Arcade Paradise

Arcade Paradise (2022) is a 90s-inspired minigame-powered strategy game about transforming your family-run laundromat into a thriving arcade business. Play involves earning money through laundry chores, then buying and playing a growing collection of retro-style arcade games to attract customers and expand your setup. It stands out for capturing the nostalgic feel of arcade culture, with neon lights, smudged screens, and an exuberant mix of original and inspired pixel games.

---

You play Ashley, a high school dropout under pressure from his overbearing father to run the family laundromat, King Wash. Your tasks include loading and unloading washing machines, removing grimy chewing gum and cleaning the toilet, each completed as small minigames. With your profits, you begin to purchase and install arcade consoles, then play them to complete specific objectives that increase their popularity and revenue. Some games are familiar, such as Meteor Madness (inspired by the 1979 classic Asteroids), while others, like Woodguy Golf, are more original as arcade games.

As you progress, you develop the arcade room into a fully fledged gaming zone, complete with playable air hockey, table football and pool. Occasionally, consoles break down and require you to make repairs, such as flicking cockroaches off the CPU. With the wealth you generate, you hire workers to run the laundromat for you, and the gameplay shifts to almost entirely arcade gaming. With practice, you climb the online leaderboards for each game, giving incentive to keep playing even after obtaining all 35 machines.

The result is a nostalgia hit with something to say about the blurring boundaries between work and play. You slowly transition from the mundane laundry tasks to exciting arcade games that feel just like the real thing. But does turning the arcade into a business spoil the fun?

---

Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked Arcade Paradise 2 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 2 weeks ago.