On Friday night I went to Dave & Buster's (an arcade/bar/restaurant). I had a good time, but I was a bit disappointed by the selection of games.
The games mostly fell into one of three categories:
FPS games (House of the Dead, Rambo, Terminator, etc.)
Racing games
ticket-winning games - skee ball, those mini basketball things, etc. (These are the ones where you can turn in the tickets for prizes).
I found myself thinking "Where are all the regular arcade games?" You know, games with a joystick and a few buttons. The only games like this were Virtua Tennis 3 (which was a ton of fun), and old school games like Donkey Kong and Frogger.
My main complaint is that FPS games and Racing games are pretty much all the same, but with different themes. There are no huge differences in gameplay between racing game A and racing game B, or between FPS game A and FPS game B. As for ticket-winning games, most of them aren't even video games.
Do you guys also find that this is what most arcades are like now, or does my local Dave & Buster's suck? If it's the former, that is sad! When I was a kid, and most games were controlled by a joystick and buttons, I remember there being much more variety in gameplay.
the arcade is dead, all the advancements in the graphics dont make shit, when consoles got as much power there was no point going out to play games anymore.
Most arcades are now very brief gambling-type entertainment with no actual games at all. Some retain games that are actually games - like the rail shooters and racing games mentioned by OP - but even of those arcades very few are staying fresh by investing in new games. Most good arcades, featuring actual games and keeping up with new games, are in Japan. It comes down to a couple of things, mainly cultural. Population density is very high there. People use a lot of public transport, walk around, are waiting for a train or to meet someone on the town. Gaming is seen as a valid pastime for people of any age or profession. People accept that challenge, failure and improvement are a valid part of having fun with a game, something that now seems to be taboo in western game design. (If you look at "hardcore" arcade games like fighters, shoot'em ups, rhythm games, mech simulators etc., they all really push the player, and they make most of their money from a small amount of players who keep coming back and mastering the game.)
For most westerners the best arcade is now at home. Arcade stick, console ports of arcade games. Fighters have always typically received ports; recently shoot'em up porting has also picked up and there are very few games you can't get. Japanese region 360 is best, but other regions have okay selection as well.
