything in-between comes down to the arcade games. Yes, you can play every cabinet you purchase and home within King Wash Laundromat. But the enjoyment is hit-and-miss. Because almost every game is different, there are disparate systems that all had to be developed and shipped into this game. Which means the quality of some suffer. Various games have poor controls, poor physics, or both. Things like air hockey and table football are painful to play. Even one of the game's flagship cabs - Knuckles and Knees, plays worse than something like TMNT or Simpsons arcade - not to mention any modern contemporaries that are even more finely tuned.
Despite the uneven fun factor of the cabs, there are still plenty that you'll go back to. I was confused why the developer opted to include cabinets that had no obvious analog to the time period. Something like Zombat 2 could maybe be compared to NARC or Smash TV. But why not just go all in? There are hundreds of cabinets to model after; I don't get why certain machines were crammed in here. Entries like Line Terror, Attack Vector, Cyber Dance, and Barkanoid have prominent inspirations that feel right at home.
All of these mentioned games have Goals that you can work on to drive up popularity. The issue is that the systems are not all balanced. Your cabinets make cash to purchase more arcade games and building expansions, but you need to complete daily To-Do tasks to build a separate currency for upgrades and music. This didn't really make any sense. You can only do up to 3 To-Do tasks in a day. So your extra currency was significantly capped. Worse yet, the To-Dos did not de-prioritize games you already completed all Goals on, so you often were forced to play a few minutes of something you didn't want to. A better option would have been to remove To-Dos and just reward Goals with the extra currency.
As a 90s kid, I definitely vibed with Arcade Paradise. It has the decor, the music, and (for the most part), the games. It just doesn't have the balance or the consistency to be excellent.
The game is split into 2 halves - the arcade business simulator and the mini-games found within. Yes, there is the laundry to contend with from the outset, but you will quickly find yourself ignoring those responsibilities as the arcade revenue grows. The sim management side of the house is a means to an end. There is little value is re-organizing the arcade throughout your business adventure, so it's really just there to move the narrative forward.
And everything in-between comes down to the arcade games. Yes, you can play every cabinet you purchase and home within King Wash Laundromat. But the enjoyment is hit-and-miss. Because almost every game is different, there are disparate systems that all had to be developed and shipped into this game. Which means the quality of some suffer. Various games have poor controls, poor physics, or both. Things like air hockey and table football are painful to play. Even one of the game's flagship cabs - Knuckles and Knees, plays worse than something like TMNT or Simpsons arcade - not to mention any modern contemporaries that are even more finely tuned.
Despite the uneven fun factor of the cabs, there are still plenty that you'll go back to. I was confused why the developer opted to include cabinets that had no obvious analog to the time period. Something like Zombat 2 could maybe be compared to NARC or Smash TV. But why not just go all in? There are hundreds of cabinets to model after; I don't get why certain machines were crammed in here. Entries like Line Terror, Attack Vector, Cyber Dance, and Barkanoid have prominent inspirations that feel right at home.
All of these mentioned games have Goals that you can work on to drive up popularity. The issue is that the systems are not all balanced. Your cabinets make cash to purchase more arcade games and building expansions, but you need to complete daily To-Do tasks to build a separate currency for upgrades and music. This didn't really make any sense. You can only do up to 3 To-Do tasks in a day. So your extra currency was significantly capped. Worse yet, the To-Dos did not de-prioritize games you already completed all Goals on, so you often were forced to play a few minutes of something you didn't want to. A better option would have been to remove To-Dos and just reward Goals with the extra currency.
As a 90s kid, I definitely vibed with Arcade Paradise. It has the decor, the music, and (for the most part), the games. It just doesn't have the balance or the consistency to be excellent.
This game is currently in the Humble Choice for August 2023, this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before September 5th, 2022, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.
Laundromat simulator.
Arcade Paradise might be where the game eventually gets, but early on players are running a laundromat, having to wash and dry clothes for money, and able to play arcade games in the back while waiting for the machines to finish. Over time earning money will let players expand and I assume play more games. Having to mix time between the laundromat and the arcade machine is challenging, but hopefully, that isn’t as much a part of the title.
The downside is the games aren’t the deepest, and even the few games that are surprisingly deep at the beginning don’t work well in the one to two-minute range players have to play them. There are also 8 games available as DLC, the total price of those titles is almost as much as the base game as well. While there are 35 titles contained in the game, immediately seeing a hand held out for more money always rubs me the wrong way. Also, some of the games are a bit “meh”, so I’m not sure if the ones I haven’t played yet will be amazing.
