Arcade Paradise, the building sim where you create your own 90s arcade, at last has a release date, as developer Nosebleed Interactive announces the game will launch on Steam August 11.
And to mark the occasion, there’s a brand new trailer, illustrating the daily grind of working in a laundromat as you try to save up your precious pennies, and unlock your arcade dreams.
You won’t be alone. The King Wash, which you can transform into an arcade by purchasing up to 35 different machines, all inspired by classic games, is owned by your father, voiced by the velvet-throated Doug Cockle, better known for playing Geralt in CDPR’s The Witcher. In terms of a hunter, a sorcerer, and someone who knows how to utilise a stuffed unicorn, we’d say he’s a good call. As for a business partner, that remains to be seen.
From what we’ve seen so far, the best part about Arcade Paradise is how it seems to lean into the whole endless summer, slacker lifestyle aesthetic. It’s not just empty nostalgia. There’s something genuinely romantic about just hanging out, playing games, sipping Big Gulps while you try and beat your high score. If you’ve seen Dazed and Confused, or maybe Everybody Wants Some, you’ll know what we mean. Arcade Paradise looks like a good chillout game, but combined with some real thoughtful building and strategy mechanics, too.
There are some good jokes in here as well – genuinely funny games are few and far between, but creating specific mechanics for unblocking the toilet, or pulling old chewing gum off the sides of the washing machines, shows Nosebleed is pretty dedicated to finding the humour in the daily, dead-end grind.
You can add Arcade Paradise to your Steam wishlist now, or if you’d rather play on console, go over to the official store where you can pre-order a physical version which also comes with a poster, a sticker set, and a download code for the game’s soundtrack.