Arcade Paradise VR PSVR 2 Review

Arcade Paradise VR PSVR 2 Review – Managing your own arcade is even more immersive in VR

The flat-screen version of Arcade Paradise brilliantly transported players to the neon arcade landscape of the 90s, offering you the experience of managing your own arcade. Given its quality, it was intriguing to see what the additional immersion of VR would add to the experience.

Arcade Paradise is an arcade management game focused on fun ahead of serious simulation. You play as Ashley, who decides to transform their dad’s mundane laundromat into an exciting arcade. This transformation involves various tasks, such as purchasing and strategically placing arcade machines, cleaning up rubbish left by customers, removing delightfully stretchy bubble gum stuck to random surfaces, unblocking toilets, and, yes, even washing clothes.

Most of these tasks are things that you would do if you were running a real arcade, but with a humorous twist. Unsurprisingly, the addition of VR has made activities more involving, so, for instance, cleaning the toilet, which was previously just a case of mashing a button, requires you to physically move the brush around the toilet, and throwing rubbish into the bin is no longer done through a golf-game like meter, but you must use motion controls to do so, which makes the task more engaging and reliant on skill.

In the early stages of the game, it feels more like a laundromat simulation, as the quickest way to make money initially is by washing clothes efficiently. This is a more involving process in VR, allowing you to fiddle with the dials of the washers and dryers to choose the right settings for each bundle of washing. This can become a bit monotonous, and your virtual hands have a bit of a tendency to get caught on the doors of the appliances, making things more awkward than they should be. The grind seems somewhat intentional however, as the cash incentive works to motivate so that you can buy additional arcade machines and expand the area to make room for more, paving the way for Ashley’s dream to come to fruition. It’s satisfying to see the laundromat gradually evolve into a full-blown arcade, and as you obtain more machines after a few hours in you’ll be making so much money from the arcades that you can entirely ignore the clothes-washing business altogether. As progression is made through the game, and as the Arcade Paradise increasingly grows, the washers and dryers will keep decreasing in quantity making room for more arcade machines.

“Arcade Paradise cleverly ties playing its arcade machines into the management aspect, as the more you play them, the more popular they become with customers.”

The arcade cabinets you purchase are not just for show; you can play them too. There are an impressive 39 machines in total (6 of which are new to the VR version) with almost all genres of the era – action, puzzle, fighting, racing, and rhythm – being represented. There’s a lot of diversity on display here and surely something for almost anyone. The games are presented with authentic period visual styles ranging from 2D, vector to early 3D. These are designed in the spirit of classic arcade titles, with the likes of Pac-Man, Pong, Breakout, and Frogger serving as obvious inspirations for some of the games. Provided you haven’t already played the game, it’s always an exciting prospect purchasing new arcades and trying them out for the first time, discovering the neat little twists that they often bring to age-old formulas.

They’re largely as addictive as the iconic titles that have inspired them too, and most have at least some level of merit to them. The game cleverly ties playing these machines into the management aspect, as the more you play them the more popular they become with customers. Each arcade machine also offers goals, which, upon completion, reward you with additional funds that can be spent on various upgrades (which amongst other benefits allows you to make your days last longer or your movement speed to increase), adding even more encouragement to play them.

The VR aspect of the game as I’ve already stated has, unsurprisingly, resulted in a more absorbing experience. However easily one of the most disappointing aspects is that when you’re playing most of the arcade games you can’t physically interact with the buttons and sticks of many of the machines, as most don’t have motion controls and, in turn, you can’t see Ashley’s hands physically interacting with the controls, all of which would have resulted in an even more immersive game.

The management aspect involves choosing the placement, cost, and difficulty of each of your machines to best maximize your profits. Having both the management and playing sides helps to add some variety to the game. Each in-game day is brief and it’s generally left up to you to choose how to spend your time: you can focus on keeping the place tidy, collecting money from the arcade machine coin hoppers, completing random daily tasks, or some combination of these activities, and yes, should you desire, you can simply opt to just play arcade games all day long.

Arcade Paradise VR PSVR 2 Review Summary:

Arcade Paradise VR is not without its flaws and disappointments but for the most part it successfully transitions the winning formula of the original release to the VR space. In most cases, it is the definitive way to play the game, offering an absorbing, addictive, and structurally interesting experience that will particularly appeal to those who grew up around the arcade culture of the 90s.