Tag: Paradise

Creating your own empire of arcade machines was already an irresistible proposition in Arcade Paradise: you choose the games, the decoration and you start playing whatever is plugged in whenever you feel like it. What’s more, while you have fun and get lost throwing baskets or living adventures of magic and swords, the money boxes fill up automatically. Now that that same genius makes the leap to virtual reality, both the fantasy and the experience are practically unsurpassed.

The premise of Arcade Paradise VR It is not simply giving an extra layer of immersion to the original idea, but rather recovering the essence of the golden age of arcades and, in the process, turning our home into one to our liking. Something that is achieved thanks to making the most of the Meta Quest technology and an aesthetic deliciously inspired by the year 1993 that is manifested both in the decoration and in the type of arcade games that we can play. And yes, using Touch controllers makes a big difference.

And it is that Arcade Paradise VR It’s more than a hobby: it’s an obsession. It is that virtual space in which it is a pleasure to abstract yourself a little every day, whether to make renovations and take your vision of what a video game temple should be one step further, or simply to continue playing those titles created for the chance.

And Nosebleed Interactive has known how to do the tasks and has pulled out of the hat no less than 39 machines. Some of them are enjoyed in the form of mini-games, others created or fully adapted for virtual reality, some genius that gives an extra touch of atmosphere and all with a common denominator: they could genuinely have been in those arcades of The time. With the added advantage that it won’t cost us a penny to spend the afternoon. What’s more, we will be the ones who will collect the proceeds. And then we will invest it in our project.

Because Arcade Paradise VR It complies with what is suggested from its headline and proposes us to create the recreational room of our dreams. To our liking. But, at the same time, it is also a game with its own progress system designed so that we value each new machine, each achievement and weigh what type of investment to make. Because before setting foot in that promised paradise of arcade video games, we will have to take out gum, throw out the trash and clean toilets.

From a neighborhood laundry to the temple of the video game

The year 1993 could have been the worst of our lives. Luckily, the internet changed our destiny. You could almost say that Arcade Paradise (and its virtual reality version) have something similar to a plot that can be summarized in the following: your name is Ashley, you will not go to university and you will stay in the city of Grindstone taking care of the boring local of your father’s washing machines.

If you wish, you can put the clothes from the baskets into the machines yourself and then take them to the dryers. What is not so optional are the non-automated tasks: taking out the trash or cleaning the bathrooms. The good thing is that even those very routine things are presented to us as video games.

Once we understand what our plan will be until the end of time, a door opens for us. Literally. When doing the daily checkout we will see that right in the next room, in the waiting room, there are a few recreational machines that we can not only play without limits, but also the proceeds go directly into our pocket. Our Father (voiced by Doug ___le, the actor from Geralt of Rivia) only worries about the washing machines, cleaning and the box.

That arcade thing was an initiative of our sister, with whom we chatted from that new invention called the Internet from the office computer. And although our father entrusted us with simply taking care of the family business, it is impossible not to take a look at what other arcade games it is possible to buy and add one more. Partly to make our routine visits more entertaining, but also because each one of them will be a new step towards a bigger plan: adding a small arcade room to the boring laundry room.

Arcade Paradise VR encourages us to return every day to play laundry. We have a schedule, of course, that we can accommodate what we want to do, basic chores and, above all, earn more coins. However, every little while there will be a demand to finish everything quickly and take the first bus that will mark the end of the day.

Nosebleed Interactive turns routine into fun, and invites us to progress in the game or start a new day by promoting that, with our profits, a new arcade that we ourselves will have chosen awaits us at the entrance of the premises or take the initiative further and build a new expansion in the We have to add more games, activities and, of course, decoration according to our final plan: the opening of our own arcade video game temple. One that we can not only enjoy, but that will leave benefits.

What Arcade Paradise gains with Virtual Reality

It doesn’t matter if you played it on PC or consoles or are new to it: when you start playing Arcade Paradise VR, the game knows how to welcome you and puts a life-size arcade in front of you. It’s not exactly a menu, but a home screen, but from that moment you know that the experience is going to be much better than you know or expect.

Your way of interacting with all the elements of Arcade Paradise changes drastically in virtual reality, and not only because of the issue of immersion, but because of how all its elements are presented separately: from the most routine elements such as the minigames when launching the garbage or putting in the washing machines gain enormous nuances. However, the real hit on the table is how it makes the early 90s setting even more immersive. Both in the 90s aesthetic and when you start to have your own arcade.

