Maybe it’s just where I live, but arcades seem to be making a bit of a comeback. They’re not standalone things anymore, though. Instead they seem to be popping up in things like Round One (a combination arcade and bowling alley) or John’s Incredible Pizza Company (a combination arcade and buffet). I’m really glad to see this resurgence; there’s just something very different about playing a game at an arcade instead of in your home or on your phone. Plus, there’s things you can do with an arcade machine that you can’t really do with other gaming formats. With that in mind, here are some games to look for at your local arcade.

The Walking Dead – This one is definitely designed to eat through quarters like nobody’s business. At my arcade, this one costs $2 per play. However, if you’re a fan of the series then this is definitely a must-play. It doesn’t feature any of the show’s main characters, but it does visit familiar locations such as the prison. More importantly, it puts you in control of a certain iconic crossbow. It plays pretty much how one would expect a “Walking Dead” game to play, you run past hordes of zombies occasionally stopping to shoot a few in the head. The thing that makes this one really difficult is that if you fail to save fellow survivors quickly enough, then you lose health. The thing that this one does that’s really cool is that the game’s booth features dynamic lighting which turns on when your character is in bright light but shuts off when you go into the dark.


Dark Escape 4D
– This game’s reach definitely exceeds its grasp, but there’s still a lot to like here. Publisher Namco’s idea here was to create a game which would create and respond to player fear by being totally immersive. In order to accomplish this, the game booth features black-out curtains, a 3D display, a vibrating seat, surround sound, air cannons, and controllers which monitor the player’s heart rate. There’s an astounding amount of technical complexity going on here for what amounts to a generic, cheesy rail-shooter. This one is worth playing just so that you can experience all the weird little bits added in for the sake of immersion.

 

 

Silent Hill: The Arcade – At the arcade I played this one at, the text on the cabinet was all in Japanese and the game itself had Japanese subtitles, which makes sense since it has never seen an official release in the United States. Much like the other games mentioned in this article the “Silent Hill” arcade game is a rail-shooter, so if you’ve ever played one of those you’ll know pretty much exactly how this game plays. However, this game manages to pull a lot of classic “Silent Hill” atmosphere into the incredibly limited medium of an arcade game. Players will travel to classic “Silent Hill” locations like the hospital, the shopping mall, and the secret prison hidden under the Historical Preservation Society. The monsters in this game come from the actual series, as do the bosses. Players will find themselves face-to-face with some of the series’ creepiest bosses, such as Pyramid Head (“Silent Hill 2”), an early version of Scarlet the broken doll (“Silent Hill: Homecoming,” released a year after this game came out), and everyone’s favorite nightmare-phallus the Split Worm (“Silent Hill 3”). There’s a much stronger narrative running through this game than just about anything else I’ve ever played at an arcade, which really helps it feel like “Silent Hill” and not just a generic rail-shooter. The Japanese cabinet features a save system of sorts, but unfortunately that requires the use of a card not available in North America (yet, anyway). This one is a definite must for any horror game fan who happens to find it.

I was genuinely shocked when I went to the arcade to research this article. I did not expect there to be as there were (this column just mentions the best of the best that I found there). Hopefully this arcade revival isn’t limited to just the area in which I live. Look around, find your local arcade. There’s probably a few hidden gems there.

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