Arcade Paradise taps directly into this almost Neanderthalic part of the older gamers psyche and turns it all the way up to 11.

From the opening cinematic with its nod to early 90’s trends; the drone of the alarm clock everyone owned, the orange foam headphones and Walkman, and even the parody NTV music channel all draw you in to Ashley’s world from the outset.

You have just left your job at the “Pizza King” and your dad Gerald, voiced by the unmistakeable Doug Cockle, has seen fit to let you loose to run the local Laundrette he owns while he relaxes on the Riviera. This requires you to clean up after the slobbish patrons, load their laundry to wash and dry, while making sure the facilities don’t break down. The major perk is that the laundromat back room is kitted out with a couple of arcade machines from when your older sister undertook this parental rite of passage before you, and these are far more profitable than your first day washing clothes. Against your father’s instructions you and your sister conspire to make the Wash King Arcade successful to prove him wrong.

As you progress and upgrade the laundrette,  you will get tips and new opportunities from your sister as she tries to help you make a success of the business.

Most of the tasks you perform requires you to complete a simple minigame, from cracking the lock on your safe to deposit your daily takings, attacking the toilets health with a plunger to unblock it, or even timing the perfect pull to remove stubborn chewing gum, you will find yourself quickly getting a routine for these tasks as the days roll on, with some rewarding you additional cash depending how well you perform the task.

Thankfully, it is not long before you earn enough money to increase the arcade machines you have in stock, or even expand your property to give you even more room to fit cabinets. Playing and completing goals on each of the machines improves its popularity meaning more games per hour and more money in your coffers. There is a very well-balanced progression in the early game, with more of your time focused on the running of the laundromat, rushing off any time your watch alarm goes to notify of a completed wash. Delay too long, and your earnings fall rapidly so to begin it is quite difficult to balance the books while also getting time to play the arcades, until the cabinets become profitable enough that you never need to wash another garment again.

As you progress, you also unlock daily to-do tasks which reward you with a second, premium currency allowing you to buy upgrades ranging from reducing how often the facilities or cabinets break, unlocking new functions on your very basic PC, (including minesweeper and solitaire!!!), advertising your business, or hiring an assistant to collect your profits from the hoppers for you, all helping to leave you free and clear to play as many arcade games as you want.

The games themselves are pretty faithful recreations or interpretations of classic titles like Outrun, Pac-Man, Merc and even air hockey, and with over 30 cabinets there is bound to be a few that you will find yourself being told to leave the property at 2am because the working day is over. Racer Chaser featuring prominently with the additional mechanics of being able to pick up a speed boost that lets you outrun pursuers, or even run to a new vehicle whenever you are caught, stunning police with your Ghetto Blaster music, allowing a little more flexibility and survivability over the original game.

Early on you unlock a jukebox as well which has an eclectic mix of trance, grunge and pop all reminiscent of the hey-day of 90’s music which just elevates and accentuates that “lightning in a bottle” that was 90’s gaming.

Regrettably, during my playthrough I did have a few irritating bugs occur. Most are minor such as To-do tasks failing to update, individual hoppers becoming un-interactable until you return the following day or reload, and I even had a critical bug where the delivery guys dropped off a cabinet twice, locking me into the map as there was no space to place the second cabinet. (Thankfully this occurred early, as I had to completely wipe all saves to allow me to start again, but I was always wary about buying a new cabinet in case I didn’t have room).

The post Arcade Paradise review appeared first on THUMBSTiX.

The runner series of games, for the uninitiated, are no holds barred simulations that put you in the role of Emergency Response/Haulier/explorer/general “man with a van” across a vast environment, and with this edition, those environments have gotten even more vast.  As I mentioned before, the namesake map adds four wintry zones in Alaska to the seven revisited zones in Michigan and Taymyr, Russia that make up the sprawling 30km2.

