Have you ever wanted to turn your local laundromat into an arcade? For the three of you that have, boy do we have a game to recommend you. Created by Nosebleed Interactive, the same developer behind the well-received Vostok Inc., Arcade Paradise puts you in the role of Ashley, an inheritor to a run-down laundromat called King Wash. Tucked away in the backroom are a handful of arcade cabinets that Ashley soon realises could earn much more cash than laundering dirty clothes. Problem is, Ashley’s father – voiced Geralt of Riviera himself, Doug Cockle – has little faith in the arcade business, leaving Ashley to prove him wrong by buying new arcade games with the laundromat’s profits, slowly turning it into the hottest gaming spot the sleepy town of Grindstone has ever seen.
While this might not sound like the most exciting premise, Arcade Paradise has a couple of things going for it. First, the gameplay loop of managing a laundromat – transferring clothes between washers and dryers, picking up garbage, removing gum, unclogging the toilet – draws from other simulation games like Stardew Valley. You only have a limited time each day to get everything done before closing up, so time management becomes paramount. Pulling clothes from a dryer as quickly as possible awards you higher score, which comes with more profits to buy arcade cabinets with. And the cleaner the laundromat, the more people willing to spend money on the arcade games tucked away in the back, thus earning more money for more cabinets.
Second, and most importantly, you can play all of the 35+ arcade games. The majority of these games are superb, packed full of features and nostalgic soundtracks that harken back to their classic inspirations. A Pac-Man clone with a Grand Theft Auto reskin? An Out Run and F-Zero-inspired racer? A match-three puzzle game with light RPG elements? Yes to all of this. We often forgot about the clothes we threw into the wash moments before as we tried to reach higher scores on some of our favourite machines.
This leads us to our primary criticism of Arcade Paradise, which originates from the push and pull of laundering duties and gaming. Ignoring the laundry means we had to wait longer to unlock more stuff, which became a problem when we wanted to try for a higher score in UFO Assault. On the other hand, when we decided to get some laundry done and earn some cash, we found ourselves standing around waiting the three real-world minutes it takes for a wash or dryer cycle to finish because, if we began a game during, we’d have to cancel midway through our run to quickly take the drying out. Before long, doing laundry became about as annoying as doing actual laundry.
Nosebleed Interactive mediates this a bit by adding daily challenges. Challenges include not doing any laundry at all, getting 25 kills with the submachine gun in Zombat 2, achieving a score of 3600 in Stack Overflow, and so on. Completing a challenge awarded us a separate currency, and with it, we could buy quality-of-life upgrades such as a bigger garbage bag to make fewer trips to the dumpster and ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Space and Time’ to slow down the in-game clock while playing games. None of them felt necessary, yet these challenges did a good job of incentivizing us to play other games and to keep the laundromat going.
There’s also a wealth of options to toggle for each game, from their difficulty, placement in the building, and cost-per-play, which in turn affects how much money they bring in. We’re certain we could’ve left these options untouched and had our arcade-laundromat hybrid flourish, yet for those with a penchant for min-maxing productivity, these settings will scratch that incessant need for perfection. And for others that like to claim high scores and keep them, applicable arcade games have global leaderboards. We expect when Arcade Paradise launches, fierce competition will occur for the top spots.
Deceptively, there’s a lot to do in Arcade Paradise. We haven’t even mentioned the local multiplayer options for several of the games, like the four-player shooting fun in Zombat 2 or two player option for the eternally classic air hockey. The Jukebox even comes with over 20 different tracks to unlock. Those with a love of arcade games may find themselves spending dozens of hours inside the King Wash laundromat without even realising it.
It’s a shame that, outside of the games themselves, Arcade Paradise looks quite muddy with some ugly character models on the Switch. In handheld mode, we found some text impossible to read, and a few small glitches, such as being unable to pick up awkwardly placed trash or the whole game sometimes crashing when setting up multiplayer, added some bumps, but these bumps were never enough to ruin the experience.
