ScherzoPrime
Member
I have to say I didn't have the highest expectations when the idea struck me to hang out with a friend at Dave and Buster's a week ago. There'd been an arcade cabinet I'd actually been planning to try out for a while, but it'd been over five or so years since I'd been to an Arcade so I had no idea what state I'd find it in, let alone what condition it'd be in. I remember going to the Arcade always being an exciting experience as a kid, but with Arcades considered long past dead, I had an apprehension in the back of my head that this was going to be a sad, decrepit experience.
So it was my surprise to find the place rather vibrant and lively. It was late afternoon on a Sunday, so while it was probably more busy than most weekday afternoons it wasn't exactly peak hours, but the arcade floor was pretty crowded with families and party-goers, with practically every game worth playing having someone plugging away at it. The floor was basically split in half, functionally speaking, with arcade games on one side and ticket games on the other, and there was a decent variety of games there to play. I actually missed the game I'd wanted to play the first time I walked around the game floor, only to realize the simulator rides had all been clustered around the center. So far so good.
The floor wasn't spotless of course; some of the card readers were cracked, one of the House of the Dead stations wasn't functioning, and there was an issue with one of the simulator games as well I'll get to in a bit. But all in all it was far from the depressing zombie of an arcade I was worried it'd be. Plus the food I got at the Sports Bar & Grill wasn't half bad either, but then again I'm an American used to Chili's and Applebee's, so take that for a grain of salt.
The first game me and my friend played was some quiz thing, not a whole lot to talk about there. So the first real game that caught my eye was...
RAZING STORM
A spin-off of the Time Crisis series, Razing Storm effecticely does to the TC series what Assault Horizon did to Ace Combat. The foot pedal to pop up from cover remains, but the weapon selection has been stripped in favor of all machine guns, all the time, except when you're handed even deadlier weapons for scripted sequences. While not 'completely' mindless (popping up and taking cover is important, especially with bosses and heavies) the focus has shifted from weapon selection and coordinating which enemies to shoot first, to more of guns-blazing, human wave experience, at least in the beginning. It feels as if it's a cross-breed of Time Crisis and L.A. Machineguns (which unfortunately I could not find :/). As thoughtless as the combat could get at times, it probably was one of my favorite experiences at the arcade, and a good deal of that is because of the haptic feedback of the guns, which really pulled me into the experience. It was one of the few games I played multiple times.
-These dudes jumped me all at once, just to be all mowed down.
We followed up this Trigger Happy Havoc with an oldie but a goodie...
DAYTONA USA
-DAAAAYTOOOOOONAAAA!
...Unfortunately, neither of us were particularly good at it. I'd've thought that, you know, actually driving for over six years would have made me better at racing games in arcades, but nope, I'm just as bad as ever. It was definitely less of an arcade-y experience than I had anticipated, if you don't put a lot of thought into how you take turns you're likely to be smoked. It was a nice bit of nostalgia, but I wasn't particularly interested in dropping more credits just to be lapped by the CPU.
Next up...
GUITAR HERO ARCADE
It's Guitar Hero. That's about it. I'm not familiar enough with the 'feel' of the games or their tracklists to give an indepth examination of it, but if you've been to at least a handful of locations that have arcade machines, like say a bowling alley, odds are you've seen this there. It plays well from what I remember playing GH back in the day, and definitely had fun playing against a friend. It definitely has an addictive 'pick up and play' feel, which is how we ended up playing each other three times. But it's not exactly something you'd go out of your way to play, especially if you or someone you know owns one of the GH or Rock Band games and instruments.
Wait, what's that signal in the sky? It's...
BATMAN
Well, this was certainly... interesting. Technically predating Arkham Knight, this game feels like if you took the Batmobile segments from that game and somehow made them even more arcade-y. You're basically firing bullets and missiles (as well as pick up weapons like batarangs) to blow up enemy cars, AA turrets (as the Batjet), and collect information, the objective changing as you progress mission to mission as part of the level you've chosen. The levels are sort of a qausi-open world; turning the wheel at an intersection essentially magnitizes you to going that path, with arrows pointing at where you should go. In practice, it just felt really chaotic to play. I woulsn't say it was necessarily unfun, but it just felt too loose in a way that didn't lend itself to a structured arcade experience. I dunno if I'd recommend it.
-Don't worry, those are rubber bullets... right?
Returning to more familar territory...
TIME CRISIS 4
Now this is Time Crisis-ass Time Crisis. Your default weapon is a pistol, unlike Razing Storm, and you switch between weapons by shooting off screen. Properly choosing enemies to engage and matching them with the right weapon is key, giving the game a tactical edge that Razing Storm often lacks. It's still engaging, especially with the rumble akin to Razing Storm's, and there are neat scenarios where you need to pivot around to hold off enemy soldiers. It isn't quite as cathartic as Razing Storm, but there is a general feeling of greater skill involved that benefits the experience.
