Arcade Paradise

Arcade Paradise not only looks cool, but the running of your business is fun and enjoyable, and the arcade games are wonderfully designed.

A clever management sim that pays homage to both the arcades of the 1990s and the exquisite drudgery of teenage jobs.

Arcade Paradise is a cracking laundry / arcade simulator that rewards you for your patience and dedication to the cause. Once the arcade opens up you’ll have an absolute blast finding your new favourite game in a huge selection of unique takes on old school classics. There’s a road to get there, but this one is all about the destination. A hugely rewarding, feel-good experience you have to play.

Arcade Paradise is a superb management sim that puts you in the shoes of both the arcade manager and the player. Whether you are an old arcade head like me or somebody who can only view things through a historic lens, there is so much to enjoy here. Once you get past the necessary grind of the opening hours the game opens up to become an almost encyclopaedic slice of arcade life. Even when you’ve upgraded the arcade, there are always high scores to chase too.

While it takes a while to get going, Arcade Paradise is an outstanding celebration of the '90s arcade scene with a generous helping of fully playable retro love letters.

If you’re nostalgic for the 90s and genuinely enjoy minigame compilations, Arcade Paradise is utterly essential. The title’s tongue-in-cheek tycoon gameplay and simulator window dressing serve as the backdrop for dozens upon dozens of video game parodies, spanning a GTA-style Pac-Man clone through to an OutRun-inspired futuristic racer. Not every idea shines, but the sheer density of content alone means you’ll never get bored. And with an addictive progression system that’s forever tempting you with something shiny on the horizon, this release actually lives up to its name: it’s truly an arcade paradise.

Arcade Paradise is neither a great managing game, nor a a great minigame compilation, but the combination of both gameplay styles work well. We enjoyed its setting in the eighties, and the feeling of growing our own arcade empire. Some elements get repetitive after two or three days.

The management simulation of a laundromat that is slowly turning into an arcade center is a great homage to some earlier times that, like a dream, mix and match two different decades and several generations of arcades and even consoles into one trippy mix.

Arcade Paradise does exactly what it set out to do, it creates the nostalgic feelings of an old 90s arcade. The aesthetic is well-developed, and each of the 35 arcade games are enjoyable to play on their own. If owning and running an old-school arcade is something you've always dreamed of, this game will provide that, with much less maintenance cost.

Arcade Paradise is a very unique game built for a very unique audience, and the fact that it can't keep a steady gameplay rhythm throughout makes it even more unlikely to please just any body. But for those who grew up when Arcade machines were dominating the entertainment industry, it will be a great experience to run and develop an Arcade store.

Arcade Paradise comes across as a little confused, sometimes: if the premise of the game is that you’re running an arcade in your father’s laundromat in secret, for instance, then why is your dad the one paying you bonuses for those daily gaming challenges? It has the feel of a game that changed shape a few times over the course of its development. Nonetheless, it is more than a collection of average arcade game tributes. Intentionally or not, it captures something of the ennui of young adulthood and 90s Gen X disillusionment with menial work – and how video games have always been a colourful escape from the boredom of everyday life.