The Arcade Fire
He is risen,
I have been meaning to write a post about Metroid Prime for a while now, but unfortunately this isn't it. Every time I sit down to try, the words just won't come, which is rather disconcerting. It is a top contender for best game of the last console generation, but all attempts to explain why end in failure. Maybe I'll replay it...
I recently returned from an arcade, somewhere I have not been in far too long. I basked in the glory of light-guns, beat'em ups, fighters and racing games. A couple of friends and I beat Turtles in Time with a couple of friends and got to Inferno in Soul Calibur II. I had heard that there was a #Reload machine there, but no such luck. Most of our money was spent on Time Crisis 3 and 4, which was entertaining but short. I also did remarkably well at Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, despite having almost no experience with the series; Virtua Fighter's influence was evident, but it felt stiff and somewhat sloppy. I have to give it props for not having a block button though.
So, yeah, arcades. It is a shame that they have mostly died out here in America; it is a completely different atmosphere from home console gaming. There are a million distractions and you can't hear anything, but this forces you to focus on nothing but your own performance. Not to mention the fact that there is more and better competition than you will ever find outside of a convention.
Still, they are rather expensive. Whatever happened to "quarter-munchers"? Most modern games run a dollar a credit, which is a bit steep for my tastes, especially given the necessarily high difficulty of arcade titles. I know I would gladly spend the same amount of money that I did if I was given more credits; hell, I might even pay for more of them if they were cheaper. "Just one more continue...." is a lot more tempting when I only have to invest sums measured in cents.
I may talk about arcades again soon, that is all for now.
Bring the noise,
Hot Fuzz
3 comments:
Back in Oregon, my favorite arcade had an admission fee and nothing more expensive than 10c a credit. That was pretty sweet. Most games were a nickel. Tons of fun.
It has, unsurprisingly, closed.
There is a place around here - in the Boston Area - called Strike One. Its about a 30 min drive I say, and I'm actually not entirely sure its still alive. However, you go in there and pay a one time admission fee and all of the arcades in there are free play. Granted when I was there for everyone's birthday party imaginable, the selection of the machines was pretty bland. They did have a batting cage you could run yourself and an indoor soccer arena though, so that was plus. The whole free play idea was great though. I always wished they had better games...
I went to Woonsocket Rhode Island (maybe 45 minutes away from Clark) twice.
Because an import arcade there had Guilty Gear XX Slash as soon as it released.
...pretty much the best arcade I have ever been to.
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