Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – Are the classic arcades still as fun today?

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Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – Are the classic arcades still as fun today?

Thats the big question for those of us of a certain age who remembers spending countless hours piling 10p coins into some great arcade machines over the years.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – Are the classic arcades still as fun today?

Welcome to Arcade Paradise! The 90’s retro arcade adventure game with a hint of management. Playing as Ashley, your father Gerald has gone to the Riviera and given you the keys to his laundry business tasking you to run the tedious day-to-day

Wired Productions Media

Wired Productions have certainly tried their hardest to bring the world of arcade gaming back to life with this title. The whole game is a story of rags to riches and there is a story behind all the mundane tasks involved. The great thing about this game is it is actually quite tedious, but unbelievable addictive once you get going.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review
Arcade Paradise PS5 Review

You start the game off with the ‘inheritance’ of a laundrette that your dad has left you whilst he is living the high life on the Riviera. You are tasked with the running of the launderette, general cleaning and washing other people’s dirty socks. That is until you discover a couple of old arcade machines in the back room and realise that there is money to be made from these; more than the launderette would make each day.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – Coin-Op greatness

As I said above the game is rather tedious and monotonous, especially at first. You have to make money from laundry duty to be able to start slowly expanding the space of the back room and to fill those extensions with new arcade machines. Luckily something that does break up the monotony is that you are able to play all of the arcade games that you install as well as install a jukebox which does support some rather good tunes.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – All the games are playable that you buy

The game however does drag a little as I felt that I should have been making more money than I was from all the hoppers and the launderette. It takes a lot longer than I would have like to have built up my empire. I have so far ploughed a good 20 hours into the game and there is still more to do and extend on. The good thing is that the game does have a serious longevity to it, but this can also be a bad thing. By that I mean that a lot of people will give up on the game before they give it a real chance.

A lot of people did the same thing for Death Stranding. As that game didn’t really get fully moving until act 4 most people found it boring and gave up before giving the game a real chance.

Boring tasks such as cleaning the rubbish left by customers have been given an arcade style to it. Fill a bag of rubbish and when you go to take it out to the bin a power gauge appears and a target over the bin. The better you throw the rubbish, the more money you will receive for disposing of it. It’s the same when the toilet blocks up. Off you go with your trusty plunger and after wiggling your right stick around to find the right place you have to plunge with overlaps of “Well Done” and “Awesome” greeting you as if from an old arcade game. It adds to the fun but does start to get old rather fast unfortunately. The same with picking up used chewing gum; a great way to earn extra money but these tasks do start to feel very limited.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – Pinball Machines?

Sadly no. There is no sign of a good old Pinball Table, however there is still a lot of choice when it comes to the arcade machines that you install. You do have to install every machine though which takes some doing as well as extending the space they will all sit in. Slowly but surely your launderette will become smaller and smaller as the arcade takes over the building space.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – A beautiful sight when you get a full arcade

With over 35 arcade machines, each with its own gameplay there’s a vast range of gaming experiences from early vector games up to the 32-bit era. I laughed when I bought my own arcade dance machine. I used to spend hours shaking my booty on one of those in my local arcade. I just wish that Sony would bring back plug in dance mats and allow compatibility with the game. There is so many missed possibilities with this game.

There are issues with the game unfortunately. There are vending machines around the arcade and in the launderette however they always look empty. I wish there had been an option to buy stock for them and reap the rewards of sales.

I’ve stumbled across a couple of bugs in the game as well. Hopefully these will be patched on release. My main one that I kept finding over and over was with rubbish around the building. Some crushed cans appear but you are unable to pick them up and will stay in the same place throughout the game. The only way to get rid of them is to close the game down and load up again.

Another one is the customers. Now, I’m not 100% sure it is a bug, but it is annoying, nonetheless. When you approach them, they start to heavily pixilate and then will disappear until you move away from them. It would be better to keep them solid and add to the challenge of cleaning if they are hiding rubbish where they stand or sit.

Also, the Whack A Mole game (Sorry, Whack A Gopher as this game doesn’t want to infringe on any copyrights but runs very close). Every time I try to play it no Gophers appear to hit. Then there are also crashing issues where I couldn’t empty the washing machines or even leave the shop.

Arcade Paradise PS5 Review – Game Over

I want to love the game, I really do. I have invested so much time in the game to give it a good chance but at the moment there are a few too many issues which will hopefully be corrected with a patch or two. The basis of a fantastic game is in place it just needs work, more than dated arcade machines need to keep running smoothly.

7.3

Good

Story - 7
Graphics - 6
Gameplay - 7
Sound - 9

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