Silent Hill: The Arcade

Silent Hill: The Arcade

Developer

Konami

Publisher

Konami

Release date

July 25, 2007 (Japan)
2008 (Europe)

Platforms

Arcade cabinet

Silent Hill: The Arcade is an arcade game based on the Silent Hill survival horror series by Konami. The game was developed by a branch of Konami's Japanese department in conjunction with a few members of Team Silent. It was released in Japan in July 2007 and in Europe/Australia in 2008. It uses elements from Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4: The Room such as locations, monsters and music.

The Arcade has currently never been ported to consoles, thus the game is rare. However, in February 2014, it was unofficially ported to PC by fans, although the game can only run on monitors that support 640x480 resolution.

Plot

Hanna with her mother.

Toluca Lake is Silent Hill's main tourist attraction. This clear, beautiful lake has another side as well. Many corpses rest at the bottom of this lake. Their bony hands reach up towards the boats that pass overhead. Perhaps they reach for their comrades.

In November 1918, a very sickly girl and her mother were traveling on the boat. The girl was enjoying the sightseeing, but her mother had other thoughts. "Hanna..." Immediately after the mother called her daughter, the boat's captain witnessed a miserable end. The boat, Little Baroness, never returned. The crew and passengers, numbering at 14, met a horrible fate. There were no survivors or bodies found.

The group heading to Silent Hill.

Seventy-five years later, in 1993, Eric, Tina, Bill, Jessie, Ryan, and George, members of their university's occult club, head to to Silent Hill for its many stories, particularly about the bodies sleeping beneath Toluca Lake. Having a strong interest in the rumors, they took the weekend holiday and went to Silent Hill. They stayed at Jacks Inn and Eric experiences a terrible nightmare. The next morning, Eric exits the inn and discovers Bill wounded with the rest of the occult club missing. Eric and Tina decide to search the foggy town for answers.

Silent Hill The Arcade intro

Silent Hill: The Arcade intro.

They go to Brookhaven Hospital, and as they enter, they encounter a blonde-haired girl very similar to Tina's friend Emilie Anderson, albeit named Hanna. Eric and Tina chase her through the hospital. A boat's fog horn transitions the hospital to the Otherworld, and Eric and Tina discover Jessie being assaulted by Pyramid Head. They successfully defeat Pyramid Head and head to the roof, where they discover Emilie being guarded by a flying monster, Tuberculosis. They defeat it and the world transforms back. Emilie and Tina embrace, and Emilie tells her that she lost her mother on the way to Toluca Lake.

Emilie brings Eric and Tina to the Silent Hill Historical Society, which her father, Frank Anderson, manages. Inside, Eric reveals to Tina that his great grandfather used to be the captain of the Little Baroness. The fog horn occurs again, and the group is sent to Toluca Prison. In the prison's gallows, Eric pulls down a body-bag which transitions the prison courtyard to Toluca Lake. They defeat the Split Worm, and when the world transitions back, Eric and Tina discover their rescued friend, Ryan, in the body-bag. Continuing on, the group reaches the Labyrinth and defeat a marionette monster known as Mama, saving their friend, George.

The group emerges at Toluca Lake. Emilie hears her mother's voice calling to her, and she runs to the shore and enters the Little Baroness. Eric and Tina chase Emilie into the ship, only to discover that it has transformed into Central Square Shopping Center. They enter Hazel Street Station, which is connected to the mall, and make it to Lakeside Amusement Park. Upon reaching the Happy Carousel, a flashback occurs where Emilie reveals that her mother has been haunting her dreams and has been calling her to the lake. Eric and Tina are transported to Brookhaven Hospital, where a radio transmission reveals Emilie's mother was murdered during a burglary, and then to Silent Hill's woods where they defeat Pyramid Head again.

The Phantom.

Eric and Tina find themselves at the Spiral Staircase, called "19181993", symbolizing that they are being transported through time to the year 1918, when Hanna was alive. Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, Eric and Tina board the true Little Baroness, where Emilie and Frank are. Emilie hugs Hanna's mother, Lorraine, who she believes to be her own, but her father reveals to her that isn't her mother because her mother is already dead. Lorraine's hands go through a monstrous transformation and she throws Emilie overboard into the lake while a flashback reveals Hanna's mother did the same to Hanna, and right after drowning her daughter, the Little Baroness sank. Eric and Tina dive into the lake and at the bottom, encounter a grim-looking Hanna who transforms into a powerful monster known as the Phantom.

Endings

Silent Hill The Arcade Good Ending

The Good Ending.

• Good Ending - The Phantom is finally destroyed, and Emilie reappears. Tina goes to check if she's okay as Eric notices that Phantom's arm is starting to sink into the lake. Emilie awakens and hugs Tina, while the Phantom's arm fades away to reveal the arm of Hanna. Eric grabs hold of Hanna's arm, and manages to pull her out of the water. Hanna tells Eric that she was trapped in the water for a very long time, and Eric assures her that the nightmare is over now, and comforts her she cries on his shoulder. The scene changes to show Hanna back on the boat, crying as the captain goes to comfort her. Hanna reunites with her mother, and Eric sees his great grandfather, the captain of the boat, nod to him just before the Little Baroness sails away, vanishing into the mist. Eric and Tina look over at Emilie who has reunited with her father, and Tina asks Eric if she thinks Hanna was able to find her mother, to which Eric replies: "Of course." The player gets this ending if they shoot all the hands of Phantom and manage to save all of the friends they have to rescue throughout the game. The ending theme is Promise.

