IS THIS YOUR KING?
Arcades used to be a magical place, one where a kid with a pocket full of change could go and spend an entire afternoon engrossed in crazy worlds and adventures. Super Villain Games aims to bring back that sense of magic and wonder with their new release King of the Arcade. In King of Arcade players will take on the role of Mac, a gamer whose 15 minutes was up in the 90’s. Now retired and looking for work, Mac has come back to his old stomping ground to find employment and reclaim his crown.
In order to interview for the gig, Mac is required to beat the high level in a Space Invaders clone, of course in doing so his nemesis Jimmy Joysticks (yes, that is his real name) finds out and decides to take over the arcade. Hilariously, this involves getting old champs to come and takeover various games which requires Mac to beat their score to kick them out of the arcade. There are quite a few games for players to try their hands at, not all of which are required for the story progression.
MSRP: $7.99
Platforms: Xbox
Price I’d Pay: $5.99
Sadly, these games all play like the shovelware version of games that see a weekly release on Nintendo Switch. Games vary from a bootleg side-scrolling beat em up, there is a racer that looks like Cruisin’ USA, there is even a bootleg Donkey Kong clone. Not all the games that are playable are of the video variety, players will also find a console in the basement that plays some basic flash games like Snake. And what arcade experience is complete without a game of ‘Whack a Mole’ or the old skeeball, if you answered “it wouldn’t be” then you are in luck as these games are also included.
This would all be great news if these games were any fun to play but unfortunately each game has its own unique issues to overcome when attempting them. The Space Invaders clone has some sort of aim assist which causes more problems than solutions when trying to take out the spaceships. Multiple games have issues with collision detection which makes completing them a chore to get through. While there are a few games that show promise, like a pinball game with a evil clown theme, there are others which appear to be awesome like the Golden Axe clone, until I realized that I die in one hit and had to restart.
Graphically speaking, King of Arcade looks a lot like one of those ROBOLOX games, each character is made of sharp angles and polygons. It’s not the greatest but it works for the game and helps sell low budget arcade games. Besides the issues with the arcade games here the other glaring problem is how the voice over sounds. I kid you not, it sounds like the developers just put the script into an AI bot which recited the lines with as little gusto as possible.
While King of Arcade can be funny, the few laughs it evokes aren’t enough to help this game rise above just being mediocre. There will be some who will see this game as away to relive those memories of playing arcade games in dimly light rooms for hours with friends around cheering. It can be that, to some extent, but the lack of care that’s on display with the actual arcade games themselves hurts King of Arcade, especially when Arcade Paradise exist and did this better.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
