Akupara heads to the Neon Retro Arcade!
As we gear up for a spectacular 2020 (with plenty of announcements about our slate of games to come!) it became a priority to get the team together for a night of good fun and classic arcade games. Neon Retro Arcade, which has two California locations in Pasadena and Northridge, hosted us for the entire night as we feasted on a slew of arcade titles from the past! For some of us, the highlight of the trip was the ability to experience some of the retro titles in their joystick-and-button glory. For others, it was the well-maintained selection of pinball machines. And, of course, there isn’t a member of Akupara Games that doesn’t love taking a few moments just to have a good time with the team.
The legacy of arcade games runs deep with Akupara from dance-pad support in The Metronomicon à la Dance Dance Revolution to the arcade cabinet we actually built for Desert Child at E3. It shouldn’t be any surprise, then, that a few of the team got together and played through the vintage western Sunset Riders! “I was extremely bad at that game,” Community Manager Buddy Sola says. “Dave and Dan absolutely carried me to the final boss, which I actually found to be a really compelling, well-designed bossfight.” In an era of quarters for continues things might have taken longer, but the freeplay design of the arcade helped make sure that the different cowboy-related deaths didn’t cost too much.
Alyssa Kollgaard, our producer, knows the pinball scene inside and out and was very happy to see what Neon Retro Arcade brought to the table. “They had Terminator 2 and Twilight Zone which are two of the best machines ever made, and they were well maintained,” she reports. Pinball machines, especially older machines in bars and restaurants, can find themselves in disrepair. “And since it’s set to Freeplay with one entrance fee you can suck and still have fun,” she adds with a laugh.
Chris Nguyen, an associate producer with Akupara, spent most of the night away from the games and more focused on connecting with other members of our team. “That’s all I did while I was there,” Chris says. With all the projects keeping us busy, sometimes it’s nice to be able to just sit down and have a conversation with someone. “I like that there’s a lot of different distractions so it’s easier to focus on individuals. Rather than trying to do something as a huge group where I can’t really talk to anyone,” he adds.
We had an absolute blast at Neon Retro Arcade. Everyone there was tremendously helpful and we’d recommend it wholeheartedly! If you’d like to learn more about them, you can visit their website here.