Arcade Paradise VR review: 90s retro design, clever immersion and the warm embrace of nostalgia

In Arcade Paradise VR you can now get up close and touch the mix of retro game cabinets that hide in your laundrette’s back office. The downside is you’re going to get equally up close to the game's grimy stained toilets, now with immersive plunger mechanics to wipe away those unwanted stains.

The original Arcade Paradise became a cult hit when released on all the best game consoles and PC back in 2022, it managed to artfully blend a nostalgia for retro games with a swift management sim loop. By day you run a messy, failing cigarette-stained laundrette, filling machines with punters’ washing, before drying, all the while emptying machines of cash, indulging in snarky messages with your virtual sister on a very 90s-styled PC, while cleaning up trash, pulling gum from walls and, yes… unblocking that filthy, filthy toilet.

It sounds like drudgery, like, well… work. And indeed at first the gameplay loop can drag. But the pay-off to owning a well run laundrette means you can funnel all your chore-cash into buying new ‘retro’ arcade machines for the back room. If you’ve watched TRON in envy of Flynn's Arcade, now you can live the dream and own your own, ahem, arcade paradise.

Arcade Paradise VR: coining it in

This new VR version, I’m reviewing on PlayStation VR2 (read our best VR headsets guide if you've yet to buy one), reworks the flat screen game as an immersive experience, where you now physically pull open and load washing machines, get hands-on with those lovely retro arcade games and twiddle knobs, collect trash and generally manhandle the world.

Each day you get a tick list of tasks to do, which earns money to invest in the business and ultimately buy new arcade machines. Just as the games in the back room recreate the classic gameplay of Pac-Man, Outrun, Arkanoid, Space Invaders and many others, so the entirety of life in Arcade Paradise VR is a game of sorts, from pitching bin bags into a dumpster to rapidly sinking that plunger into the toilet-grime. Each chore earns a rank, and winning a coveted S-Rank for something as mundane as hurling trash becomes incredibly addictive.

Arcade Paradise VR is a game that celebrates sneaking time away to play a game. It feeds on our nostalgia for a time when gaming was a guilty pleasure to be enjoyed covertly at the expense of life’s pressing issues. You can earn money from playing games too, but often you need to be wedded to the cabinet longer than you're business brain would want, as the beep-beep of washers and dryers can be heard above the chimes of bit-tunes and anxiety sinks in… I should be doing the day job. If the sign of a good game is to draw out emotion, Arcade Paradise VR does just that, even if it’s a creeping sense of unease or the fear of missing out on those backroom games.

Played in VR, and being able to immerse myself in the grubby 90s style of the game, the gameplay loop of Arcade Paradise VR takes on a new character. I sense the reward structure has been compressed for VR to ensure cash is earned faster and new arcade games can be unlocked sooner. It’s a concertinaed structure that’s needed too, as motion sickness is an issue, indeed playing in full motion I did feel queasy and needed to downgrade to teleportation controls after 40 minutes.

There’s a reason to push on though, because this headset edition features some new VR-enabled immersive cabinets that recreate more hands-on games, from light gun shooters to a basketball hoop-shot skill test and a version of those old Whack-a-Mole machines you find hidden away at the back of dreary English seafronts arcades, stained with chip fat and tears. In total there are 12 new immersive games to earn and unlock, and half a dozen of the older cabinets, including Air Hockey, have been upgraded with new VR controls.

What really stands out, and is perhaps more impactful in VR, is the lengths to which developer Nosebleed Interactive has gone to recreate the era-perfect graphic design of the arcades I grew up with. From the goofy 'Woodguy' character design of ‘Strike Gold’ to the Namco-like cabinet design of Smoke Em, each machine has unique 80s and 90s inspired graphic design and logos, as well as perfectly created visual identities.

Interestingly, I came here for the love of retro games but I’ve been loitering in my virtual laundrette performing a mix of mundane tasks longer than I imagined I would. In VR, activities that were a means to an end now feel more vital and interesting, and the mechanics of the game’s core design begin to draw me in. I’m reminded of the classic party game Bishi Bashi Special that made the act of hurling pies at wedding guests enjoyably addictive. In Arcade Paradise VR the most mundane task becomes a score-chasing mini-game.

Twiddling knobs to ensure you don’t mix colours in a wash and slowly, anxiously peeling gum from my precious laundrette feels essential. The line between my virtual life and my love of those old games blurs, and I’m just happy to potter in this retro game paradise.

Verdict

The chores-to-game loop feels condensed for VR and Arcade Paradise is better for it. The detailed cabinet designs and constant allure of new retro games is enough to fight past any motion sickness.