Arcade Paradise Review

Welcome to my review for Arcade Paradise. This game is brought to us by developers Nosebleed Interactive (Vostok Inc.) and publishers Wired Productions (Martha is Dead, Deliver us the Moon). Arcade Paradise is available to buy and play now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

For the purpose of this review, I was kindly given a key on Steam for the game, so this review is of course based on the PC version. This game is also fully compatible with Valve’s Steam Deck.

King Wash Is Here!

So can I build my Arcade Paradise? Or will it just be a stain in my mind? Continue reading to find out! You can also check out our previous reviews when you’re done reading this one.

The Game

Arcade Paradise is set where Ashley is asked to run a 90s laundromat for his father. Soon enough he learns that in the back are a few old arcade machines. He checks the machines to find lots of money in each of them, this sparks an idea in his mind. The arcade machines will earn more than the laundromat, this gives birth to the idea of Arcade Paradise inside Ashley’s mind.

Ashley is keen to get this going, but his father will not let it be. He demands that Ashley keeps the King Wash laundromat up and running with his set of rules, such as Ashley can not leave work until at least 2 pm each day. He must keep King Wash clean and presentable to customers, as well as keep them happy by washing their laundry.

What his father doesn’t know is that Ashley continues with his master plan, with the help of some ideas from his sister. But they keep it a secret from their father, for now.

The game starts off running through the basics of how to run a laundromat, naturally. What simulation game wouldn’t be complete without a basic tutorial at the start?!

The premise of the game is rather simple, keep the laundromat running whilst making money to improve the arcade area in the back. You can make extra money through little mini-games that have been implemented into Arcade Paradise. These include you pulling gum off of surfaces, cleaning the toilet, picking up rubbish that customers have dropped and throwing the trash into the main rubbish bin, and more. The mini-games are quite fun.

One of the mini-games is pretty comical, this is the toilet cleaning game. You have to rotate the plunger around until you get the “weak spot”. Then you can plunge and take HP off of the toilet, and continue this until it reaches its demise. There’s actually an achievement for causing 5,000 damage to the toilet, that’s hilarious.

The main game and running the King Wash laundromat is pretty fun. Customers bring in their baskets of dirty clothes and you then need to load them into your washing machines. After a few minutes, the wash will be complete and then you move the washing to the tumble driers. The faster you do this, the higher the rank, therefore the more money you will earn. Of course, the more money you earn, the more arcade cabinets you can buy.

As mentioned, the real money sits with the arcade machines. You can buy new ones for the little room out back. Eventually, Ashley’s sister will tell you about an upgrade to that room to make it bigger. Then you’ll be offered another size improvement on this room until you have a fairly large arcade full of different arcade game cabinets for your customers to play. You can also play the games, each of them has a different achievement for you to unlock if you want to.

There are around 35 arcade games for you to purchase. Some of the games are loosely based on games that fans of the retro world of gaming will know. One of these, for example, is Racer Chaser. This is essentially a Pac-Man clone with a GTA theme. There is a wide variety of games for you to purchase and play. So have fun and go wild with your father’s cash!

Look & Sound

This is where the game stands out a little. The graphics are rather decent, in rooms like the laundromat and where the arcade cabs live. It lacks in other areas though, such as some reflections like when getting off the bus each day to start work. Things like the chrome edging on the tumble dryers look very pretty. They look really shiny and the lights seem to reflect off of them nicely.

All in all, the graphics aren’t too shabby and I feel there are more positives than negatives in this area.

The audio in the game is rather basic. Such as the voice-over work when your father talks to you through voicemail, the speech could be better. However, this isn’t heard often so this is not a huge issue. The hustle and bustle of the laundromat sounds aren’t too bad but again, could be better. Arcade machines sound good, as do the little mini-games such as pulling off chewing gum or throwing a rubbish bag into a bin. Other sound effects in the game are good so they kind of makeup for the voiceovers, so we’re good here.

The music in the game is quite decent though. Fun to listen to whilst sorting through people’s skimpies!

Length & Replayability

Of course, with this being a sim game, the hours are endless. You can keep rolling in the dough as long as you like, playing around with the layout, picking up that gum, and gunning for the achievements. Basically, you’re getting more than your money’s worth when you purchase Arcade Paradise.

There are 54 achievements for you to unlock on both the Steam and Epic Games Store versions of the game. That’s if you want to unlock them, obviously.