Arcades died with the arrival of increasingly powerful home consoles. They mocked the Atari 2600, grew a little nervous with the Nintendo NES, were frightened by the arrival of the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo, and officially died with the PlayStation. But if there's one thing arcades taught us, folks, it's that as long as you have a coin, you can continue indefinitely. Today, thanks to various groups of independent developers, the countdown to Game Over has been stopped.
The question I asked myself was simple: what would an arcade hall today look like if it only had machines born after the end of arcades? Could you put together an entire hall around new games, cabinets included? Following the trail, I found that today the main manufacturers of arcade machines are independent developers, and that's where I started building this hypothetical hall. Here is the first part of that investigation, with arcades for every taste!
NAVE
The arcade by VIDEOGAMO, the company also responsible for the great DOBOTONE console, is a game of physical and intellectual endurance like few you'll know. To be among the top ranks in NAVE, you not only need to know how to play, but also have enough stamina to not give up. To give you an idea, the record is over five hours of intense action that never lets up and demands everything from you. NAVE has a few years under its belt, but such is its following (including me) that it's still active, traveling the world and organizing tournaments. In fact, the next tournament will take place on December 10th and, if all goes well, you'll see me there, fighting for the championship title. If you want to know more about NAVE, you can watch the documentary La Última Ficha (where I make an appearance, see if you can find me!)
Maldita Castilla
The exceptional homage to Ghosts n Goblins from one of my favorite game developers: Locomalito. Born as a freeware game for PC and Ouya, and now with a commercial version that's even better, Maldita Castilla also has an arcade version that has been making rounds at various retro gaming conventions in Spain. An arcade in the classic vein of the Capcom game, but set in medieval Spain and its mythology. A true luxury.
Flytrap
The oddball of the list! FlyTrap was designed as a commercial arcade, like those of yesteryear, to be sold to bars and arcade halls across the USA. It's that Adam Coate, its creator, tired of the saturation of products on iOS and Android, looked for a market that wasn't so well served and found it in the arcade world. Flytrap has all the vibe of 90s games, with simple rules, colorful graphics, and rising difficulty. It looked like a very fun game, but we don't know how well it did commercially, since there aren't many more mentions after the news of its creation.
The Black Heart
The must-have fighting game of any arcade hall! And not just any fighting game, oh no! This is the fighting game of none other than Andres Borghi, a multifaceted multimedia artist we already know thanks to his award-winning horror short film Alexia and his great last and funny movie, Nacido para Morir. The Black Heart was in development for seven years and it shows. The music is excellent, the graphics are very macabre, the movements are fluid, and overall, the balance between all characters is very good. Ideal for those who like to challenge strangers to mortal combat.
Killer Queen
The only arcade game that can be played in versus mode by up to 10 people (in two teams of five). Killer Queen is a mix of Joust with real-time strategy, where queens must direct their workers to be the faction that manages to bring the God Snail to its hive. The full game consists of TWO arcade cabinets connected to each other, one for each team. Several tournaments were held with this beautiful arcade, so it fulfilled its mission of bringing several friends together in the same place. Long live in-person gaming!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/44O1fWfj2QYJuanito Arcade Mayhem
Juanito Arcade Mayhem not only comes in the form of an arcade cabinet, but is also a heartfelt and sincere homage to all the classics of the golden age of arcades. The game itself is very similar to the great Pang by Capcom, but with Juanito as the protagonist. The levels, for their part, are a real show. Each one is based on a classic game, instantly recognizable. So we'll fight against the fearsome aliens who want to conquer the world in levels based on Wonderboy, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Arkanoid, and Snow Bros, among many others.
VEC9
Are you ready for the challenge, comrade cosmonaut? Come over here and train for the mission with our new vector-based flight simulator. The latest in Soviet technology, comrade! The VEC9 is a full-fledged ship-and-shoot arcade, built the Russian way, with parts from all sorts of obsolete machines. Possibly the most genuine arcade on this list, it puts you in command of a state-of-the-art Russian ship that must invade and destroy various cities in the United States. With one of those old monitors capable of showing vectors in all their splendor, VEC9 looks like a true vintage gem.
Death By Audio Arcade
Death By Audio Arcade is a traveling arcade hall. A collection of original arcade games, mostly competitive, that appears all over the United States at various gaming events and conventions. The games themselves aren't as well polished as the others on this list, but with nine different ones to choose from, it truly doesn't matter. If you want to see the full list of Death By Audio Arcade games, videos included, click here and have fun.
Those are all the sensational indie arcade machines for now, which doesn't mean they're all that exist! Soon we'll keep looking for more lost indie gems to discover and adore. If you know of an arcade that isn't listed here, please leave its name in the comments! And don't miss the upcoming articles!
