I Didn't Expect a Game About Doing Laundry to Make Me Want…

Honestly, I don't know how I missed this game. Recently, my wife and I took our daughter to a birthday party for one of our friends' kids, and his dad, whom I regularly have conversations with about gaming, told me about a management sim he was playing called Arcade Paradise. Simply put, you run a laundromat with a secret, expandable arcade in the back. As someone who regularly keeps his ear to the ground in the gaming industry, I was surprised I had never heard of it. I assumed it was a new game that had just flown under my radar, but nope—it has been around since 2022. The more he told me about Arcade Paradise, the more intrigued I became. I already love management sims, but a retro experience that takes me back to the late 80s and early 90s, a checklist of mundane daily tasks to complete, and the ambient noise of a laundromat? Sign me up.

It didn't take much after that for me to pull out my phone and purchase Arcade Paradise through my Steam app. I wasn't even home, but I knew I needed this game enough that I wanted to make sure it was waiting for me when I finally got there. Then, upon booting up my PC and running the game, a neon title screen appeared with a track that sounded like the music that plays in every prep sequence or happy ending in Stranger Things, and I was hooked. Playing it just dug its claws into me even deeper, whether I was merely doing laundry for customers, pulling gum off benches, or killing time at one of the arcade games in the back room. Now, having poured dozens of hours into it, I'm ready for a sequel—and I know I'm not the only one.

Arcade Paradise Is Half Laundromat, Half Arcade Dream

There's even a game called Racer Chaser that's essentially Grand Theft Auto meets Pac-Man, so you know I'm all over that between loads of laundry.

The premise of Arcade Paradise is essentially if Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley saw players managing a laundromat instead of a farm. Rather than inheriting the laundromat from your grandfather, though, your tightly-wound dad is asking you to manage it for him, even though he thinks you're lazy and not going to pull it off. The laundromat, King Wash, is what anyone who grew up in the 90s would expect it to be, to the point I could practically feel the warmth of the dryers and smell the fresh linen in the air once I stepped inside. It's a bit of a junk pile, to be honest, with cracks in the tile, appliances that look like they've seen better days, and a bathroom that looks incredibly uncomfortable to even stand in.

After spending a day cleaning up trash, you discover a key to the arcade in the back room, and you soon realize the arcade is actually making more money than the laundromat. You try to convince your dad to let you expand the arcade, but he refuses. A friend of yours has some connections, though, so you move forward with the expansion without your father's consent. From there, Arcade Paradise becomes a game about managing a laundromat alongside a bustling arcade, and whether you embrace or shirk your responsibilities is entirely up to you.

Arcade Paradise's Features at a Glance

MANAGEMENT SIM: Arcade Paradise is a business management game focused on running and growing a profitable arcade.
PLAYABLE ARCADE GAMES: The game features over 35 fully playable arcade cabinets spanning multiple retro genres.
LAUNDROMAT TO ARCADE: Players begin with a functioning laundromat and gradually convert it into a full arcade.
DAILY CHORES LOOP: Players complete chores like laundry, trash collection, and cleaning to earn money.
BUSINESS UPGRADES: Profits are reinvested into new machines, floor space expansions, and arcade improvements.
LOCAL MULTIPLAYER: Select arcade cabinets support local co-op and competitive multiplayer.
RETRO 90s AESTHETIC: The presentation draws heavily from 1990s arcade culture and classic game design.
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: A licensed and original soundtrack reinforces the game’s nostalgic tone.
LEADERBOARDS AND SCORES: Arcade machines include high-score tracking and leaderboard competition.

There are plenty of reasons I love Arcade Paradise, but its ability to blend the task-oriented gameplay loop of traditional management sims with the joys of playing retro arcade games in a laundromat is by far its best feature. When I was in the high school marching band, we would always meet at the Pink Laundry downtown before a parade we were scheduled to perform in, and while we were waiting, my buddy and I would play the original Pac-Man on the arcade cabinet inside. Arcade Paradise lets me relive those moments virtually, and that—as well as its growing checklist of chores, business expansion potential, and overall atmosphere—is ultimately why it hits me so hard.

Its gameplay loop is addictive despite a simple start. You begin by putting loads of laundry into an empty washing machine, waiting for the cycle to finish, transferring it to a dryer, waiting again, and then moving the finished laundry to a nearby table. The quicker you are, the higher your rating, and the more money you'll make from each load. However, once the arcade opens up and you begin pursuing expansion, you'll have far more tasks to accomplish if you want to make the most of it.

Once everything opens up, Arcade Paradise becomes a loop built around momentum and small choices. Playing the 90s-inspired arcade games stops being a side activity and starts becoming part of the business itself, since hitting score goals and challenges directly improves how much money each cabinet earns. You find yourself chasing one more run in a game, not just because it is fun, but because you know it will pay off by the end of the day. At the same time, you are constantly rearranging cabinets to squeeze more machines into the space, fine-tuning the layout so that foot traffic feels right and nothing goes unused. Then, buying new games through that chunky 90s desktop computer, complete with dial-up internet, gives you full control over curating the arcade of your dreams. There's even a game called Racer Chaser that's essentially Grand Theft Auto meets Pac-Man, so you know I'm all over that between loads of laundry.

As the money starts rolling in, Arcade Paradise's business management gameplay loop starts revolving more around upgrades and expansion. New shoes let you sprint and shave seconds off your routine, you can hire an employee to collect all the money in the laundromat and arcade so you can stay focused on your work, and bigger expansions turn the once-cramped back room into a full-blown arcade floor. Ultimately, each improvement smooths our business operations without removing the need to stay involved, and watching the arcade physically grow as your daily grind becomes more efficient is incredibly satisfying. By the time you hit this stage, Arcade Paradise has fully delivered on its promise, and that's exactly why it has left me wanting more as I began to run out of things to do.

Arcade Paradise Needs a Sequel

The foundation is already there and clearly capable of supporting something bigger.

The thing about a game like Arcade Paradise is that it feels like it stops right when its best ideas are firing on all cylinders. By the time the arcade is fully expanded and everything is seemingly running smoothly, you finally have the freedom, tools, and understanding to really make the space something special, but there is no longer much room left to push it further. The systems are complex enough to give way to more customization and more long-term goals, yet the game pulls back just as it proves how well those systems work together. That sense of hitting the proverbial ceiling is what makes the case for a sequel feel so strong, because the foundation is already there and clearly capable of supporting something bigger.

As I've delved deeper into this gem, I've also discovered that I'm not the only one out there who wants a sequel, either. Reddit and the Steam Community forum are filled with posts from people who have played Arcade Paradise and want more of it, like this Reddit post from user JoeyTheMadScientist. We don't just want more DLC arcade cabinets, though—we want to see this idea reach its fullest potential. Arcade Paradise has merely opened the floodgates, and a sequel could be the flood. There are too many possibilities out there for the IP to stop now, like even more customization options, the ability to explore town, investing in an entire chain of laundromats, and maybe even a deeper story.

I'm not sure what developer Nosebleed Interactive is up to right now or if it's even working on a sequel. It did give what the company itself calls a "generic corporate answer" to someone asking about a sequel a while back, saying it had "nothing to announce at this time." However, that doesn't necessarily close the door on an Arcade Paradise sequel and could very well be a safer way of saying "not yet." I genuinely hope that's the case, though, because I would love to see more of it. Until then, I'll keep doing laundry for an unending wave of customers and playing arcade games in my spare time until I 100% this beast.

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