After more than 20 years of creating arcade-like experiences on console with games like Resogun, Dead Nation, Super Stardust HD, Nex Machina, and more, developer Housemarque boldly declared in 2017 that “arcade is dead.” In this blog post, ruminating on the sales of its latest game (at the time), Nex Machina, which were “lackluster,” Housemarque explained that the studio would be shifting away from arcade-style games to “something completely different.”
We all know now that this “something completely different” was 2021’s excellent roguelite, Returnal. And, if you’ve played the game, you know that despite Housemarque’s remarks about arcade games, Returnal is very much still an arcade-style experience – it’s just that it fits the traditional third-party staple of PlayStation games more so than something you can imagine being in an arcade cabinet.
I was able to interview Saros director Gregory Louden and art director Simone Silvestri after playing the upcoming PS5-exclusive game for roughly 3 hours– read my hands-on preview here to find out why Saros is one of my most anticipated games of the year – and the first question I asked:
Is arcade still dead?
“No,” Louden quickly declares to me. “I’d say overall that the arcade spirit lives on at Housemarque. It really has defined Saros, and it defined Returnal. We’re gameplay first, so really, it is about having these razor-sharp responsive controls, and I’d say the core feeling you get from the arcade experience is that flow and immersion, and that’s fundamental to Saros. The idea of time slipping away as you’re lost on Carcosa, weaving between projectiles and bullet ballet, the music driving the sensibility and the pace and the challenge and almost hypnotizing effect of the bullet patterns – we really try to push it all. So yes, I’d say that arcade lives on in Housemarque.”
Louden tells me that arcade has transformed into something new at the studio, but that, however you look at it, the arcade spirit is there.
Silvestri, who is the lead responsible for the team behind Saros’ gorgeous alien visual design, adds that arcade is the beating heart of the studio’s upcoming shooter.
“It’s alive, and its heart is beating strong in this game,” Silvestri tells me. “For us, it means even in art direction, we just know we have to support and enhance those arcade sensibilities that are part of the Housemarque DNA. So it really shaped a lot of the art direction as well. We wanted to have this radical escalation in the game where you start from this grounded world, and then we paint on top with the arcade paintbrush – it’s super important to us.”
There you have it, folks: arcade isn’t dead, straight from the studio that said it was. And given how much I enjoyed Saros’ opening three hours, especially its arcade sensibilities, I’m very thankful it’s not.
Saros launches exclusively on PlayStation 5 on April 30.
For more, read my hands-on preview of Saros, and then revisit Game Informer’s Returnal review.
Are you excited for Saros? Let me know what you’re most excited about in the comments below!
