An arcade game is a short action game: simple controls, a few lives, difficulty that climbs fast and a high score to beat. The name comes from the coin-operated cabinets of amusement arcades. For brands it is a format players read at a glance, with room for a product and a leaderboard.
How it works
Strictly, an arcade game is a coin-operated machine in a bar, restaurant or amusement arcade, a family that also takes in pinball and prize machines. Many arcade video games, Wikipedia notes, have short levels, simple controls and difficulty that rises quickly. You get a joystick or two buttons, a few lives and a score at the top of the screen. Lose the last life and Game Over hands you to the high-score table, where the best players type their initials; players returning to beat the top score helped make Space Invaders a hit in 1978, the high score entry notes. Today the word names a style as much as a machine. Google Play keeps arcade as a game category of its own, and campaigns often call a short, score-chasing round arcade. Classic shapes include the maze chase, the fixed shooter, bat and ball, pinball and the shooting gallery.
Where brands use it
Arcade and action is the largest mechanic in our library, with 277 games. Bars were an early home: Budweiser's Tapper (below) was built for them, and Johnnie Walker's Moorhuhn (1998), 90 seconds of shooting cartoon moorhens on a Scottish moor, began as a bar promotion. The classic advergames collection and our advergames history cover that era. Food and drink and entertainment brands commission the most. Universal turned Pac-Man around for The Rise of Pablo Escobear: you play the bear, chasing campers through a maze. Tech brands make the mechanic the message; Samsung's Galactic Pinball used flippers to explain the Galaxy Z Flip5's fold.
When it fits
Pick an arcade game when a broad audience must grasp the rules in seconds and you want people to go again: Sephora's pinball players in its app averaged three games each (below). Retro styling suits a nostalgia brief, as Pizza Hut's Pac-Man box shows. It works best when the mechanic carries the product, such as flippers for a flip phone or a maze printed on the pizza box. Distribution is flexible: a browser link, a QR code on the pack, a loyalty app or a cabinet at an event. The high-score table is part of the format, so a leaderboard contest over days costs little extra; ask for an email only after the run, as Teletech's Inravers does.
When not to use it
Arcade difficulty climbs quickly and high-score tables fill with practised players, so newcomers lose fast and never place. To give everyone a fair shot at a prize, pair the score with a draw or use an instant win game. A round leaves no time to read, so product detail belongs in a trivia game. Mind who the cartoon look attracts: Tapper's later arcade version swapped beer for root beer because the original was seen as advertising alcohol to minors, Wikipedia records, and rule 18.14 of the UK CAP Code bars alcohol ads likely to appeal particularly to under-18s. A famous game's look raises rights questions too. The US Copyright Office says a game's idea and methods of play are not protected by copyright, while its artwork may be, and Pizza Hut's game screens carry Bandai Namco's copyright line. Check with counsel.
Examples from the library
Tapper — Budweiser (1984)
Agency: Bally Midway · Platform: Arcade cabinet for bars
You work four bar counters under a Budweiser sign. Pull the tap and a full mug slides down to a thirsty customer, who drinks and sends the empty one back for you to catch. A smashed mug, a beer nobody grabs or a customer reaching your end of the bar costs a life. The cabinet was a bar too, with a brass foot rail, drink holders and, on early machines, real Budweiser tap handles as controls.
Result: In Japan, Game Machine listed it as the most successful table arcade unit of March 1984, jointly with two other games, according to Wikipedia. About 3,300 upright and 300 cocktail cabinets were made, says the Killer List of Videogames.
WebAR PAC-MAN Box — Pizza Hut (2021)
Agency: GSD&M, Tool · Platform: Mobile web AR, on the pizza box
Pac-Man was once part of eating in at Pizza Hut, the agency's award entry recalls. For the Newstalgia campaign, a QR code styled as a coin slot on limited-edition boxes opened a mobile web page. Point the phone at the lid and its maze rises in 3D; steer Pac-Man with an on-screen joystick through three levels. Game Over asks for three initials for a global leaderboard, and sharing a score on Twitter entered players to win a custom Pac-Man cabinet.
Result: 10.6 million Pac-Man boxes sold, 11,260 hours played and 741 million media impressions, according to the campaign's ADC Awards entry. The game needed the printed lid, so it cannot be played now.
Pinball — Sephora (2024)
Agency: Cosmic Shelter, Press Play On Tape · Platform: Web and the Sephora Southeast Asia app
Sephora built a pinball table around its reformulated Cream Lip Stain: giant red lips, lipstick tubes, product claims printed on the table. Hold to launch the ball; tap left and right to work the flippers. Scores go to a leaderboard, and a high enough one earns a discount code for the app or a store. Members play in the app, linked to their loyalty account; anyone can play in a browser.
Result: More than 91,000 players in the Sephora Southeast Asia app, averaging three games each, according to Cosmic Shelter. The browser version still loads.
FAQ
What does arcade game mean?
Two things. Strictly, a coin-operated machine in a public place such as a bar or amusement arcade, from video cabinets to pinball. Loosely, any game that plays like one: short rounds, simple controls, lives and a high score, on a console, a phone or a pizza box. In a marketing brief it usually means the second.
Is an arcade game the same as a hyper-casual game?
They overlap. A hyper-casual game is a phone game cut down to one mechanic and rounds of seconds. An arcade game can be busier, with waves, power-ups and several controls. Most endless runners in our library sit under arcade and action, but a pinball table or a maze chase is arcade without being hyper-casual.
Can a brand game run on a real arcade cabinet?
Yes. Sephora's pinball appeared at events in France and Dubai on a cabinet with mechanical flipper buttons, Samsung put Galactic Pinball cabinets in its retail points, and Doritos ran its Mix Arcade games on physical cabinets at E3 in Los Angeles. Budget for hardware, transport and staff; our guide to trade-show games shows what works on a stand.