Amusement Arcade Toaplan review – “Your personal arcade”

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  • Challenging retro arcade games
  • Buy each game individually
  • Charming 2D graphics

During the 80s and 90s, arcades were in their prime, and it was rare to find an arcade without a Toaplan cabinet. For enthusiasts who miss those days, there’s good news! TATSUJIN, a publisher founded by Toaplan co-founder Masahiro Yuge, is commemorating 40 years of Toaplan by launching Amusement Arcade Toaplan for mobile devices.

Upon download, you’ll get instant access to the game Truxton (and five demos). However, if you want to play the remaining 24 levels, you’ll have to purchase each one separately. This approach allows you to pay only for what you’re interested in, but since each title costs $4.99, accumulating all of them will require a significant amount of money.

Amusement Arcade Brings 25 Classic Arcade Games to Your Fingertips

Among the app’s lineup are a variety of shoot ’em ups, puzzles, and shooters, including Demon’s World, Fire Shark, Snow Bros. Nick & Tom, and Out Zone, all of which are faithful to their original release. There’s also Rally Bike for racing fans and Knuckle Bash for those who love a good beat ’em up, both of which are pretty fun if you’re up for a challenge. The ridiculous outfits in Knuckle Bash are enough to make you smile through your inevitable defeat.

Lovers of brain-teasers will find delight in two games: Ghox, where you shatter blocks and whack adversaries using a ball, and Teki Paki, that challenges you to erase blocks by arranging five of the same color in a row. I personally found Ghox incredibly engaging due to its spooky enemies and straightforward controls.

In this game, FixEight and Out Zone feature as primary shooters. In these games, you assume the role of a solitary soldier, battling hordes of enemies using only bombs and firearms. Action enthusiasts might find appeal in Guardian, Pyros, Demons World, or Snow Bros.

Amusement Arcade Toaplan Features Tons of Shoot’em Ups

Mostly, AA
Toaplan
features shoot ’em ups such as Zero Wing, Vimana, and Batsugun. Despite each featuring its own design, the gameplay is similar for all of them. Typically, you’ll have a joystick for moving, a shooting button, and a bomb button. No matter which one you launch, you’re sure to be in for a challenge as you dodge incoming missiles and blast your foes. Luckily, you can always tap insert coin to continue playing if you die, which you’ll likely do often.

As a gaming enthusiast, I’d say Guardian delivers an engaging side-scrolling alien adventure, while Pyros offers a timeless platformer feel. Snow Bros, in essence, is about covering adversaries in snow to form a snowball that can be kicked at other enemies. Lastly, Demons World seems to draw inspiration from Ghostbusters in its charming side-scrolling platformer style.

Traditional arcades aren’t famous for their leniency, but don’t worry if you’re not an arcade expert! You can customize the difficulty level of each game to your liking from the settings menu. Additionally, you can set the number of lives and even enable invincibility for certain games, making them more accessible for retro arcade beginners.

Amusement Aracde Toaplan has Controller Support

Since they originally launched on arcades, most of the titles play in vertical mode. It would have been nice if the developers had made the games take up the whole screen instead of trying to emulate the look of an arcade cabinet. However, it’s still easy enough to make out details.

As a devoted fan, I’d say that AA Toaplan generally offers respectable virtual controls. Under the Virtual Pad Settings, you have the freedom to adjust the position and size of buttons to suit your preference. For an even more seamless gaming experience, consider connecting your favorite controller – it truly enhances gameplay fluidity!

To play games on your device with your Bluetooth controller, first, pair them together. Next, choose a game, open its menu, navigate to settings, and click ‘Select Input Device’. In the following screen, pick ‘Player 1’ and find your controller in the drop-down list. Using the PB Tails Crush Defender controller at Amusement Arcade made it simpler for me to survive as the controls were more responsive compared to the touchscreen.

Build your Dream Arcade

AA Toaplan also includes a design feature that allows you to decorate your ideal arcade. There are three room sizes: small, medium and large, with bigger rooms capable of holding more arcade machines. Each purchase within the app comes with a new arcade cabinet to set up so if you want to build your ideal arcade, you’ll need to make quite a few purchases.

Besides the existing decor, you could enhance your arcade’s charm by incorporating items such as standees, beds, and seats. A lovely concept, it would be even more appealing if players were given the opportunity to personalize elements like the color of arcade machines, walls, and floors.

Toaplan’s Amusement Center is filled with timeless retro arcade games that will captivate die-hard arcade enthusiasts. Each game can be purchased individually, which might suit some; yet, acquiring the entire collection may become costly. Regardless, the app offers an authentic arcade atmosphere with tough gameplay and vivid 2D graphics, making it a delight for those yearning for the arcades of the ’80s and ’90s.

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2025-02-26 13:48