Building the new LEGO Arcade Machine is an intimate, rewarding experience. On its exterior, this set is a classic, standup coin-operated arcade cabinet, with colorful decals on its sides, an air vent on its back, and a joystick/button interface for two players on its dashboard. The game is titled "Space," an intentionally generic title meant to encapsulate Galaga, Space Invaders, and other titles from the early '80s space shooter genre.
The set comes with numerous stickers, although LEGO printed the game screen directly onto a large panel. So, if you're the type of person who frets over misaligning your stickers, know that the central visual image is static and fixed. If you put LEGO coins into the slots, they will roll out of the change dispensers below.
The set's interior is where the LEGO Arcade Machine really shines. The entire cabinet opens on two hinges on the arcade's left side, and inside is an extensive diorama of a gamer's den. There's a brown three-seater couch with a modern game controller on its leftmost cushion. There's an old-fashioned box TV, playing what looks to be an Out Run-inspired racing game. High up on the wall is a model of the classic LEGO Space Galaxy Explorer from 1979 and a sai to represent the LEGO Ninjago franchise.
Above the couch are boxes that represent different console generations – the first looks like the Nintendo GameCube. The second looks like the Sony PlayStation. And the third might be a Playdia? I'm not really sure. To the right of the couch is a miniature standup arcade cabinet that's playing Junkbot, a building puzzle game that LEGO launched on its website in 2001. The set comes with a single LEGO minifigure of a '90s styled gamer with stubble, a shaggy haircut, and a gray hoodie.
You can complete this build in a single sitting – it is six bags total (with a single page of stickers), and the final result stands approximately six inches high. As you're building up the structure of the exterior, you're affixing decorative elements to the opposite side to build the interior.
This build approach means that you don't really see what you're creating until it's nearly complete; every step feels contextually isolated from the bigger whole. But thankfully, because the build is relatively small, you don't feel disoriented. Everything comes into clear view at approximately the moment you start wondering about it.
This is a small set – only 469 pieces – especially when compared to the massive sets we typically cover. But it makes enjoyable, efficient use of its build time, and it has an excellent price point – only $40, below the 10 cents per brick threshold that LEGO aficionados use when determining a set's worth.
It is a bargain for a fine build, and we hope to see more LEGO sets with this ethos. There's no reason why an "adult" build must be priced in the mid-hundreds; just because we (might!) have disposable income, it doesn't follow that we want to spend it all, especially in this economy.
I like LEGO sets that reveal their secrets – that include hidden elements that are imperceivable at first glance, or may be imperceptible to anyone except the builder. And the LEGO Arcade Machine is a prime example of that. It is an arcade cabinet – albeit a snazzy-looking one – and nothing more unless the builder makes the decision to open it up. It's a bit like performing a magic trick. Because you know the secret, you get to experience, second-hand, the reaction of someone else discovering it for the first time. And that makes for a lot of vicarious fun.
LEGO Arcade Machine, Set #40805, retails for $39.99, and it is composed of 468 pieces. It is available now.
Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.
