Coming soon to steam is the newest indie management sim game from Nosebleed Interactive, Arcade Paradise. The upcoming game will have players taking over the family laundromat, making something of their own, and reconnecting with family. So we decided to check out the upcoming Nosebleed Interactive game with their Pax East demo build. Find out how it is with our preview of Arcade Paradise.
Story: Reconnect to Your Family and Build Something for Yourself
Players will step into the shoes of Ashley as she returns home to her family and the things she left behind. With her return, her father, Gerald “King of the Riviera,” gives Ashley one of the old businesses he is now too busy to run, the King Wash. Through the restoration of the King Wash, Ashley will also reconnect with her sister; through these connections, she can explore her past. These moments will play out through voicemails left by your father and conversations over chat with your sister exploring the relations between the three.
Running your father’s laundromat won’t be the only thing that Ashley will do. In the back room of the King Wash, there are a handful of arcade machines. Purchased by your sister to fill the space in the back, but this gives Ashley an idea. She secretly builds the back of the King Wash into a popular arcade to have something for herself.
As you complete a certain amount of upgrades to the King Wash, more conversation between the family will unlock. While Arcade Paradise doesn’t offer directions on progressing through the story, it’ll be pretty easy for the player to figure it out after a few progressions. The pacing in the story is more or less dependent on the player. If you decide to take your time or rush as you improve the King Wash, the story will reveal itself accordingly.
You may want to look elsewhere if you’re looking for a more substantial story. There are not any cutscenes of conversation choice, just playing the story of a family reconnecting. Like much of the game, the story will be mellow than in many other games. No consequences or choices will be placed on the player. They can relax and play the game.
Gameplay: A Mellow Tedium of Laundry and Games
At the beginning of the Arcade Paradise, you will have just a handful of arcade machines in the back. You will begin making money by doing laundry in the front. For the most part, the laundry mechanics are simple. You’ll receive laundry to be done that will stack up to three, put them in a wash, wait for the timer, dry them, and then put them on the outgoing table. Simple right? But there is an added mechanic that in the beginning with be easy but later becomes more difficult to manage. That is timing.
Doing laundry will pay the player according to how quickly a load of laundry was completed from pickup to dropoff. The pay will be graded by timeliness with ranks S through C with a max payment of $30. Managing laundry is easy, but as time goes on, it becomes more difficult as the player will juggle laundry with other responsibilities as the arcade grows.
Build the Best Arcade in Town
laundry is a great way to make money, but your arcade machines will quickly replace it. Arcade Paradise will offer players over 35 different arcade machines, all of which are playable. There are several non-arcade machines like a pool table and Jukebox, but mainly the player will unlock many of the arcade machines like the ones you’d find back in the 90s.
Buying more machines will allow players to open up more space and allow for customization for the back arcade. By hitting a preselected key, the player can bring up a blueprint that will allow players to move cabinets around, which will have different effects on increasing or decreasing profits on the surrounding cabinets. Designing the perfect arcade will give players the maximum profits that will allow further expansion of the arcade building, the most popular arcade in town.
Players can also earn sterling pounds that will be used to make additional character upgrades. For example, add a zoom, sprint, and improved cleaning speed, and players can also buy passives that will collect money out of hoppers or have to clean less. Unfortunately, these pounds are challenging to earn in the given time frame, and due to some bugs, many side tasks could not be completed.
During our preview of Arcade Paradise, the arcade machine would lose functionality randomly until the game was reset, namely the machine Racer Chaser. In addition, the arcade cabinet always lost complete functionality at least an hour into play. Many side tasks that would earn you the pounds needed for character upgrades would often be earned through Racer Chaser. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed before launch.
The developers over at Nosebleed Interactive reached out to us recently, letting us know we were playing the demo version of Arcade Paradise from Pax East. So many of these bugs are found in an earlier game version. With the launch arriving soon, we’ll likely see many issues addressed in the release version.
Graphics/Audio: An Eerie World With an Outstanding Soundtrack
Running off the Unity engine, the team at Nosebleed Interactive brings players a simplistic but good-looking game. While you’re not going to find AAA-level effects and world-building, you will be treated to a lovely little world that feels most alive with little bits of detail. The world would benefit from a little more life seeing the multicolored tv signal on tv, and the voiceless patrons of the arcade give the place a creepy feel unless that is intentional by the devs, which makes the audio in Arcade Paradise even more critical.
Arcade Paradise offers a stellar soundtrack for players to listen to while playing arcade games, doing laundry, cleaning, or just looking around. Once players have expanded their arcade enough, they will be given a jukebox that will offer music from bands like Recluse, Bobby Freeform, and Mono Memory. We especially enjoyed Recluse’s Bury Us Separately, which immediately became an addition to our listening playlist. More music can be added when bought with the pounds earned through side tasks.
Conclusion: A Pleasant Change of Pace Worth Looking Into
If you’re looking for a chill title away from the action and chaos of many other games we play today, then Arcade Paradise will be a welcome respite. Do a bit of laundry, play some arcade games, and listen to some great music in a nostalgic 90s setting. At the same time, the Nosebleed Interactive game may need a bit of polish. However, after playing Arcade Paradise for our preview, we can say it’s a title to look out for.
You can follow the Nosebleed Interactive game Arcade Paradise on Steam by adding it to your wishlist or follow development on the games product page. Still, you won’t have to wait long after reading our preview with a spring 2022 release date for Arcade Paradise. And head over to the Nosebleed Interactive development page to learn more about the team there or any of their other projects.
