- Challenging retro arcade games
- Buy each game individually
- Charming 2D graphics
The 80s and 90s were the heyday of the arcade, and back then, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that didn’t feature any Toaplan arcade cabinets. Luckily for die-hard fans, publisher TATSUJIN, founded by Toaplan cofounder Masahiro Yuge, is celebrating 40 years of Toaplan with the release of Amusement Arcade Toaplan for mobile.
You’ll immediately have access to the shoot ‘em up Truxton (and five demos), then you’ll need to purchase the remaining 24 individually to enjoy them. While this means you don’t have to pay for anything that doesn’t interest you, it also means with a price tag of $4.99 per title, you’ll be shelling out quite a bit of cash to obtain the whole collection.
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. 
Fans of puzzles will enjoy Ghox, in which you must break blocks and hit enemies with a ball, and Teki Paki, which tasks you with removing blocks by getting 5 of the same colour in a row. I found Ghox to be particularly entertaining with its Ghoulish enemies and simple controls.
FixEight and Out Zone are the resident shooters. Both place you in the role of a lone soldier mowing down armies of enemies with just bombs and a gun. Fans of action may be drawn to 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. 
Guardian provides side-scrolling alien action, while Pyros gives you a classic platformer experience. Snow Bros is pretty cute in concept. You cover enemies in the snow to create a snowball, which you then kick at other enemies. Finally, Demons World is an adorable side-scrolling platformer that looks like it was inspired by Ghostbusters.
Old-school arcades aren’t known for being forgiving. Luckily, if you’re not an arcade pro, you can adjust the difficulty of each of your purchases individually from the settings menu. You can also adjust the number of lives and toggle invincibility for some titles, which is great if you’re a retro arcade novice.
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. 
AA Toaplan for the most part features decent virtual controls. You can customize the placement and size of buttons under Virtual Pad Settings. You can also connect your gaming controller, which I highly recommend for smoother gameplay.
After connecting your controller to your device via Bluetooth, select a game then open the menu and go into settings and tap Select Input Device. From there, tap player 1 then select your controller from the drop-down menu. Amusement Arcade isn’t forgiving and while the touch controls aren’t terrible, I found it much easier to stay alive when using my PB Tails Crush Defender controller.
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. 
You can also add other décor to give your arcade some flourish like standees, beds, and chairs. It’s a cute idea that would benefit from allowing players to customize things like the colour of arcade cabinets, walls and floors.
Amusement Arcade Toaplan offers retro arcade classics that any hardcore arcade fan will adore. The ability to buy each game separately will likely appeal to some; however, for those looking to attain the entire collection, things will get a bit pricey. Still, the app provides an authentic arcade experience with challenging gameplay and vibrant 2D graphics that are perfect for those nostalgic for the arcades of the 80s and 90s.
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