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.