Arcadecraft

TLDR: Slowly go broke simulator. I can do that in real life. There are very few things you can actually do in this game, it's a lot of sitting around with very little control to affect the outcome of what is happening in the game. If that's your jam, go for it.

The only part I don't like is novelty wears off on arcade units very drastically. It shouldn't make a difference on novelty, because even an old machine (ex: Space Invaders) may prove still as fun and popular than, say, Virtua Fighter. But it would depend on the NPC. An older NPC might appreciate Space Invaders more, because they grew up with this genre, whereas younger players would have grown up with Virtua Fighter. In either case it may be the reverse. So my opinion would be if NPCs had favorites or genres, such as NPC 1 might like 80's style Action arcades, while NPC 2 will like Light Gun shooter games (like the Cop version of Lethal Enforcers). While they may play other arcade types to have fun, they won't have greater fun value unless their particular likes are filled. I haven't played this game in ages and only just sat down to look at my library and do reviews, so I don't remember fully what kind of "entertainment" machines or venues there are, but I sat here wishing there was a counter where you could buy pizza and hot dogs and soda, that would bring extra income into your arcade.

Loved this game on the 360 and love it here. Basically, its a series of really good and satisfying mechanics that really appeals to kids of the 80s like me when these arcades were everywhere. For the most part, there's a great sense of progression... until there isn't. As other reviewers have alluded to, this feels more like a brilliant demo with a promise of more to come. unfortunately it never did, and that's this game's downfall. We live in hope that the devs one day pick it up and blast us with more!

You may find yourself enjoying your time with Arcadecraft, but it won't be for very long. After about an hour or so, you'll have seen everything the game has to offer, likely bought all of the available upgrades, and will simply be watching the numbers go up. While a lot of effort was put into creating the various arcade machines, there just isn't a lot of meat on the bones here.

Nostalgia seems to be the draw here. And for a while that Nostalgia can be enjoyable. As new games become available there is a little fun in trying to recognize what actual arcade game is being parodied and trying to own sets of games and their sequels as a more personal goal, more-so than for the bonus in game. But when that nostalgia runs out (and it will quickly) then all you are left with is the game play, which just comes down to something that is fast-paced but barely challenging. By the time you have advanced to the second year you can easily already have the largest arcade available and you're making more money than you know what to do with. From there its just going from machine-to-machine to empty them of coins and repair them quickly. When new games come out you just swap them with older games that aren't popular. Aside from a few achievements to get in the game, there isn't really much to do past 1982, and this game ends at 1987. Yes you can keep playing past that point, but if you do there are no longer any new games to purchase so the game doesn't even have that to keep you motivated anymore. An update would have been wonderful to address these problems, but as this …

A BANGER of a game that came from the Xbox Live Indie Arcade.