Arcade Archives Cadash

Genre: Action-Platformer / Action-RPG

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Cadash is an Arcade-style Action-Platformer with Action-RPG elements originally released in 1990 in arcades. This modern release sees the game coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2023.

Cadash is surprisingly ambitious for a 1990s arcade game in how it tries to work RPG elements into its gameplay, though it unfortunately stumbles over its own medium here, with its built-in timer working against the push for players to read conversations and story, or figure out the best options in menus. If it wasn’t limited in this way, this might play a bit like Zelda II, and even with its limitations, it definitely has moments that seem Dungeons & Dragons-inspired.

However, even forgiving this issue, I have to point out how it has bosses and other sections where it seems like it’s impossible to progress without taking damage and dying, something surely worked into the game to drain quarters from unwitting players. It’s not quite so egregious in this release with unlimited credits at the press of a button, but it’s poor game design all the same, making these moments feel like a slog.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to score as much as they can in one run before seeing a game over screen. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game includes both English and Japanese releases, various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

Overall, I think Cadash has a lot of good qualities, and some of its flaws are remedied in this release simply because you can feed digital quarters into its greedy machine whenever you want at no cost. It still has its flaws, but players curious to try a unique Action-Platformer / Action-RPG hybrid may find this worth a look.

tl;dr – Cadash is an Action-Platformer with Action-RPG elements, clearly inspired by the likes of Dungeons & Dragons. The mix of elements may not have been the best fit for an arcade game, and there are some major pacing issues as a result. However, despite these issues, this is still an enjoyable and relatively unique game worth trying out.

Grade: C+

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