The Pocket Arcade

Rogue Games, Inc.

About this game

The Pocket Arcade is a love letter to arcade games from a bygone era, where neon soaked, coin-operated machines were the pinnacle of interactive entertainment. Play the biggest collection of amazingly detailed and crafted games. From early 8bit shooters and monochrome vector games through 16bit puzzlers and action games, right up to early 3D games from the mid 90's, as well as non-videogame coin-ops such as darts, pool and table football. The Pocket Arcade is a gamer’s paradise!

Ratings and reviews

The 2.8 star rating is insane to me. I decided to play this because I thought it would be funny to try the worst rated game in the PlayPass. Yes some of the controls are a little clunky, and I wish it was easier to pull up the relevant "how to play" for each game, but this is a collection of arcade games that really feels like going to an actual arcade - switching from machine to machine with a bunch of quarters or nickels, dying in some once before moving on and staying at some a bit longer.

Although the presentation is great, it's really let down by its controls. For instance, it's very hard to steer in the outrun-style game. The sensitivities in it and other games just seem weird. I also wish you could change control style in each game. Like to a d-pad in games that use swiping. Another example of weird controls is that the Qix-style game doesn't let you slide from button to button (you have to lift finger off screen first). This should at least be an option.

The minigames are actually pretty alright... or they would be, if they were even remotely playable. This app has quite possibly the worst controls that I have experienced in an android game, and that applies to the controls for pretty much every minigame on the app. But, to make matters much worse, the majority of the minigames seem to be missing their how-to guides, so you have no idea what to do. For the few that have instructions, they barely have any useful info, and lack details and tips.

What's new

Added a new game: Stack Overflow.
Redesigned Settings screen with new icons and tutorials for each game.
Major update to controls in Woodguy Golf, SpaceRace and Hustler
Minor updates to controls across all games
Updated the entire UI and flow of moving in and out of game.
Moved markers in Cyber Dance to be more user friendly
Added in-game pause menu with tutorials & ability to change settings
Tweaked the order games are shown in to feel more natural
Under the hood tweaks and improvements.