Newcastle-based developer Nosebleed Interactive has been on our radar ever since it released The Hungry Horde for PS Vita, a sloppy action strategy title with a zombie-themed collectible card game built into it. The studio, with its penchant for minigames and mixing genres, followed it up with the excellent Vostok Inc, an amalgamation of Geometry Wars and Cookie clicker with a terrifying array of mini-games to unlock. Now it has realized its potential with Arcade Paradise, a 90s nostalgic celebration that will pull you in so many different directions it’s impossible to get bored.
At its core, this is a tycoon game where you have to expand your laundry arcade to get as many quarters as possible from customers in fluorescent windbreakers. You’ve inherited the sordid Grindstone business from your father, who thinks video games are a waste of space – and you’re on a one-man crusade to prove him wrong. You’ll need a bit of elbow grease to get started, though, so the first few hours play out as a Farming Simulator-style parody, where you’ll clean up trash, wash clothes, and unclog toilets.
The developer gamifies absolutely everything, so throwing trash into a nearby container will trigger a small mini-game where you have to hit a target; overlapping the potty displays RPG-style damage numbers on the screen as you remove offensive objects from the U-turn. It’s intentionally annoying in a funny way, but if your bank balance starts to swell, you can start adding new arcade cabinets to the back room, where the real game begins.
All arcade cabinets – and there are one lot of them – introduce a new minigame. Almost all of these are inspired by true classics, be it the Candy Crushlike three-on-one battles from Woodgal’s Adventure or the futuristic OutRun-style racer Spacerace. The novelty is unprecedented: each minigame has a unique visual flavor, CRT filters and challenges to complete. If you check those objectives, the cabinet will increase in popularity, attract more customers and therefore more income per hour. You can then collect that money and use it to invest in more arcade cabinets.
The tycoon aspect is incredibly simplistic, but you can tinker with prizes and even move machines. For example, placing an unpopular game next to a popular game will help increase your hourly income, maximizing your winnings and allowing you to progress faster. The title slowly degrades the importance of the simulation aspect of the laundromat, allowing you to spend more and more time in the back room playing the arcade games. To add to the reward loop, many of the cabinets include their own permanent progression pathways, allowing you to get higher and higher scores.
While not every minigame is fun, the sheer quantity is unfathomable: there’s a Dance Dance Revolution-inspired rhythm game, complete with PS1 era 32-bit graphics; there’s a Pac-Man clone with a GTA skin, where you gobble up dollar bills instead of power pills; there is a Tetris-esque puzzle game called Blockchain which has a really inventive gameplay mechanism where you have to stack bricks in certain amounts to remove them. None of these experiences will hold your attention individually for more than five to ten minutes, but that’s largely the point: You play for a moment and then move on to the next.
All the while, you have to scoop quarters out of the funnels and deposit the money in your vault. Your office also has a computer that you can use to visit a website called Arcademania so you can buy even more machines for your arcade. As you progress, your initially disdainful father – played by The Witcher’s Doug Cockle – will begin to reward your efforts in sterling and introduce a second currency that you can invest in an eBay-esque website to unlock upgrades. These effectively increase your income or streamline certain gameplay systems so you can focus on what you do best: playing arcade minigames.
The amount of content packed is mind boggling. For example, purchasing the self-help book Computing for Dummies unlocks new functionality on your office PC, including the ability to play Solitaire and browse artwork for all fictional arcade cabinets. By adding a jukebox to your arcade you can visit a website called Disc Jammers where you can buy new CDs to listen to, all inspired by bands like Nirvana et al. There are a lot of references here from the 90s, including to channels like MTV and the technology of the time, like the PDA on which you manage all your finances.
The laundromat is also constantly changing. As you begin to expand your arcade empire, you slowly gain access to more space and the location evolves over time. Visually, it’s actually an impressive looking indie game – the street where your company is located has a great sense of presence and all surfaces are reflective, meaning you get glare on the arcade cabinet screens and even the washing machines. It should also be underlined how much variety there is in the arcade cabinets themselves – everything from vector graphics to 16-bit art styles is explored.
The only downside is that the release uses an in-game clock, which some may find limiting as you stop making money after 11pm and are told to go to bed at 2am. However, you can continue playing arcade games even well past closing time, later unlocking the power to meditate, effectively extending the length of each day. As you start to unlock upgrades, the sandbox nature of the release gets closer and you can spend more time messing around. It may feel like the progression is a little too slow at times, but this is a minor complaint.
And in the end, the carrot on the stick is a brilliant one: you always work your way up to that next arcade cabinet, knowing it will give you something new to play. Customers will start emailing you with high-scored challenges, meanwhile, you’ll be using AIM Messenger to reacquaint yourself with old friends and develop the story further – it’s really impressive how much Nosebleed Interactive has managed to get out of this. rather silly concept to come.
Conclusion
If you’re nostalgic for the 90s and really enjoy minigame compilations, Arcade Paradise is absolutely essential. The ironic gameplay of the title and the window dressing of the simulator serve as the backdrop to dozens and dozens of video game parodies, from a GTA-style Pac-Man clone to an OutRun-inspired futuristic racer. Not every idea excels, but the sheer density of content alone will never let you get bored. And with an addictive progression system that will forever seduce you with something shiny on the horizon, this release lives up to its name: it really is an arcade paradise.
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