Your way of walking and interacting can be by moving within the limits that you set or directly sitting down and thanks to the functions of the Touch controllers, although it goes without saying that the former achieves more and better that you really feel like you are in an arcade. Better said: in your arcade and with your own arcade machines.

We won’t have legendary games like Street Fighter II or Virtua Cop, but Nosebleed Interactive has been able to do the job by creating different experiences that try to encompass the hits of the time and all those machines that should not be missing in an arcade: from action and fantasy games , driving or puzzles to a jukebox with which to play the music we like once we have added expansions to our father’s tiny place. And, for that matter, new games have been introduced to be played in virtual reality, so that:

• On the one hand, we have 27 recreational games of different genres which are played using traditional buttons and sticks in virtual environments.
• To these we must add six more games that have been adapted to the Touch controls of Virtual Reality, including an Air Hockey, a dance machine or a Foosball table.
• And not only that, since it has been used to add six more games, completely unreleased and designed to be played in virtual reality, including a game of baskets or the classic Boxing and even a fortune teller who gives us fortune cards.

The previous activities and the new features do not end here, for the record, since routine tasks such as extracting gum or washing clothes are much more entertaining and the menus, which are displayed from our PDA (the grandfather of current tablets) gain layers of additional depth as we immerse ourselves in the Arcade Paradise experience. However, what takes the cake is that now we can also use mixed reality.

Do you remember that I told you at the beginning that you saw an arcade in front of you as soon as you started? In Arcade Paradise VR We can place the arcade games within our environment and play some games without them taking up physical space. However, a nuance must be made here: in the Meta Quest 3 models we will see the transparent environment and in the Meta Ques 2 we will see everything that is not generated by the game in black and white. Something like Frodo from the Lord of the Rings when he puts himself in the One Ring.

Something that does not tarnish what Arcade Paradise VR It is: the best version of a sensational idea that, without being pretentious, knows how to fulfill the fantasy of everyone who has ever dreamed of having their own arcade.

SamaGame’s opinion

Arcade Paradise VR It is the dream come true of everyone who has ever wanted to set up their own arcade. And the best thing it does is that it doesn’t give it to you directly, but it proposes that you get it, which gives added value to each machine you add, to each improvement and to how you see everything that is being built little by little with each game. With every penny earned, every chewing gum peeled off and hamburger box you throw away.

The recreational of our dreams? Unfortunately, the games that exist are created for the occasion. Generic conversions that try to fill the gap left by fighting games or the classics of the time. But that does not take away the essential thing: the games are not the only attraction of this virtual arcade, but rather an extra for an even greater experience. Something that gains enormous nuances by adding the format of virtual reality and activities and machines that are added to what already existed with the purpose of getting the most out of it.

There are things that are lost along the way in the PC version, such as that option to play doubles in certain games: here, as far as we know, all experiences are for a single player. And that, when there is an Air Hockey table or a Foosball table, it ends up being noticed. But Arcade Paradise VR It was never a compilation of arcade games or minigames, but rather an experience in itself: building and enjoying our own arcade. Make us live it as if we were in it. And that embroiders it.

Arcade Paradise VR Price

The price is one of the great attractions of Arcade Paradise VR: Like the PC version, you can buy the full game in the Meta Quest store for a very affordable 19.99 euros. What’s more, if we reserve before its launch it will cost us a couple of euros less. On the other hand, you do not need an internet connection to play once you download it.

Arcade Paradise VR Duration

There are two ways to determine how long it will last. Arcade Paradise VR. The first is that it can take time about 20 hours or more to complete the equivalent of the game’s story, which boils down to turning a laundromat into a huge arcade and making it prosper and expand. The second, even more interesting, is the time you are going to dedicate to each machine separately. And although there are arcades with a beginning and an end, in that second case we are talking about incalculable replayability.

Arcade Paradise VR

Platforms	Meta Quest 2 (reviewed version), Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro
Multiplayer	No
Developer	Nosebleed Interactive
Company	Wired Productions
Launch	Spring 2024

The best

• A masterful layer of immersion that makes us feel like we are in our own arcade
• Lots of games, activities and mini-games to get addicted and liven up your routines
• New games created specifically for virtual reality and the possibility of playing with mixed reality

Worst

• Don’t expect legendary arcade games like Street Fighter II or Donkey Kong