Sometimes Interest is Merely a Matter of Perspective

Last week, I download Om Nom: Run for my Nintendo Switch. Weird, right?

While I would’ve never purchased this “run-of-mill” mobile game for my Google Pix Seis — para todos los que eres — I was suddenly interested in it purely because it was also a dirt-cheap Switch game. Clearly, my desire to purchase a game is motivated in part by platform.

This is something I’ve noticed with arcade games, too. I may have never discovered Nippon Marathon, Fight of Gods, or Switch ‘N’ Shoot if I hadn’t first learned of their coin-op counterparts, only for me to snap up quirky indie games left and right since then.

Heck, I even do this with TV shows. A Flash-animated mess like the French-Canadian animated series My Life Me definitely wouldn’t have gripped me the same way if it weren’t so obscure, yet I’m now desperate to track down its Malaysian DVD release.

This is why I think interest is sometimes merely a matter of perspective. Even the good media I’ve name-dropped in this article so far could’ve completely fallen under my radar if not for some unique format or availability hook.

Arcade games can benefit immensely from exactly this principle. In the console space, I could envision a masterpiece like Skycurser potentially drowning in a sea of dime-a-dozen shoot-em-ups. But in arcade form, it’s just different enough to draw attention.

For this reason, arcade games can also afford to be a bit more simplistic and shallower than their homebound brethren. Yes, many gamers tend to gravitate toward deep gameplay, but I think they’re more willing to forego this desire when paying per credit.

Bottom-line, I guess I’m just trying to express why I’m willing to play games that I’d otherwise never notice simply because I can stick a quarter in them. The noncommittal yet immortal nature of coin-op is a fairly major motivating factor most of the time.

(For the record, this is probably also why I watch The Bachelor on ABC. I already pay for YouTube TV, so I may as well take advantage of it. But I digress.)

Does the arcade format light a fire under you as it does for me? Let me know on Twitter or Discord. Or not. This article was kind of wack anyway.