Skip to main content

Long read: How TikTok's most intriguing geolocator makes a story out of a game

Where in the world is Josemonkey?

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Turn a grim laundromat into a bustling 90s arcade in Vostok Inc. dev's Arcade Paradise

Includes 35+ playable games.

Vostok Inc. developer Nosebleed Interactive is trading space-capitalism for retro-tinged arcade management in its newly unveiled Arcade Paradise, coming to PC and consoles later this year.

In Arcade Paradise, players are cast as Ashley, a teenager trying to transform the family's small-town laundromat into a bustling retro arcade, somewhere in the 1990s.

What follows is a game of two halves; on the one side, Ashley will need to complete dull chores - washing clothes, clearing out the rubbish, cleaning toilets (all given a suitably entertaining mini-game twist) - in order to raise the money needed to turn the King Wash laundromat into a booming arcade hangout, managing the business and investing profits along the way.

Arcade Paradise - Announcement Trailer.Watch on YouTube

A proper story line and sense of progression are promised as the arcade slowly blossoms (Doug Cockle, voice actor for Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher games even pops up as Ashley's dad), but Arcade Paradise has another side too.

All the arcade cabinets Ashley invests in (currently numbering 35 and counting, according to Nosebleed's Andreas Firnigl) are fully playable games in their own right, all taking their cue from three decades of gaming - covering everything from early vector games to the 32-bit era - and all featuring their own gameplay, missions, and high score tables. It's even possible to play a number of them co-operatively or competitively with up to four local players.

You can get a taste of Arcade Paradise's enthusiastic retro mimicry - and rather more mundane aspects - in the trailer above. And if you're eager to try your hand at arcade management, the game releases on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch later this year.

Read this next