Review: Arcade Paradise
When checking out a preview build of Arcade Paradise VR on the Meta Quest 3, it left me with good impressions of the game. Now the game has come to PSVR2, and I have had a hands on with the finished product on Sony’s hardware.
Release Date: August 8th 2024
Developer: Nosebleed Interactive
Publisher: Wired Productions
Price: US $19.99 / CAN $26.99 / €19,99 / £15.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
* Access Provided For Review *
Rebel Against Your Dad
In the game you play Ashley, who’s father has given him a laundromat to run and is expecting results from the business. You soon discover the arcade cabinets in the back are generating quite a bit of income. Meaning your goal now becomes building up the arcade, while juggling managing the laundromat – despite you dad telling you not to.
Clean, Play, Dry, Repeat
As mentioned your Arcade will be inside a run down laundromat that has been given to you by your father. Meaning you are also going to be running and managing the laundromat as you build your Arcade Paradise. This means you will be washing, drying, collecting rubbish, depositing money and cleaning the toilets, which is important to make sure you can afford the arcade machines and expand your arcade space to make room for more machines.
With the move from flatscreen to Virtual Reality, these tasks all become very manual as you collect baskets of clothes to, taken them to the washing machine, move the dial to the correct type of wash (whites, darks or colors), put in the clothes and start the wash. Once the washing is done, you move the clothes back to basket and go to the dryer, make sure the dial on the dryer matches the color of the basket, put in the clothes and set them to dry. Finally you will remove the clothes from the dryer back to the basket and drop the basket off on the opposite work top to where you collect them from.
So, while the machines are doing their thing, its this time you need to utilise to collecting all the trash, putting it in the bins outside, cleaning the toilets, collecting money from the token machine and your arcade cabinets and depositing money in the safe. In the office with the safe there is also a computer that you will need to check throughout the day for emails, messages and order everything for your arcade to keep improving it. All of this must be done between the work hours of 8am to 11pm, you can stay and work later, but you will pass out from exhaustion and get told off by your dad.
The problem is all the time you have your arcade in the back and the temptation to go and play the games, with the VR version coming with all the machines from the flatscreen and six that are new and been built to use virtual reality. Of course you can just leave the jobs and play the machines if you want, but remember its the laundromat that is funding your business and the arcade machines you are playing. However, the games does give you some fun in your general jobs as cleaning the toilet and throwing away the rubbish are made to be mini-games.
At first you will find little of your time is available for playing your arcades. However, over time you start to learn to work smarter not harder and you will start to find more time to play in the arcade.
Neon Drenched Nostalgia
One thing I really like about Arcade Paradise its they have not let you down when it comes to the attention to detail and graphics. Overall the game looks very clean and very bright with Neon lighting. However, what I would have loved was some sort of customisation other than adding the machines, where you could add some hints of your own personality to bring it life. But as a whole, the game looks very sharp inside of the PSVR2. You will also see people in the laundromat and arcade but these don’t move and when you get close they will pixelate, break up and disappear, it would have been nice if these moved and stuck around for a bit.
The laundromat is brought to life with the noise of the machines spinning and beeping when the cycle is complete and some chilled generic music in the background. However, it comes to life as you go into the arcade and you can chose music inspired by the 90’s in the jukebox and the sounds of the individual games you are playing. Which brings everything together perfectly depending on what you are currently doing in the game – and creates another separation between working and fun.
Comfort
The Verdict
With how Arcade Paradise plays with the simulation of working in a laundromat washing, drying, collecting rubbish and cleaning toilets fits perfectly in virtual reality, as it allows them to become very manual tasks. Then going out the back and playing arcade machines and also six new ones made to take full advantage on the medium works great in virtual reality with you being in the world. Meaning all the gameplay elements translate perfectly to VR, and with the temptation of the arcades but, the need to work to build your Arcade Paradise you will soon learn skills in working smarter not harder, to make sure your job is mixed with fun as well.