We wholly recommend Arcade Paradise if you enjoy either simulation-style games or spent the '90s with a pocketful of quarters down at the local arcade. The narrative centred on a lazy young adult proving to their father they can run a successful business will never really grip you, and – believe it or not – laundering clothes and peeling gum off the machines becomes a bit tiresome. Yet the arcade games themselves and the sheer creativity and charm Nosebleed Interactive has packed into them more than makes up for the monotony. If we stumbled upon these games in the back of our local laundromat, we’d spend actual money there. But since that seems rather unlikely, we’re sure to boot up Arcade Paradise to try for some global rankings long after we’re done with laundering clothes.
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Hoping my physical shows soon, can't wait.
Huh. I’m intrigued. But the laundry part isn’t exactly appealing. Wonder why they opted for that over just, Yknow, running an arcade to make money?
So you can’t just play the arcade games?
Every year I forget what August is like for gaming. It's like the games industry is encouraging us to get outside more. This looks OK, and they've selected a great release window for sure, but yea, the idea of managing laundry to unlock arcade games makes me just want to do my actual laundry and reward myself with playing any number of games on the Switch!
Roll on the September Direct I say.
The aspects mentioned as tiresome put me off though. I don't like to feel like my time is being wasted, so thanks Lowell Bell and Nintendo Life for mentioning that kind of thing in reviews.
I'm still very tempted, especially now I've seen it's a £20 physical game...
Protip (I'm the game Director): On the start screen there's a cheat you can put in (you'll know the one) that will mean you'll always S-Rank laundry!
@Orokosaki Once you've bought them you can. Actually the easiest way to make money quickly is to complete the "goals" (mini achievements) each machine has, which massively boost a cab's popularity. Also just spending time on a game will boost it too.
Oh Yes! was really hoping this would turn out well!
I love the sound of this, I wish I knew more about the games included but it sounds like a real winner.
Hopefully someone out there is working on a breakdown of all the games so I can know what I'm buying before I commit.
@dadrester It's great to see you back and I am so looking forward to playing your Arcade Paradise! Thank you for designing what looks like a really fun arcade-building sim!
I pestered Wired Productions about whether there would be a physical release in the US, and then I was probably among the first to preorder when Limited Run started offering it on Amazon (before they even advertised it).
I'm glad Lowell found a lot to like in this game, and no doubt I will happily unlock all the arcade cabs, too. I'll really be looking forward to getting my copy in the mail, hopefully not too long from now. Delayed gratification is still gratification!
@dadrester Thanks for reading my review! It’s my highest reviewed game to date. Had a blast playing it over the last week.
@dadrester I've been looking forward to this for what seems like forever! I've had my physical copy preordered and I'm so excited to dive in. Had NO IDEA there was a laundry portion and that seems like a nice balance for the game in general otherwise it'd be like a knock-off compilation of fake games. Anyway, now the wait continues but I'm glad it's not a very long one. I'm so happy this reviewed well because I think this is a pretty original idea so it's great to see it was executed just shy of flawlessly. See ya'll in the arcades!
Back log is massive right now but this is on the wishlist. I’m glad it turned out so fun and I’m excited to try the different arcade games.
I commented on this game previously as I love the live sim concept, I really think that is great idea and something that could work in many different ways and many different types of games. I feel bad in saying that I wouldn't buy this particular game as I am not keen on the old skool gaming, loved it then but not so much now, however I commend the makers for theirs ideas which I can see from the review have been implemented well. I will be sure to keep an eye for anything from Nosebleed in the future.
Will probably check this out to try out the 35+ mini arcade games but I feel the laundry sim will push me away.
I think I am going to get this today…..I usually wait for sales, but this totally looks like a game I will get into….
The management concept sounded promising, but the idea of playing through crappy replica arcade games sounds awful. This could have been so much better if the arcade cabinets were based on real-life ones from years gone by.
If actually playing the arcade games is entirely optional, then I could be swayed. I ought to check out some gameplay footage, as this is a rare case of a review not exactly painting a picture for me.
You fellows have got to adjust your scoring system down a bit. In no way this read like an 8.
Just imagine if game reviewers used regular numbering systems. Five is dead average. Below that is bad above that is great. Everything I read hear screamed average, average, average. 6 at best.
It has always been this way. Since the EGM days. Ever asked yourself why? I mean...I know why. but does everyone else?
i remember loving an xbox live indie game with a similar concept to this as a kid, albeit it was much more limited in scope, so this sounds dope
@Silly_G Hey Namco mind if we use PacMan?
