In today's high-tech, social media-infused world, older gamers don't just miss classic arcade games. We miss the arcades themselves. That nostalgia has resulted in last year's Arcade Paradise from Wired Productions, and now Super Villain Games (developer of Doug Hates His Job) is getting in on the action with King of the Arcade. This one features numerous clones of classic arcade games, several of which support 2-player local co-op.
King of the Arcade consists of a single-player story mode and a "Private Arcade" mode. The story mode tells an original story set in the arcade, complete with NPCs with dialog and 3D brawler-style battles against party-crashing bad guys. Both modes allow a single player to roam a multi-room virtual arcade. The arcade is full of playable video games and interactive attractions.
The Private Arcade mode ditches the story so that players can soak in the arcade atmosphere and try games out at leisure. Over 40 games are included here, spanning numerous genres and eras. Some of the interesting single-player games are clones of Burger Time, Space Harrier, Frogger, and Street Fighter. On the co-op front, at least four games will support 2-player local co-op:
- After School Beat Down (a beat 'em up)
- Retro Invaders (a Space Invaders clone)
- Jump Pals (a Mario Bros. clone)
- Virtual Enforcement (a Virtua Cop clone)
This is an indie game developed in Unity by a small team. In our brief time with the game, we noticed that adding a second player in the co-op games is pretty clunky, and some of the games look rough around the edges. Still, the promise of an actual story mode and lots of different minigames to try make King of the Arcade worth a look - especially since it's cheap!
King of the Arcade will cost $7.99 when it launches on Tuesday, April 11 on Xbox. Preorder it now for a discount. The game will also be released on PlayStation and Steam at some point in the future. We'll have more impressions soon!