Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom hooked me from the trailer, and I'm glad to say that fully playing the game pleased me more than I thought it would. I ended up falling in love with the gimmick of figuring out how to maneuver through a platformer with no jump button, and I feel really confident in saying how it ended up being some of my favorite controls for a 3D platformer I've played ever. I've said before that I'm not a huge platformer person, and I'm not, but something with Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom hits me just right. Maybe it's my hidden obsession with tiny toy cars, maybe it's the way the bright colors mixed with the polygon graphics and music, maybe it really is those tight controls - all I know is I'm not a platformer person and yet I 100%'ed this game over the past couple of days. I have never had a platformer completely cloud my thoughts in the way Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom has to the point that when I wasn't playing it, I was just thinking about playing it. It's perfect: in control, design, length, story, everything! I finished the entire goddamn thing and I'm still thinking about when I can play it again!

Absolutely a shining star for new releases in 2024. Can't wait to see what else Panik Arcade has up their sleeve, because they have gained a very loyal fan.

5/5

Well, I finally got to play the original OutRun cabinet! The deluxe one to be specific, where the car you sit in physically shakes and turns you to match what's on screen. I thought it was pretty cool, but completely freaked my wife out when she tried it out lol. I've never been a fan of OutRun's premise I'll be honest - with it not being really a racing game, but more of a "beat the timer with a bunch of stuff in your way" kinda game, but OutRun in comparison to other car driving games at the time is GORGEOUS and plays like something we've never seen before this, allowing the player to really feel like they're in control of the car on-screen.

I'm sure if I spent more time with OutRun, I would eventually get a handle on how to play it properly, but when rating the game, I can't not rate it as anything lower than a 4-Star because this is one of those arcade games that completely revolutionized arcade history and became one of Sega's most successful cabinets to date. Gorgeous graphics, amazing music (implementing a radio to add to the immersion of driving - 12 years before GTA!), and unbelievable controls... you can even change gear! Every gamer should check OutRun out at least once in their life.

4/5

Was super excited to see the cabinet in person for once - I've never played a helicopter-control cabinet before, but Space Harrier was a fun one to learn the control with! It's a fairly common at the time space shooter, except that its from a totally different perspective. So actually, scratch that, it's a shooter (which is a common arcade genre) but controls so different it's like a whole new experience. With the seated helicopter controls, too? Woo- what a rush.

I didn't get to play the game for too long, because there was this 60+ year old business man that made the machine his homebase, eating and drinking there with his pile of coins, and holy shit, he was GOOD, completely had the enemy paths memorized and was eating away at his high score all at what seemed like a lazy Sunday afternoon to him. He was kind enough to let me play a round when he went to go buy a soda and uh, yeah this game is HARD - he made it look like a piece of cake, though. I'm really not used to the helicopter controls, but watching him play it, it was super satisfying once nailed.

Chill dude, which added to the chill experience. Space Harrier has crazy good graphics and unique gameplay for 1985 - I'm sure I would rate it higher if I eventually got the groove of it, but I honestly had a pretty good time playing it a bit and then watching some dude who was an absolute BEAST demolish the game.

3.5/5