All Things Must Come To An End — Reviewing ‘Arcade Kings’ #5

Welcome to the table,

I normally hate endings. I’m sure there is something locked deep within my brain that fears when things end. I know the lyric is something like “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end,” but I am fine with things just going along, or at least me not having to be there when they finally finish.

Arcade Kings #5 is the finale of the series, maybe for good… and it was fun and beautiful and totally leveled up even more from the madcap romp it had been.

I’m not going to spoil too much but the team of Dylan Burnett, Walter Baiamonte, Sara Antonellini, Simona Iurato, Sharon Marino, Andworld Designs, with editor Amanda LaFranco, logo designer Andres Juarez, and designer Jillian Crab, with production from Richard Mercado, provides a comic experience that is well worth all the quarters that have been sunk into it.

Much like the video games of my childhood, there is a strong chance that your ending can just tell you that the princess is in another castle, or you are dead, or it was all a bad dream, or that thing where everyone turns into weird little gnome looking troll things.

Arcade Kings does not deliver any of those unfulfilling endings. From start to finish this issue locks in the fun, pays off on all the story threads, and gives one heck of a sendoff to the boys in a way that feels fulfilling and fitting. It manages to do all of this with some truly dazzling visuals that make me want more ways to explore the larger landscape found in this story.

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did and I’ll see you at the cabinet if they ever return to The Infinity Islands.