Arcade Tycoon is a business management simulation that was released on Steam in 2021 (after some time in Early Access) and rereleased on Nintendo Switch in January of 2024. I recently tried out the Switch version.

This game is centered around nostalgia. The pixel graphics with their isometric view and grid-based object placement give off the feel of some of the classic "Tycoon" games, and the background music has a retro quality that imitates old-school themes. Machines and other items available to acquire for your gaming center are full of gaming references in title and design, and the general look and feel are just about exactly what I'd expect from a game called "Arcade Tycoon."

The game follows the established flow of slowly building up a business from scratch. With some crucial decision-making on which aspects of the business to invest in first, things get easier as you begin to work up a steady income. Random events keep things interesting with the occasional tax break, rage-quitter, or abduction of your machines by aliens. There are plenty of screens to look through and data to track, but you aren't required to micromanage everything—the option is there if you want to, but you can also just set things up and watch them run.

Two Modes Offering Challenges and Creativity

In the campaign mode, you start with a single stage with a limited number of features to choose from. As you meet the stage objectives, you unlock additional stages and attraction types. There is also a system that involves gaining stars each time a customer uses one of your attractions. These stars can be used to unlock new attractions in an already-unlocked category, or they can be used to purchase general upgrades that make it easier to run your business. Stars are cumulative throughout the game, meaning that, once spent to unlock an attraction or upgrade, that feature will be unlocked on all 12 stages of the campaign. This can be a great help if you find yourself stuck on a later stage and need to return to a previous one to earn more stars.

If you want more goal-oriented tasks, there is also a "contract" system in both modes, which involves completing five tasks to earn a coin and other bonuses. This is the only way to earn attractions in the "unique" category and neither contracts nor coins carry over to different stages.

The game also has a sandbox mode, which is limited to a single stage, that allows you to set your starting money and stars anywhere from 0 to 200,000 on stars or up to an infinite amount of cash. This makes things extra easy if all you want to do is design an arcade without putting a lot of work into grinding funds first. Even with limitless money, you'll still need to complete contracts if you want to place any machines in the "unique" category, but with so many funds available, that shouldn't be hard to do.

Decent UI with Some Awkwardness

The user interface for the Switch port is set up fairly well, but I did find some aspects to be a little awkward. Although everything can be accessed using the Joy-Cons, I found it more efficient to select objects and navigate some menus via touchscreen. Since the buttons still need to be pressed for interaction, I wound up fumbling around awkwardly as I kept switching between input types—though I'll admit that this may have been a personal issue due to having small hands.

What was more frustrating is that the camera is locked to a single angle. There is an option to make objects transparent, but everything switches back to solid mode when you interact with it, making it very difficult to adjust the position of smaller items when placed behind larger ones. The easiest solution is to always put larger items against the back walls so they don't block anything, but it limits the customization options. Rotation angles are limited on decoration items as well, so you can't have a bench with its back to the closer walls, nor can you stick wall art on those walls.

Nice Addition to the Genre; Some Minor Issues

Because each stage has you building a new arcade from scratch in a somewhat repetitive loop, it can get to be a bit tedious if you're trying to unlock all the stages in one go. However, I think that's a trend for the genre more than a flaw for this particular game. There are enough assets available to give each game center its own vibe and I had a lot of fun playing around with each space, trying to make gaming centers that both fit the stage objectives and were aesthetically pleasing to me.

I did encounter a few issues while playing. There were some glitches here and there, such as Maintenance bars for utilities not showing as depleting from the Summaries screen or interactions with the floor not functioning correctly on stage 12. I also had the game freeze once and crash another time early on. It was only the two times throughout the full game and I didn't lose any progress, but it didn't seem like a good sign, so I decided to test the stability on a large map. I filled up my sandbox warehouse with one of each attraction and commodity, campaigned to fill it with over 250 NPCs at once, and ran it at 4x speed. It ran decently smoothly with just a bit of lag during interactions or whenever I received mail. In all, the issues don't seem to be too bad. Though some glitches could be a little frustrating, they didn't greatly affect my gameplay. So, it isn't bug-free, but most of the bugs seem to add quirkiness or an extra challenge rather than making the game unplayable.

Quick Reference

Arcade Tycoon is a business management game centered on creating and running your own arcade.

Best played with breaks between stages.

Strengths:

• The graphics and music give off an appropriately nostalgic vibe.

• There are plenty of challenges to attempt.

• The random disasters add zany fun.

Weaknesses:

• The UI has some awkwardness.

• Trying to complete the campaign in a short period could get tedious.

• There may be some glitches.