Pick this up if you love the simulator genre and old arcade games. There’s a lot of work that went into this, and I’m curious how much deeper the game goes, but I’m not sure how long this one can keep my attention. Still, the idea of running an arcade is one of those things 90s kids always wanted to do.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NNSGtTcLXoI
Laundromat simulator.
Arcade Paradise might be where the game eventually gets, but early on players are running a laundromat, having to wash and dry clothes for money, and able to play arcade games in the back while waiting for the machines to finish. Over time earning money will let players expand and I assume play more games. Having to mix time between the laundromat and the arcade machine is challenging, but hopefully, that isn’t as much a part of the title.
The downside is the games aren’t the deepest, and even the few games that are surprisingly deep at the beginning don’t work well in the one to two-minute range players have to play them. There are also 8 games available as DLC, the total price of those titles is almost as much as the base game as well. While there are 35 titles contained in the game, immediately seeing a hand held out for more money always rubs me the wrong way. Also, some of the games are a bit “meh”, so I’m not sure if the ones I haven’t played yet will be amazing.
Pick this up if you love the simulator genre and old arcade games. There’s a lot of work that went into this, and I’m curious how much deeper the game goes, but I’m not sure how long this one can keep my attention. Still, the idea of running an arcade is one of those things 90s kids always wanted to do.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/NNSGtTcLXoI
this is a delightful game. so many arcade minigames, including plenty with surprising depth, was easy to chase my bliss and just do what sounded fun each day. expanding your arcade is a good satisfying long term project, narrative isn’t gonna win any awards but there’s more to it than i expected, it definitely surprised and moved me at times.
favorite games: Woodguy’s Golf, Strike Gold, Pool, Stack Overflow
favorite games: Woodguy’s Golf, Strike Gold, Pool, Stack Overflow
It's cool. I love how everything, even the toilet, is gamified, but it's a little thin and the cycle wore out it's welcome all too soon. Also you're left with very little time to play the games or else sacrifice a whole day to no income. I expanded my arcade to the full size and that was enough for me. The retro arcade games are ok but nothing I longed to invest a lot of time in.
The 90’s are an important decade for me, my youth, the ages where I’m making memories but am not tainted by being a teenager.
It would create tastes that elements of I still have to this day, even creeping ever closer to 40. There's music I enjoy, art styles I like, toys and video games still dominate my adult mind as much as it did when I was in single digits.
Arcades were a huge part of all this, living in a seaside town, previously having a Sega World in the next town along, all of these elements really added to my discovery of games.
These places are no longer quite the same, usually more about coughing out tickets, mobile tie ins or strange nostalgic movie tie ins.
In the 90s these were new frontiers, top graphics, new genres, fresh ideas. They were loud, bright and exciting and outside of maybe a few places in Japan I doubt anywhere can fully capture the same feeling they had - not without want of trying because shout out to all the arcade bars that exist to keep that dream alive.
Arcade Paradise’s biggest strength is that of a modern arcade bar. You aren’t back in time but for a few seconds you can trick yourself. It has “immaculate vibes” as people younger than me could get away with saying.
The radio station, the music, the colours, even the smaller elements like gum being everywhere really add to the feel of being in 1993. It’s a true love letter to that time with enough honest reverence for the decade that it is willing to poke fun at it.
Arcade Paradise as a game isn’t simply about just the Arcade games and machines, although that is a major element I need to come back to.
From the start your character Ashley has inherited a laundrette (or laundromat as it’s US based) from her father (voiced by that Geralt from Witcher). They discover in the back some arcade machines and quickly realise that not only are they obviously more fun than washing and drying clothes, there's actually more money to be made with them.
This is where the story and the loop of the game starts.
You do the daily errands of picking up trash, pulling off bits of gum, unclogging the toilet and doing the laundry biz of washing and drying clothes in the machine.
All of these are presented with little arcade game overlays, making everything a game and reflecting how Ashley possibly makes the menial tasks not so cripplingly boring.
As you do this you collect the money from the hoppers or the arcade cabinets too discovering where the real money lies and invest it into more machines - of the Arcade variety, not the washing.
Thankfully the game doesn’t just make you do the boring jobs, because it allows you to play these machines yourself - in fact a smart thing the game does is encourages you to play them as the more goals on each cabinet you achieve the more popular they become with the clients.