...But then there's these motherfuckers:
-Nanomachine Terror Bytes, Son.
These fucking things are so unfun to fight; they have none of the satisfaction off dropping a human enemy and just. keep. coming. I get they were trying to mix things up with having a 'grey goo' style enemy, but they should've known emptying clips into bullet sponge swarms wasn't anyone's definition of fun. I kind of wish I had tried out Time Crisis 5, which was on the other side of the unit, but for some reason I never got around to it.
Still, it was a better experience than...
HOUSE OF THE DEAD 4
I'm kinda surprised I ended up so down on this one too; I had fond memories of playing the series way back when. It's just, for whatever reason, there wasn't any feedback with the guns. And that made all the difference in the world. After the weighty feel of both Razing Storm and Time Crisis 4's guns, HotD's shooting simply felt flaccid. So sadly I don't have much to say about this game beyond that it was disappointing.
Moving onto newer games now...
LUIGI'S MANSION ARCADE
It was interesting to see how Luigi's mansion was translated to Arcades; in this case it was as an on-rails first person shooter. And I have to say they translated the mechanics rather well. Using the flashlight and then playing tug of war with the vacuum around the screen felt good (well, most of the time), and the 'spooooky' charm of Luigi's Mansion was in full force. The only issue was that the machine at times had trouble tracking the Vacuums, particularly my friends, so he tended to do worse than me as the reticule would blink out or fail to move properly. Also the game was treated as a more premium experience, not as much as the simulators, but more than the more responsive Time Crisis games. So while it was an enjoyable experience, it wasn't quite worth the premium, but I'd gladly play it again.
Continuing with Mario...
MARIO KART ARCADE GP DX
The newest Mario Kart Arcade game; it was a rather large set of units, four machines hooked up to each other, allowing a full on race. There was almost always people at it, so sneaking in a race was difficult, though finding partners wasn't. As someone who hasn't been keeping up with the Mario Kart series, I had a blast with it. Nearly won it too, if it weren't for some goddamn bubble or bag that swallowed me up right infront of the finish line goddamn it.
So yes, this is definitely a Mario Kart game.
Lastly, the simulators, starting with the one I really wanted to play...
MACHSTORM
AKA, Ace Combat Assault Horizon with the serial numbers sorta filed off. This is an arcade game essentially based around ACAH's Close Range Assault mode (and liberally borrows from that game's assets as well), and you know what? Arcade is the perfect venue for that kind of gameplay. The production values are great too; it's a domed screen, with air blowing on you to simulate take-off and flight, so it was easy to get sucked into the experience of jerking the plane around in all sorts of aerial gymnastics. Despite using ACAH's models and aesthetics, much of the game feels like a throwback to Ace Combat's arcade origins (the tracks are actually remixes of Air Combat 22's 80s cheese rock OST, the last Ace Combat game to come to arcades before this), with planes suicidally flying into your flight path to be shot down by cluster missiles, while you weave and bob through the Miami or Dubai skyline. To be honest, a bit of fanboyism might be showing through here, but it just felt right to play, as silly an experience as it was. I'd've played it more if it weren't pretty exhausting to do.
And finally, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...
STAR WARS BATTLE POD
Feels a little bit bad to end my survey of the game's I played on a little sour note, but it's kind of impossible to talk about the game without talking about MachStorm, the game it is clearly developed from (It, like MachStorm, was made by Project Aces). Right off the bat though there was a technical issue; either the screen or projector lens was smudged, resulting in a greasy smear over a large portion of the center of the screen. It didn't obscure gameplay, but it was pretty unsightly and definitely detracted from my game-play engagement. The game differs from MachStorm in that instead of the mission being to destroy all the enemies as they pop up (with an objective at the end), Battle Pod intersperses the free-wheeling fighting with 'objectives' that have to be fulfilled. While MachStorm also has objectives, the way Battle Pod incorporates them often disrupts the flow of the mission, pulling me away from the raw joy of piloting a snow speeder. Plus I lasso'd a grand total of zero AT-ATs in my time with the game, so there's no way to describe it other than a bit of a bummer.
CONCLUSIONS
So despite a couple of letdowns, on a whole I was honestly a bit impressed with my time at Dave and Buster's. Not just the quality of the games there, but just the overall atmosphere. Yes, several of the newer games there were arcade ports of mobile games, and yes many of the 'classic' style arcade units were over 10 years old, but you know what? I'm okay with that. (There was a clear lack of fighting games though as far as I could see, which obviously would be a big disappointment for some) There were enough games to entertain me and my friend, and in general a positive vibe of a lot of people having fun, that I didn't really mind that I'd lost my half used card and had to buy a new one. What mattered was that I was having a good time playing games with friends. And really, isn't that what going to the arcade is all about?
