I’ve spent a bit of today in one (for a job), and it’s… Honestly just kind of sad.
Everything is “branded” and based on some commercial IP. All the “independent”/quirky things I grew up with are gone, it’s fully cashless, much more expensive, and just generally… Super underwhelming. I’ve seen one pinball machine in the entire place. 😔
And still, the place is nearly empty. So if they’re trying to “appeal to different demographics” by pivoting to branded shittiness (fidget spinners! plants vs zombies! Fucking rabbids), it clearly ain’t working, lol…
Ah, I miss the 2010s, even compared to this shit…
The only ones that still exist around here are aimed at kids and have a ton of those games that give tickets for prizes, or have almost exclusively pinball games and maybe a few old school arcade games.
Arcades dried up around 2000, with the holdouts going to about 2010 or 2012, and even they're gone now.
It's a shame, really. I used to really like arcades.