Introduction
Silent Hill: The Arcade is an hour-long railshooter about a spooky boat or something. It's similar to House of the Dead and based off the Silent Hill franchise. It's the only SH game to deviate from the usual survival horror style, aside from the Play Novel, which no one seems to like anyway, and now Shattered Memories, which everyone's pretty divided over. The game was released in Japan in August 2007, and released in the UK in 2008. It's got tons of recycled monsters, levels, and bosses, so I'll do my best to keep you informed on who's from where. It's also got an absolutely horrible plot, disposable characters, and some truly wretched dialogue and voice acting (which I will do my very best to transcribe.)
The "Official" Plot Synopsis posted:
"In the center of Silent Hill is Toluca Lake, one of the town's main tourist attractions. However, this beautifully clear lake has another side; many deceased people sleep at the bottom of the lake. Their countless hands reach toward the surface when boats cross the lake. Perhaps they are seeking their long lost companions.
November, 1918
A very sickly girl and her mother were traveling on the boat. The girl was enjoying the sightseeing, but her mother had other thoughts.
"Hanna..." Immediately after the mother called the name of her daughter, the boat's captain witnessed a miserable end. The boat, the "Little Baroness," never returned. The crew and passengers, numbering at 14, met a horrible fate. There were no survivors or bodies found.*
1993 (75 years later)
Eric Lake, Tina Townshend**, Bill, and Jessie, members of their university's occult club, head to to Silent Hill for its many stories, particularly about the bodies sleeping beneath Toluca Lake. Having a strong interest in the rumors, they took the weekend holiday and went to Silent Hill. They stayed at Jack's Inn and Eric experiences a terrible nightmare. The next morning, Eric exits the inn and discovers Bill wounded and Jessie missing.*** Eric and Tina search the town for answers."
*You might find this shit familiar if you've played Silent Hill 2. The Baronness was mentioned twice in the game.
**Yes, like Henry Townshend from SH4. Related? Beats me.
***There's 2 other "missing friend" characters that this "official" synopsis doesn't mention. Also not mentioned: Tina is in town visiting a friend of hers, who is a little girl named Emilie who will remind you of Laura from Silent Hill 2. This little girl is actually the driving force of the plot in the game (Yes, there's an actual plot).
TL;DR:
SCOOBY AND THE GANG SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF THE GHOST BOAT.
How's the quality?
It's a camcorder LP. It sucks. But it's as good as you could hope for without me buying the machine myself and playing it in a quiet room (although it is now my life's dream to own the SH Arcade.) There's no emulators/roms of this, so the only way to record it is with a camera in a noisy arcade. A hidden camera. Hanging upside down from the ceiling of the arcade cabinet. But honestly, it came out far better than I expected it to. So unless someone wants to start a "Let's Get Voidburger the Silent Hill Arcade" fund, this is the best you're gonna get.
Are there multiple endings?
Good, Bad, and UFO. We're getting the Good ending. We can't get the UFO ending without an E-Musement Pass to save our data. Also, we'd have to get both the Good and Bad ends. And fuck me if I'm gonna spend my yen at an arcade all day when I'm in a totally different country with tons of other, more exciting things to do than play this game. You can find the other endings on Youtube.
Is
in it?
Don't be silly. Of course he is. Enjoy this short lil' LP!
Videos