So it was my surprise to find the place rather vibrant and lively. It was late afternoon on a Sunday, so while it was probably more busy than most weekday afternoons it wasn't exactly peak hours, but the arcade floor was pretty crowded with families and party-goers, with practically every game worth playing having someone plugging away at it. The floor was basically split in half, functionally speaking, with arcade games on one side and ticket games on the other, and there was a decent variety of games there to play. I actually missed the game I'd wanted to play the first time I walked around the game floor, only to realize the simulator rides had all been clustered around the center. So far so good.
The floor wasn't spotless of course; some of the card readers were cracked, one of the House of the Dead stations wasn't functioning, and there was an issue with one of the simulator games as well I'll get to in a bit. But all in all it was far from the depressing zombie of an arcade I was worried it'd be. Plus the food I got at the Sports Bar & Grill wasn't half bad either, but then again I'm an American used to Chili's and Applebee's, so take that for a grain of salt.
The first game me and my friend played was some quiz thing, not a whole lot to talk about there. So the first real game that caught my eye was...
RAZING STORM
A spin-off of the Time Crisis series, Razing Storm effecticely does to the TC series what Assault Horizon did to Ace Combat. The foot pedal to pop up from cover remains, but the weapon selection has been stripped in favor of all machine guns, all the time, except when you're handed even deadlier weapons for scripted sequences. While not 'completely' mindless (popping up and taking cover is important, especially with bosses and heavies) the focus has shifted from weapon selection and coordinating which enemies to shoot first, to more of guns-blazing, human wave experience, at least in the beginning. It feels as if it's a cross-breed of Time Crisis and L.A. Machineguns (which unfortunately I could not find :/). As thoughtless as the combat could get at times, it probably was one of my favorite experiences at the arcade, and a good deal of that is because of the haptic feedback of the guns, which really pulled me into the experience. It was one of the few games I played multiple times.
-These dudes jumped me all at once, just to be all mowed down.
We followed up this Trigger Happy Havoc with an oldie but a goodie...
DAYTONA USA
-DAAAAYTOOOOOONAAAA!
...Unfortunately, neither of us were particularly good at it. I'd've thought that, you know, actually driving for over six years would have made me better at racing games in arcades, but nope, I'm just as bad as ever. It was definitely less of an arcade-y experience than I had anticipated, if you don't put a lot of thought into how you take turns you're likely to be smoked. It was a nice bit of nostalgia, but I wasn't particularly interested in dropping more credits just to be lapped by the CPU.
Next up...
GUITAR HERO ARCADE
It's Guitar Hero. That's about it. I'm not familiar enough with the 'feel' of the games or their tracklists to give an indepth examination of it, but if you've been to at least a handful of locations that have arcade machines, like say a bowling alley, odds are you've seen this there. It plays well from what I remember playing GH back in the day, and definitely had fun playing against a friend. It definitely has an addictive 'pick up and play' feel, which is how we ended up playing each other three times. But it's not exactly something you'd go out of your way to play, especially if you or someone you know owns one of the GH or Rock Band games and instruments.
Wait, what's that signal in the sky? It's...
BATMAN
Well, this was certainly... interesting. Technically predating Arkham Knight, this game feels like if you took the Batmobile segments from that game and somehow made them even more arcade-y. You're basically firing bullets and missiles (as well as pick up weapons like batarangs) to blow up enemy cars, AA turrets (as the Batjet), and collect information, the objective changing as you progress mission to mission as part of the level you've chosen. The levels are sort of a qausi-open world; turning the wheel at an intersection essentially magnitizes you to going that path, with arrows pointing at where you should go. In practice, it just felt really chaotic to play. I woulsn't say it was necessarily unfun, but it just felt too loose in a way that didn't lend itself to a structured arcade experience. I dunno if I'd recommend it.
-Don't worry, those are rubber bullets... right?
Returning to more familar territory...
TIME CRISIS 4
Now this is Time Crisis-ass Time Crisis. Your default weapon is a pistol, unlike Razing Storm, and you switch between weapons by shooting off screen. Properly choosing enemies to engage and matching them with the right weapon is key, giving the game a tactical edge that Razing Storm often lacks. It's still engaging, especially with the rumble akin to Razing Storm's, and there are neat scenarios where you need to pivot around to hold off enemy soldiers. It isn't quite as cathartic as Razing Storm, but there is a general feeling of greater skill involved that benefits the experience.