As the story progresses and more money is made, you get new machines, knock down a few walls to make the arcade larger and more but really this loop stays the same throughout.
For a while I found it very moorish, addictive in its own way.
Into work, clean the rubbish away, throw the big bags out, pick the gum, get some washing in the machine go to a game I like, hop off when my (in game) watch tells me a wash is done, put drying in, more washing on, back to the game until my watch went again, back and forth until closing time, collect money to put in the safe - hope I have enough for a new machine or upgrade and move on.
It’s a good loop but a limited one. Arcade Paradise does a few things to try and keep this fresh, arcade machines can break, playing a variety of games helps because you can make them all earn more money.
You could even just stop washing realistically as the games are where the profit is but even when giving up on the laundry part of the business the games themselves only have a limited appeal.
As I said earlier, you can play the machines and this is one the game’s strongest and at the same time weakest points.
The nods and the choices of types of games you get as the story progresses is smart and well thought out, but that means many of them feel like old crap that no one really wants to play anymore, at least not for more than five minutes and sadly I found that’s how I felt with the majority.
The minority that I did enjoy however were good to great, some clever takes on games such as “Racer Chaser” which is Pac-Man but in a GTA skin that if you get caught you do have a chance to get to another car and move on.
My favourite of all, at least it’s the one I’m sure I sunk the most time into, was Blockchain - thankfully not a game about cryptobros but a puzzle game that plays almost exactly like drop7 but with occasional power-ups.
Whilst Blockchain and some others deserve praise the issue lies here that actually, none of these games are better than free things you can play on your phone.
The in-game versions of sports you get (you can figure it out but no spoilers) are some of the worst versions I’ve played in video games.
The in-universe major game, a beat ’em up, you get later into the story was also disappointingly poor.
There were moments when I was playing this and wondered if maybe licenses would have helped, ignoring money and legal reasoning, you could have had big Namco or Capcom games fill the cabinets. However I don’t think that would be better as the question would then become “why don’t I just play a collection?”. I appreciate the devs made lots of little games and I didn’t expect every single one to be a banger, it’s just sad that barely any were.
In the end Arcade Paradise was like a sandwich with chores for bread.
The start of the game is a lot more of the washing side of things and whilst that may not be the smartest thing to keep people interested I think it was intelligent in terms of storytelling and I guess brave.
However towards the end I got to a stage where I was simply waiting for money to come in and the games were boring. I would literally open my phone to play Marvel Snap as Arcade Paradise ran in the background, picking up the pad only to fix a machine or collect money from a full hopper.
Then even when enough money had been made for an upgrade the choices were so limited that they never felt like they mattered.
A whole business simulation element felt so flimsy and tacked on, I could understand why it didn’t want to become a full simulator but the line between casual and hardcore could have been placed nearer that side to give the game more meat if you wanted it.
I could possibly write an entire piece here about how I didn’t like the money options, the progression system and lack of customisation but hopefully this one sentence is enough to say - it could have been so much better.
The entire time since finishing this game I wondered if maybe I “played it wrong” maybe I should have been playing this between something else for it to feel more fresh and less of a grind?
I’ve wondered, maybe the game was too long, or maybe too short because all though it dragged the end almost felt too sudden.
There are so many elements of this game I did enjoy, it’s a vision of a game I can fully understand and get behind but it is either missing pieces or some need replacing and without that it never hits the high of being paradise, just simply “a game that I played”.
It would create tastes that elements of I still have to this day, even creeping ever closer to 40. There's music I enjoy, art styles I like, toys and video games still dominate my adult mind as much as it did when I was in single digits.
Arcades were a huge part of all this, living in a seaside town, previously having a Sega World in the next town along, all of these elements really added to my discovery of games.
These places are no longer quite the same, usually more about coughing out tickets, mobile tie ins or strange nostalgic movie tie ins.
In the 90s these were new frontiers, top graphics, new genres, fresh ideas. They were loud, bright and exciting and outside of maybe a few places in Japan I doubt anywhere can fully capture the same feeling they had - not without want of trying because shout out to all the arcade bars that exist to keep that dream alive.
Arcade Paradise’s biggest strength is that of a modern arcade bar. You aren’t back in time but for a few seconds you can trick yourself. It has “immaculate vibes” as people younger than me could get away with saying.
The radio station, the music, the colours, even the smaller elements like gum being everywhere really add to the feel of being in 1993. It’s a true love letter to that time with enough honest reverence for the decade that it is willing to poke fun at it.
