Round 1: Are Arcades Making a Comeback?

So I’ve been bitching and moaning about how arcades in the US are dead for years now. Not because I want them to be, but because by all of my experience, the few that still exist are disappointing at best and the remains of soda-spilled wreckage at worst. And to be perfectly blunt, it’s going to take a lot to get me to start thinking anything else about this particular subject.

And that "anything else" may have just reared its lovely, beautiful, clean-screened and all-buttons-working head: a Japanese chain of entertainment centers named "Round 1," one of which has just opened its doors at my local mall. Not simply an arcade, Round 1 seems to want to be a one-stop shop of gaming bliss: an arcade, yes, but also ticket machines, UFO catchers, private karaoke rooms, dart boards and pool tables, a small multi-lane bowling alley, and even a few table tennis tables hidden to the side (complete with net to catch any stray balls from rolling under skee-ball-playing feet). There’s a lot crammed into the space that used to be dedicated to selling ugly furniture (and before that, sporting goods).

It’s not entirely a unique idea—my childhood was dominated by a place called Scandia, which was a massive arcade with a double-sized mini-golf course, bumper boats, batting cages, and a laser tag maze I’ve talked about before. And there’s always Dave & Buster’s, which definitely triggers that nostalgia section of my brain that remembers how Dance Dance Revolution works.

I’ve walked through a few times, played a handful of rounds of DDR A and Mario & Sonic At The Rio 2016 Olympic Games (who knew that was in arcades?), browsed the ticket machines and played a catcher or two. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t know how long it will last.

The main appeal seems to be on the games, particularly Japanese-style rhythm titles near the entrance and a smattering of sit-down fighting games deeper in, but with plenty of ticket machines of varying flashy-flashy displays to choose from. This is great news for somebody like me who wants a stateside Project: Diva game to watch and enjoy (especially since the non-feet-centric rhythm games have a headphone jack for full immersion), but I don’t know how many credits will be pulled in by the average customer.

Maybe the handful of bowling lanes will help keep it afloat in the absence of niche game enthusiasts? Possibly. It’s a pretty nice setup, what with the comfy couch-like seating instead of hard plastic most dedicated alleys seem to buy from the Uncomfortable Seating Warehouse. Or it could be that, coupled with the four karaoke rooms, or maybe they’re seriously banking on the idea that a pitcher of soda is worth the overpriced amount. But I don’t really think so… it’s probably going to be the ticket-redemption games.

Because the prizes are pretty unique compared to a Chuck E. Cheese’s: Gundam figures, Japanese trinkets, t-shirts, even the cool Beatles clock my girlfriend was eyeballing when we strolled past the counter. There aren’t even any physical tickets to redeem—using the same magnetic strip card that holds “credits” in place of tokens so nobody’s carrying around the physical item. Just waltz in, scan your card, and pick your prize at the human-controlled ticket counter. I decided not to try and break down the number of tickets needed compared to the number of tickets spent on anything in there, partly because I’m sure it would make me a sad panda, and partly because math isn’t my strong suit. (I write for a reason.)

All of it brings me back to my days of my often-visited-in-college arcade, including the switch from physical currency of some sort to digital swipery, and it begs the question: Is this sustainable? By splitting itself up into so many different parts, is there any one area or activity that can compensate for another (or multiple) and maintain at least operating costs, if not turn a profit?

I stopped by on opening day and the place was packed, though cult of the new would almost dictate that it should be. I stopped by on Labor Day for a round of some recent version of Puyo Puyo and it was filled to the brim then too. I’ve stopped by once on a day that wasn’t either a holiday or a regular “no work so let’s have fun” day and while it wasn’t totally empty, it was a thin crowd like one would expect of an arcade on a Monday afternoon.

There have been plenty of game centers that relied on games that haven’t made the cut in recent years… maybe they haven’t reliably shifted newer games into the rotation and shipped out aged and dilapidated cabs to the proverbial digital retirement/graveyard, or relied too much on one type of game even after that game stopped making as much money when the fad of it blew away. It’s possible that simple upkeep wasn’t up to snuff and everything went a little too Five Nights At Freddy’s for the masses to appreciate (though that might bring people back now). It could simply have been mismanagement and I would have no way of knowing without talking to the owners. But Round 1 appears to be, at its beginning, an entertainment center that knows the demographics it wants to grab and shake “quarters” out the pockets of, so maybe I should be excited, or at least optimistic.

This isn’t the same arcade I grew up with, but knowing that isn’t going to be the case anyway, I don’t have much reason to be anything but happy it’s there—that it exists, and in 2016 no less. I haven’t tried everything in there—yet I didn’t bring my bowling ball, and I’m honestly kind of intimidated by isolated karaoke rooms—but it feels like I remember Chuck E Cheese’s feeling when I was a kid… large, filled with plenty of games I actually want to play, and even variations on classics like Galaga, even if it’s a one-life version for redemption tickets.

Now, as a gamer of over 25 years, I could rant about how everything is more expensive, my classics aren’t there, and that there are no more tokens. But in this case, the little kid part of my brain doesn’t want to.

Maybe the arcade isn’t dead after all. The older, jaded and scarred psyche still wants to fight the fun a little, but then I play air hockey with my lady in what I know is a brand-spankin’-new arcade, surrounded by flashing lights and the siren songs of a hundred modern-day video game cabinets. And I think “Aww fuck it, let’s have some fun!”

(I may even try to win a stuffed Mr. Pickle from a crane game, but don’t tell my girl, yeah?)