Minecraft Dungeons:Arcade

"Introducing a colorful, co-op cabinet from Play Mechanix!"

- minecraft.net

Minecraft Dungeons Arcade is an arcade adaptation of Minecraft Dungeons announced on March 5th, 2021. The game is developed by Mojang Studios in conjunction with Play Mechanix and it was released in the third quarter of 2021.

Gameplay
Like Minecraft Dungeons, this game supports up to four players and features various weapons, armors, heroes, and mobs. This game is similar to Minecraft Dungeons, in that players explore various locations and defeat various hostile mobs, but the game uses a side-on perspective instead of an isometric perspective as in the main game. The hero can also use physical collectible cards obtained at the beginning of every game to select their gear as well as a pet and a hero. There appears to be some exclusive mobs such as the Obsidian Monstrosity, the Mage, and multiple armored variants of various undead mobs, like armored variants of the Jungle Zombie and the Frozen Zombie.

After pressing any button to start, the game dispenses a card and shows players five empty slots, one for each type of card. One card of each type can be scanned in, any slots left empty when moving on are assigned a random item. Next, players select a mission and the game begins. There are three actions, melee, range, and dodge, and a joystick to aim and move around with. After a small cutscene, the player’s hero spawns on the left of the screen with only their armor equipped. Heroes move right across the map fighting mobs in stages using a basic sword and bow.

Some mobs drop gems upon dying which count toward filling up meters for weapons, armor and pet cards; these items are activated when enough gems are collected for each separate item. When the melee weapon is ready it is equipped automatically, and a fifteen second countdown starts upon the weapon's first use. Every melee card gives a 150% damage boost over the basic sword however different weapon choices can have vastly different areas of effect. For example, the Frost Scythe might freeze enemies, but the Stormlander zaps them. Ranged weapons vary more, generally having no cooldown but instead having 2-4 arrows to use with different areas of effect upon impact or other buffs. Pets are an NPC with a smaller amount of health, displayed while they are active. Pets follow the hero, attacking any mob the player attacks, or a mob attacking the pet. Pets also continue to fight after the hero dies. Armor reduces damage taken and prevents the hero from taking damage to their base HP, it is equipped automatically when its gem meter is full and lasts until it is broken.

As heroes travel across the map, waves of mobs become larger and introduce more difficult mobs to fight. Each level has a short cutscene around the half-way point. At the end of each mission, heroes must defeat a boss in order to beat the mission. Upon beating two missions in a row on the same play-through, players unlock a bonus boss fight level against the Obsidian Monstrosity.

Appearance
The game has a big flat screen outlined with what looks like a lava texture. Right below that is the hinge that displays five cards in front of a orange background with the Play Mechanix logo on the right. The top of the cabinet has the logo for Minecraft Dungeons Arcade with four Minecraft Dungeons heroes above it. The console has four control panels (up to 4 players can play at once) displaying characters right above each one. Each panel is colored indicating the player, Player 1 is blue, Player 2 is red, Player 3 is green, and Player 4 is yellow. Below the console is where the cards are ejected from the system - the player may scan these cards after each round to play as a desired hero, to equip a desired item or to receive a desired pet.

Additions
The following is included within the arcade:

Armor

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Artifacts

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Heroes
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Locations

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Entities
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 * Includes

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• (Boss)

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•  (Non-attackable)

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•  (Boss)

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•  (Mob-like)

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•  (Summonable)

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•  (Boss)

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Weapons (Melee)

 * Added
 * Includes

Weapons (Ranged)

 * Includes

Trivia

 * In the Minecraft Dungeons Arcade - Official Trailer, a hero was seen wearing ender armor. At the time, ender armor had been unused in the original game.