The core premise is to transport goods, or even yourself, across the map with limited resources and an extremely unforgiving environment. The gameplay is a decidedly niche affair, but at the same time is immensely satisfying. Mud, Water, ice, snow, flora, and rocks. Everything can, and most likely will hinder you as you try to reach your destination. Fuel is limited, and pushing your struggling engine through the gears to move through the mud, snow or water, activating All wheel drive, or pushing your vehicle up a slope increases the rate at which fuel is consumed, and it is ridiculously easy to run out before you finish the mission.

These missions come in three core flavours and while the environmental challenges help them all feel unique they can become quite repetitive, although with the rewards for completing any of the tasks usually worth putting in the time to complete them.

Contracts are your bread and butter and your core progression and each area has three companies vying for your assistance, whether it be something as simple as transporting tools to a nearby flooded farm, all the way up to transporting a set selection of materials across numerous of the maps interconnected zones. Other contracts require specific vehicle types or modified frames such as loading cranes, fuel tanks or saddles for trailers.

Next there are the contests, which require you to complete relatively simple tasks in a specified time limit, and only through learning the map & trucks will you find the optimum route and vehicle to accomplish the challenge.

Finally, there are the tasks, which range from impactful and world-changing, to throw away on off missions. One task may have you supply materials to repair a downed electricity pylon, or repair a broken bridge to open up new routes and paths around the zones, while others have you knocking over barrels or reaching a vantage in an out of the way part of the map, or recovering stranded vehicles to add to your fleet.

While your fleet initially consists of a rather beat-up Chevy Pickup, and a GMC9500 with Sideboard bed, it is not long before you are unlocking other vehicles to add to your arsenal. With four classes of vehicle ranging from the nimble scout, flexible offroader, stalwart Highway trucks to the powerful Heavy Duty vehicles, there is 40 varied trucks for you to find, buy and unlock along the way and all have a multitude of configurable options.

These options have to be balanced out based on your needs and their drawbacks. More powerful engines mean fewer miles to the gallon, improved gearboxes can give better low gear to push through those tough off-road patches but again reduce how much speed you can get and distance you get for your fuel. Winches, tires, suspension, even snorkels for improved water traversal can be modified and unlocked on every vehicle and with some able to unlock AWD and Diff Lock to improve your vehicles ability to tackle some of the more serious challenges in the game. While some of these can be unlocked for free by finding the upgrades in the wild, usually hidden well off the beaten path, most have to be bought with your contract earnings, and most, but not all have to be unlocked before you can even consider getting them. Every contract awards XP as well as cash, and more and more customisation is unlocked the further you progress into the game, allowing you to go back and pick up some of those missions that you maybe just didn’t have the right configuration or power to complete on your first attempt.

 Visually, the game is stunning with the dark moody browns and autumn orange/red of the forests in Michigan looking as stunning as the densely packed green forests of Taymyr or snowfields of Alaska, and you could not be blamed for stopping to enjoy the view from a peak as the sun sets around you. Night brings new challenges, with an almost imperceptible darkness that can, and did, cause many a broken suspension or banged engine block if you don’t take it carefully. Thankfully, there is the option to skip time, but honestly, where is the fun in that? This game rewards careful meticulous gameplay and there is nothing more satisfying than navigating a tricky bog, or Mud slicked back road, with your precious cargo safely delivered at the end.

Sadly there are a few flaws that stand out. Firstly, the camera issues that plagued Mudrunners and its predecessor Spintires are still apparent. Occasionally the camera will spin even without much prompting, and without any option to reduce the camera responses or reset its position it can make traversing difficult environments all the more frustrating.  Secondly, while the vehicles you unlock in Michigan transfer across to Alaska, a lot of the vehicles are continent bound, so you effectively have to start over when you delve into the Russian maps.

Overall, if you enjoy a challenging sim, Snowrunner could hit all the right notes even with its minor niggles. It isn’t for everyone and is rather a niche title, but there is a lot of fun to be found in this title.

The post Snowrunner review appeared first on THUMBSTiX.