Oh yeah sure go right ahead and make money in our IP
@Sonos : Because I was totally suggesting that they use another company's IP without going through the process of procuring the rights first. 🙄
Looks fantastic, after being hopelessly addicted to Vostok Inc this is a must-have for me. I'm sure the arcade games are crafted with love
@Silly_G fyi - major companies of classic IPa, most still in play today, would never give a developer like this permission to use their games. Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony? Sure. Not Nosebleed Interactive.
@Waluigi451 It's more of a narrative device to be honest. A way for the player and the character to feel a bit stuck in this dead end job. You're MUCH better off just playing the games as it'll boost their income massively and dwarf what you make from washing pretty quickly, BUT we don't explicitly tell the player that until a little further into the game.
You can also use an old school cheat on the start screen to make you S-Rank all washing every time.
@Lowell Thank you so much. Really glad you had a good time with it
@Sonos : I made no inference in my prior comments concerning whether or not it would have been feasible for an independent developer/publisher to do so; only that a concept like this would have benefited immensely from real-world IP.
@Silly_G They kind of tried it before. A decade or so MS had Xbox Live Arcade on the 360. It failed miserably.
It might not do so bad today. There seems to be a much stronger appetite for retro gaming these days - due to the junk put out and lack of developer creativity/talent. But companies seem content putting out compilations of back catalogs.
@dadrester Please feel free to wink once for yes and two for no…. Should we know the Konami code? 🤣😂
@dadrester ok that makes sense. Doesn’t get more dead end than laundry, huh? I’ll definitely check it out sometime, it looks fun.
@dadrester Does a cheat has something to do with Konami ? 😀
@dadrester game looks great! Great job! Will enjoy playing this weekend. Nice touch with the code 😂
@dadrester I don't know what S-Rank means, but I gather it removes some of the "tiresome" aspects of the game mentioned in the review?
I appreciate you commenting. I've gone from "not sure" to "yes, I will purchase this game!" Especially as there's a physical release.
I never think creators should feel the need to justify a narrative device in a game, but it's cool to know when it's something I thought might feel like a waste of my precious time. 👍
Damn review embargo, it kept me on my toes, but I preordered it anyway because otherwise I would have lost the benefits of preordering on my go-to store. Now I'm relieved.
Preordered this on Amazon...great news! Can't wait to play this one, definitely different from most (game-in-game) games
Genuinely excited about this - thanks @dadrester for commenting/giving us the heads up for those wanting to play it differently!
@SpringDivorce physical, as an actual laundromat being delivered?
Been playing this game all day, brilliant stuff xxx
@nocdaes There will be no more general Directs. Say goodbye.
Oh man, forget the arcade stuff! I'M HERE FOR THE LAUNDRY SIMULATOR! 😆
I can't wait to see how many toilets I can unclog. Truly, the stuff of legends.
@bonjong23 the planned September Direct disagrees with you. I accept it was strange and disappointing for the E3 style Direct to be dropped, but we'll be back to normal in about a month.
My seven year old son and myself are both totally hooked on this game! I came downstairs at 7am this morning and he was already up doing laundry!
@Skunkfish awww.... I love it. Have you been playing any of the multiplayer games together? Vostok 2093 will be a nice co-op one
Tell your son the game director says hi 😁
@dadrester We've only tried the air hockey one in multiplayer so far, he's better than me sadly... I'm not sure what it says about me, but I'm quite into just doing the laundry and cleaning up the litter! Looking forward to unlocking more of the arcade games (I have 6/7 at the moment I think).
I will pass on the message to him, although I think I'm far more excited about the game director being on here than he is (he sort of gave a reluctant shoulder shrug when I mentioned it!)
For those that don't like the sound of the 'chores', in some ways the job part feels similar to Papers, Please or Not Tonight.... I've been priding myself on getting freshly laundered clothes out with an S-Rank every time
I have caned this game in 2 days! It is super addictive to see what the next arcade game is going to be like. Now I’m at the end I’m back to my reading duties xx
I feel like the laundromat part was inspired by Ready Player 1. Wade likes to play emulated coin-op classics in his aunt's laundry room between the dryer and the wall. The soft hum of the machine. The smell of detergent. It's very zen.
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