As the 21st century opened, brick and mortar, coin operated arcades began their final curtain call.
With the the introduction of faster and more powerful home consoles and PC games, trekking to the arcade became less and less of a priority as Xbox, PS2, and GameCube owners realized they no longer had to burn gas and quarters to get time in. As attendance dropped off, and more arcades began to shutter their doors nationally, one last push was made to get bodies on the game floor. Cabinets became far more elaborate, more interactive peripherals were integrated, and the price of a single game increased. Sure the plastic guitars, multiple screens, light guns, and hydraulic platforms were all impressive, but the cost of a play spiked from anywhere between fifty cents to two dollars.
Companies like Namco, Sega, and Nintendo focused on releasing arcade games in their native Japan, where the format of the arcade, as most think of it, is still a vital component to their culture. It should come as no surprise that Japan's arcades put our dometic equivalents, Dave and Busters and Chuck E. Cheese's, to well-earned shame.
The first decade of the new century saw drastic innovation taken on the part of publishers and developers, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. The industry never recovered from the prevelance of home consoles. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just evolution. From the years of 2000-2009, here is our list of The Best Arcade Video Games of the 2000s
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