Arcade Paradise as a game isn’t simply about just the Arcade games and machines, although that is a major element I need to come back to.
From the start your character Ashley has inherited a laundrette (or laundromat as it’s US based) from her father (voiced by that Geralt from Witcher). They discover in the back some arcade machines and quickly realise that not only are they obviously more fun than washing and drying clothes, there's actually more money to be made with them.
This is where the story and the loop of the game starts.
You do the daily errands of picking up trash, pulling off bits of gum, unclogging the toilet and doing the laundry biz of washing and drying clothes in the machine.
All of these are presented with little arcade game overlays, making everything a game and reflecting how Ashley possibly makes the menial tasks not so cripplingly boring.
As you do this you collect the money from the hoppers or the arcade cabinets too discovering where the real money lies and invest it into more machines - of the Arcade variety, not the washing.
Thankfully the game doesn’t just make you do the boring jobs, because it allows you to play these machines yourself - in fact a smart thing the game does is encourages you to play them as the more goals on each cabinet you achieve the more popular they become with the clients.
As the story progresses and more money is made, you get new machines, knock down a few walls to make the arcade larger and more but really this loop stays the same throughout.
For a while I found it very moorish, addictive in its own way.
Into work, clean the rubbish away, throw the big bags out, pick the gum, get some washing in the machine go to a game I like, hop off when my (in game) watch tells me a wash is done, put drying in, more washing on, back to the game until my watch went again, back and forth until closing time, collect money to put in the safe - hope I have enough for a new machine or upgrade and move on.
It’s a good loop but a limited one. Arcade Paradise does a few things to try and keep this fresh, arcade machines can break, playing a variety of games helps because you can make them all earn more money.
You could even just stop washing realistically as the games are where the profit is but even when giving up on the laundry part of the business the games themselves only have a limited appeal.
As I said earlier, you can play the machines and this is one the game’s strongest and at the same time weakest points.
The nods and the choices of types of games you get as the story progresses is smart and well thought out, but that means many of them feel like old crap that no one really wants to play anymore, at least not for more than five minutes and sadly I found that’s how I felt with the majority.
The minority that I did enjoy however were good to great, some clever takes on games such as “Racer Chaser” which is Pac-Man but in a GTA skin that if you get caught you do have a chance to get to another car and move on.
My favourite of all, at least it’s the one I’m sure I sunk the most time into, was Blockchain - thankfully not a game about cryptobros but a puzzle game that plays almost exactly like drop7 but with occasional power-ups.
Whilst Blockchain and some others deserve praise the issue lies here that actually, none of these games are better than free things you can play on your phone.
The in-game versions of sports you get (you can figure it out but no spoilers) are some of the worst versions I’ve played in video games.
The in-universe major game, a beat ’em up, you get later into the story was also disappointingly poor.
There were moments when I was playing this and wondered if maybe licenses would have helped, ignoring money and legal reasoning, you could have had big Namco or Capcom games fill the cabinets. However I don’t think that would be better as the question would then become “why don’t I just play a collection?”. I appreciate the devs made lots of little games and I didn’t expect every single one to be a banger, it’s just sad that barely any were.
In the end Arcade Paradise was like a sandwich with chores for bread.
The start of the game is a lot more of the washing side of things and whilst that may not be the smartest thing to keep people interested I think it was intelligent in terms of storytelling and I guess brave.
However towards the end I got to a stage where I was simply waiting for money to come in and the games were boring. I would literally open my phone to play Marvel Snap as Arcade Paradise ran in the background, picking up the pad only to fix a machine or collect money from a full hopper.
Then even when enough money had been made for an upgrade the choices were so limited that they never felt like they mattered.
A whole business simulation element felt so flimsy and tacked on, I could understand why it didn’t want to become a full simulator but the line between casual and hardcore could have been placed nearer that side to give the game more meat if you wanted it.
I could possibly write an entire piece here about how I didn’t like the money options, the progression system and lack of customisation but hopefully this one sentence is enough to say - it could have been so much better.
The entire time since finishing this game I wondered if maybe I “played it wrong” maybe I should have been playing this between something else for it to feel more fresh and less of a grind?
I’ve wondered, maybe the game was too long, or maybe too short because all though it dragged the end almost felt too sudden.
There are so many elements of this game I did enjoy, it’s a vision of a game I can fully understand and get behind but it is either missing pieces or some need replacing and without that it never hits the high of being paradise, just simply “a game that I played”.
Quite boring