I got Arcade Paradise from a Humble Bundle this year, and have just got around to playing it. I had never heard of the game before and had no idea what it was like. Turns out that it’s a first person business simulation where you’re running a laundromat that happens to have some arcade machines in the back room. At first you’re just trying to keep up with emptying coin machines and dealing with the loads of laundry coming in, but as you get more money you can invest in more arcade machines.
The story is told through answering machine messages and emails on your office PC. You were given the business through your Dad who is trying to prove a point about hard work, but he very much disapproves of the arcade part of the business.
The arcade machines in the game are fully playable, and as your business grows you can automate parts of the laundromat and so get more time to do that. Getting high scores on each of the machines draws more people to the arcade and so brings in more money. Some of the machines are really quite good, simple old-school arcade style action games. I found myself playing them just to play them rather than advance the business-sim wrapper.
I found the final section of the game a little grindy, I’d played as much as I wanted to of each of the arcade machines but still didn’t quite have the money to trigger the ending. It gave the experience a little bit of a sour note, but up until then I was really enjoying it.