King of the Arcade brings us back to the ’80s on Xbox April 12

Monarch of the Quarter-hole

Super Villain Games has dropped a trailer outlining their upcoming game, King of the Arcade, which is set to drop on April 12, 2023. Right now, the game is set to release exclusively on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, which is something I didn’t even know happens.

King of the Arcade seems to be about saving a local arcade with prime joystick handling. You play as Mac McCormick, a former arcade champion. Although he’s no longer in his prime, he jumps to action to save an arcade from an evil landlord — by playing video games, I guess! I thought this might be, like, win the prize purse and use the money to pay the rent, but apparently, the landlord has “seven members of his arcade gang,” which makes less sense while also being a lot cooler.

There are 40 games within various genres throughout King of the Arcade, which makes it a sort of compilation of fictional titles not unlike Arcade Paradise. What is less clear is how these are all tied together. It obviously has some narrative focus, but is it a linear progression of games? Do you play them between visual novel dialogue portions? The press release says the arcade is “open-world” but not much else.

King of the Arcade is the second game from Super Villain Games after Doug Hates His Job. Reaction to Doug Hates His Job doesn’t seem to be the most positive, but I like what I see with King of the Arcade. Most of the feedback toward the previous game seemed to focus on a lack of polish, so hopefully that won’t be the case here.

Unfortunately, it may be a while before I, personally, find out, since I don’t own an Xbox One or Xbox series X|S, but if you do, then you’ll be able to grab King of the Arcade on April 12.