It seems like a weird concept when you first look into this game, but if you enjoy classic arcade games, business simulators, and time management challenges, then Arcade Paradise is actually an amazing title for you! Wired Productions and Nosebleed Interactive have released a game that truly shows the world of running a start-up business in the 1980s. Sure, some of the numbers are a little dramatic, but giving a bit more to the player in the pursuit of providing a fun experience is a good choice and with a balanced system in place, they have delivered an entertaining experience!

Story

Lucky for you, your business-focused father has left you one of his old entrepreneurial investments to run; a laundromat! In order to make this business your own, you’ll need to prove that you can be a successful business owner and can properly manage the place as a profitable establishment. Interestingly enough, there are a few arcade cabinets in the back for guests to kill some time with. However, it doesn’t take long for you to realize that the arcade cabinets are actually making more profit than expected… so how well off would the business be if there were more arcade machines? Perhaps even more focus on the arcade side of the business might be fruitful - even if your father isn’t really up to the idea.

Gameplay

Starting out you only have a handful of arcade machines in the back and they don’t make a lot of money. This means most of your revenue comes from doing the actual work in the laundromat and getting people’s clothes washed, dried, and handed back to them in their baskets. You also will want to keep the place clean as tidiness leads to more customers and higher pay. You get paid better for doing laundry in a timely manner where the best time gets you an S grade and 30 dollars but the worst time gets you a C grade and 5 dollars.

You will occasionally receive voicemails from your father who puts a lot of emphasis on the laundry side of the laundromat, go figure. Then there is a chat log on the office computer that you can use to communicate with a friend who happens to work in the town hall. With your friend supporting the idea of an arcade expansion and even providing the plans and how-to designs for you through her work, you can slowly start expanding the back half of the laundromat to a full-on arcade. You’ll just have to save up to make it all happen.

Every time a new purchasing website is introduced, there is an icon added to the computers desktop. You can’t actually search the web, but by clicking the proper icon you can open the different websites. You will end up with the arcade website to buy more cabinets, an upgrade website to purchase various upgrades for yourself and your business with the Euros your father sends you, a records website to purchase different songs for the jukebox but also must be bought with Euros, and then occasional other websites when it comes to opportunities to expand in different ways.

As I mentioned, you are given Euros by your father and earn regular Dollars through the business. So, while you are saving up Dollars by collecting from the laundromat and arcade hoppers which you will want to put in the office safe to actually use, you can complete daily tasks that your father will pay you in Euros for. Funny enough, the tasks can sometimes be arcade related which doesn’t make a lot of sense, but whatever earns the payout I guess.

While you will slowly be able to turn your focus away from the laundry side of things and can focus on the arcade games, you will always want to do management stuff. This means every day you should start out by cleaning the place up completely, always unclog the toilet when it gets backed up, and occasionally do some of the laundry work as well.

Audio and Visual

They definitely took a more budget-friendly approach with these aspects, but in a way that was still fitting to the style of the game. When you don’t have your jukebox, the music is pretty much the same song on repeat and it is an ignorable standard-toned song that fits the environment of a laundromat. Once you get the jukebox, there are actually some great songs to listen to on there and that’s when the audio quality goes up. Aside from that, all the laundromat sound effects are pretty standard and all of the arcade games give off a very nostalgic set of tones and sound effects to be exactly the type of sounds you expect from a classic arcade.

Visually, this game is telling on itself. The laundry that you clean for customers is always the same exact set, which showed that they really don’t expect players to be doing the chores side of the game for longer than they have to. They aren’t wrong in that factor either. I do love how they handled collisions with customers though because when I first tested it I saw the answer was - they don’t. Literally, when you get too close to a customer they pixelate and then disappear. Of course, they do this over time and that is just how they come in and out of existence in this game. They don’t move around and just appear in places with various idle animations. Plus, I love that all of the arcade games are literally classic arcade games except changed just enough that they are unique titles. Creative, effective, and maintains nostalgia.

Replayability

Once you get the arcade up and running, I don’t know why you would want to restart. Instead, I would say the replayability is in the arcade cabinets themselves because you can always go for a new high score or try to get some other personal goal achieved. The arcade games in this title are slightly different from the arcade games in real life, so there is even a bit of uniqueness to them that could make players want to return to these ones specifically. It especially helps that you can get paid more per arcade cabinet by completing objectives for that machine in particular as well.

What It Could Have Done Better

Some of the aspects of the game were a little confusing to grasp at first. Like once you expand the arcade, they do want you to rearrange it but I couldn’t figure out how to do that for the longest because it doesn’t tell you how to. A little guidance on the new stuff would have been nice.

Verdict

Arcade Paradise is a nigh-perfect title that brings nostalgia with a new face! The different arcade games they have in this title to play are all a lot of fun and resemble other titles that can be recognized. Sure, not every game was entertaining to play personally, but who can walk into any arcade and truly say they love each and every title in there? There is a lot of variety and entertainment to be had with this game and I would strongly recommend it to anybody who enjoys retro gameplay and doesn’t mind, or even enjoys, time management simulators.

Arcade Paradise is now available on Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.