...But then there's these motherfuckers:
-
These fucking things are so unfun to fight; they have none of the satisfaction off dropping a human enemy and just. keep. coming. I get they were trying to mix things up with having a 'grey goo' style enemy, but they should've known emptying clips into bullet sponge swarms wasn't anyone's definition of fun. I kind of wish I had tried out Time Crisis 5, which was on the other side of the unit, but for some reason I never got around to it.
Still, it was a better experience than...
HOUSE OF THE DEAD 4
I'm kinda surprised I ended up so down on this one too; I had fond memories of playing the series way back when. It's just, for whatever reason, there wasn't any feedback with the guns. And that made all the difference in the world. After the weighty feel of both Razing Storm and Time Crisis 4's guns, HotD's shooting simply felt flaccid. So sadly I don't have much to say about this game beyond that it was disappointing.
Moving onto newer games now...
LUIGI'S MANSION ARCADE
It was interesting to see how Luigi's mansion was translated to Arcades; in this case it was as an on-rails first person shooter. And I have to say they translated the mechanics rather well. Using the flashlight and then playing tug of war with the vacuum around the screen felt good (well, most of the time), and the 'spooooky' charm of Luigi's Mansion was in full force. The only issue was that the machine at times had trouble tracking the Vacuums, particularly my friends, so he tended to do worse than me as the reticule would blink out or fail to move properly. Also the game was treated as a more premium experience, not as much as the simulators, but more than the more responsive Time Crisis games. So while it was an enjoyable experience, it wasn't quite worth the premium, but I'd gladly play it again.
Continuing with Mario...
MARIO KART ARCADE GP DX
The newest Mario Kart Arcade game; it was a rather large set of units, four machines hooked up to each other, allowing a full on race. There was almost always people at it, so sneaking in a race was difficult, though finding partners wasn't. As someone who hasn't been keeping up with the Mario Kart series, I had a blast with it. Nearly won it too, if it weren't for some goddamn bubble or bag that swallowed me up right infront of the finish line goddamn it.
So yes, this is definitely a Mario Kart game.
Lastly, the simulators, starting with the one I really wanted to play...
MACHSTORM
AKA, Ace Combat Assault Horizon with the serial numbers sorta filed off. This is an arcade game essentially based around ACAH's Close Range Assault mode (and liberally borrows from that game's assets as well), and you know what? Arcade is the perfect venue for that kind of gameplay. The production values are great too; it's a domed screen, with air blowing on you to simulate take-off and flight, so it was easy to get sucked into the experience of jerking the plane around in all sorts of aerial gymnastics. Despite using ACAH's models and aesthetics, much of the game feels like a throwback to Ace Combat's arcade origins (the tracks are actually remixes of Air Combat 22's 80s cheese rock OST, the last Ace Combat game to come to arcades before this), with planes suicidally flying into your flight path to be shot down by cluster missiles, while you weave and bob through the Miami or Dubai skyline. To be honest, a bit of fanboyism might be showing through here, but it just felt right to play, as silly an experience as it was. I'd've played it more if it weren't pretty exhausting to do.
And finally, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...
STAR WARS BATTLE POD
Feels a little bit bad to end my survey of the game's I played on a little sour note, but it's kind of impossible to talk about the game without talking about MachStorm, the game it is clearly developed from (It, like MachStorm, was made by Project Aces). Right off the bat though there was a technical issue; either the screen or projector lens was smudged, resulting in a greasy smear over a large portion of the center of the screen. It didn't obscure gameplay, but it was pretty unsightly and definitely detracted from my game-play engagement. The game differs from MachStorm in that instead of the mission being to destroy all the enemies as they pop up (with an objective at the end), Battle Pod intersperses the free-wheeling fighting with 'objectives' that have to be fulfilled. While MachStorm also has objectives, the way Battle Pod incorporates them often disrupts the flow of the mission, pulling me away from the raw joy of piloting a snow speeder. Plus I lasso'd a grand total of zero AT-ATs in my time with the game, so there's no way to describe it other than a bit of a bummer.
CONCLUSIONS
So despite a couple of letdowns, on a whole I was honestly a bit impressed with my time at Dave and Buster's. Not just the quality of the games there, but just the overall atmosphere. Yes, several of the newer games there were arcade ports of mobile games, and yes many of the 'classic' style arcade units were over 10 years old, but you know what? I'm okay with that. (There was a clear lack of fighting games though as far as I could see, which obviously would be a big disappointment for some) There were enough games to entertain me and my friend, and in general a positive vibe of a lot of people having fun, that I didn't really mind that I'd lost my half used card and had to buy a new one. What mattered was that I was having a good time playing games with friends. And really, isn't that what going to the arcade is all about?