• Normal Ending - The Phantom is destroyed, and like in the good ending, both Emilie and Hanna are saved. However, when the Little Baroness sails off, Eric does not see his great grandfather. Tina asks Eric where everybody is, but Eric doesn't answer. The captain comforts Hanna on the Little Baroness and Hanna reunites with her mother. The player gets this ending if they shoot all the hands of Phantom, but fail to save all three of the friends they have to save throughout the game. The ending theme is Hometown.

• Bad Ending - The Phantom is destroyed, and Emilie reappears. However, Emilie does not awaken as Tina calls her name, and Eric watches as Hanna's arm sinks into the lake, fading away before he can reach her. Eric finds himself in a foggy area where no one else seems to be around. He picks up a radio laying nearby, and hears Hanna's voice: "Why didn't you rescue me?" The player gets this ending if they do not shoot the hands of Phantom during the final boss fight.

Silent Hill The Arcade UFO Ending

The UFO Ending.

• UFO Ending - Eric is greeted by his great grandfather. Captain says that the UFO is his new ship, and that if Eric and Tina want Emilie and Hanna back, they will have to "come chasing after him... to the end of the universe!" Eric and Tina set off in another ship and chase after him. During the credits roll, Robbie the Rabbit is seen playing Gradius, in which Eric and Tina are flying after Captain's UFO.

Chapters

• 1-1: Streets of Silent Hill
• 1-2: Brookhaven Hospital 1F, 2F
• 1-3: Brookhaven Hospital 3F, roof
• 2-1: Silent Hill Historical Society, Toluca Prison
• 2-2: Toluca Prison
• 2-3: Labyrinth graveyard
• 3-1: Central Square Shopping Center, subway car, Lakeside Amusement Park
• 3-2: Brookhaven Hospital, Wish House Orphanage
• 3-3: Spiral Staircase, Little Baroness

Below are map layouts, listing all pauses for monster fights, routes, items and weapons, and UFO sightings. Green sections are in the Fog World and red sections are in the Otherworld.

Stage 1-1

Stage 1-2

Stage 1-3

Stage 2-1

Stage 2-2

Stage 2-3

Stage 3-1

Stage 3-2

Stage 3-3

Gameplay

Silent Hill The Arcade - Single Player Gameplay

A walkthrough of the game.

The gameplay is a rail-shooter where the players use light-guns to aim and shoot enemies while the characters' movements are mostly prescribed and directed by the game. Being a rail-shooter, it requires the players to be strong on reflexes, as the camera may turn away at any point to focus on a more immediate threat that only offers a short time frame for attack.

The mechanics closely resembles The House of the Dead series, where players have to shoot outside of the screen to reload their weapon, as well as target bosses at their specific weak points for increased damage. The player has a life meter with a value of 100 or 150 (depending on the difficulty level) which drops by different values depending on the severity of the damage impact. The life meter is designed as a heart monitor, showing a weaker heart-rate as the players receive a significant amount of damage. Health can be restored by finding Health Drinks and First Aid Kits, which have health values of 10 and 30, respectively.

Alternate routes are provided in Brookhaven Hospital and Toluca Prison, and can sometimes lead to easier routes or stronger weapons, such as the Shotgun or Rifle. At brief intervals, the player must choose the route before the time limit expires. The alternative routes do not offer a substantial variation in the gameplay, with players likely to seek the more viable route each time to attain quicker progress, or a better score. There are Gold Coins and Silver Coins throughout each level to increase the score.

Stage 3: Toluca Lake.

The game is divided into chapters to track progress, with each chapter divided further into stages, normally with a boss to defeat at the end of the third stage. Most boss battles have a time limit to defeat them in order to save a friend of Eric and Tina. Failing to save Eric and Tina's friends affects the overall outcome of the game, and is more than likely to affect the overall grading system.

In Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan), a special e-Amusement Pass can be used, which includes Internet Ranking and allows the player to skip stages on which they had previously played.

Reception

Overall, the game was considered enjoyable as a classic shoot-em up game, though considered 'out of place' when compared with the style of gameplay the main series of games had used, replacing subtle psychological horror with aggressive gun action. The game's script and voice acting also received some criticism.

Use of the various locales and bosses familiar with the fans, and with the inclusion of the Otherworld, was one of the game's main highlights, as well as the expansion to the story of the Little Baroness.

Current locations

Know where The Arcade can be found? Then please update or remove this list! Please note that locations may vary, and it's possible for The Arcade to be removed. Please add the city, add a hyphen (-), and then the name of the arcade/location it can be found.

North America

• Puente Hills, California - Round 1 Entertainment Inc. (near Lakewood Center)
• Santa Ana, California - Round 1 Entertainment Inc. (In Westfield Main Place Mall)

Europe

• Salou, Spain - PortAventura theme park (Unknown - may be removed)

Australia

Japan

Trivia

• The Little Baroness was first mentioned in Silent Hill 2 in an article found in Toluca Prison.

• Since Pyramid Head is a symbol of punishment, he could be a representation of someone else's guilt (possibly Lorraine/Frank/Captain) and not the main characters'.

• The Spiral Staircase first appeared in Silent Hill 4: The Room as a representation of Walter Sullivan's inner mind.

External links

• Silent Hill: The Arcade website (Japanese)
• Silent Hill: The Arcade cutscenes
• Guy Cihi (James Sunderland) plays Silent Hill: The Arcade

Gallery

Banner.

The game cabinet.

The game cabinet.

The game cabinet.

The game cabinet.

The game cabinet.

The game cabinet.

Tina and Eric.

Eric and Tina protecting Emilie.

Pyramid Head.