REVIEW | Arcade Paradise

LifeisXbox’s Arcade Paradise review | I’m fascinated by the culture from the 80s and 90s even though I didn’t experience either of them, Arcade Paradise seemed like a natural choice for me to play and review. I didn’t play many arcades in my life, but I remember enjoying the few I managed to play. Arcade Paradise puts you in the shoes of a 19 year old named Ashley who’s just started working as a manager at the family’s laundromat because his dad forces him to do so. Thanks to your sister, who managed the laundromat before you, it doesn’t take long to discover arcade machines in the back of the laundromat, which gives you an idea to slowly turn the laundromat into an arcade paradise. Nosebleed Interactive‘s developers appear to be passionate about the game, and Wired Productions are the ones publishing it.

Most Memorable Moment

Playing Arcade Paradise was quite enjoyable, but the most satisfying thing that happened to me was seeing the arcade making a lot more money than the laundromat did, which made me able to relax a bit about the timings on the laundromat as it was basically only 1/5 of my whole revenue and the more I played, the more insignificant the laundromat’s revenue became. There’s also the fact that Ashley’s dad is voiced by Doug Cockle, Geralt of Rivia’s voice actor.

ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox One | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.

What we Liked!

• Good Arcade variety | Every arcade game in Arcade Paradise is playable, some of them can even be played with two players, either in co-op or versus. While I didn’t see all of the available games because there are over thirty-five of them, it’s clear that they take inspiration from both real arcade games and other more modern games like Pac-man, Outrun, Bomberman, beat em’ ups, dancing games, whack-a-mole, pool, match 3 games, and many others. The arcades, and the jukebox, can be upgraded by completing challenges specific to them, which increases their popularity and therefore how much income you get from them. Also, simply playing them increases their popularity and you can manually change their difficulty and prices.

• Ambiance | While graphically speaking Arcade Paradise doesn’t look bad or anything special, the ambiance created by adding arcade machines and expanding the arcade itself is quite a good one that makes the whole experience feel a lot more believable than it would without the attention to detail given by the developers.

• Money aplenty | Almost everything you do in Arcade Paradise gives you money. Unclogging the toilet? Here’s $10. Throwing trash at the trash can with the right amount of force? Here’s $30. Taking gum of anything? Here’s a random amount of money. Those were the most unconventional ways you can get money, but you do also get money for each basketful of clothes you wash and dry, and you can collect money manually from the arcade machines, jukebox, and a token machine as well. That is for when you get dollars, which are used for buying new machines and expanding your arcade. You can also get Sterling Pounds by completing specific daily challenges, which are used to buy upgrades and new jukebox songs through a computer.

• Minigames | In addition to the actual arcade machines, the majority of the tasks you do have minigames that award you with scores ranging from C to S, with varying amounts of money for each of them. Unclogging the toilet requires you to move the right analog stick to move the plunger and press A repeatedly when you find the “problem.” There is a minigame that is used for both throwing out the trash and removing gum from objects. It requires you to press A when a meter is at its maximum and it makes sense to be reused since both involve force. Taking clothes out of or into machines also involves a score, but it depends on how long it took you to do it rather than giving it a score based on how well you played a minigame. However, you only get a score and money after delivering the dry clothes to the table to the side. Fixing arcade machines is literally killing cockroaches present on an arcade machine board.

• Great Soundtrack | I’m pleased to report that, as a fan of the 90s, the music does not in the least let you down. The initial soundtrack contains a tune that plays repeatedly and is appropriate for the tasks you must complete at the laundromat, although it isn’t the best aspect of it. You can purchase a jukebox but initially, you only have ten songs available in it, however, you can purchase additional songs through your computer. There is a radio station playing in the background in the laundromat that plays songs you can acquire. Different kinds of music are featured, but every one of them has a strong 90s vibe about it.

Mixed Feelings

• It’s a routine | It can get monotonous washing laundry while trying to improve arcade machines because you’ll be doing the same things repeatedly. Even with various minigames and scores do make it feel a little more exciting, running the laundry actually feels like a job. Because of this, some players will probably stop playing the game, but it isn’t wholly horrible, which is why this is in this section.

What we Disliked

• Minor issues | While I didn’t experience any crashes or game-breaking bugs, I did come across a few minor ones, such as the initial cutscene bugging out and not showing itself properly; jukebox objectives, involving the number of songs listened to, not tracking properly; a piece of trash that couldn’t be picked up; and another thing that I’m unsure if it was intentional or not is that your clock, which you can check at any time, vanishes from your hands as soon as you’re either taking out or putting in the laundry from/in a washing/drying machine.

How long to beat the story | 15+ hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 20+ hours

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