Arcades

[QualityChimp]

Sadly I’m working all weekend or I would have popped along.

It's probably for the best, as I'm picturing a wrong move on Dance Rush Stardom and your bushy beards become inexorably entwined.

[Family Fry]

Nice - what's the name / where is it exactly? Both partner and I have friends in Norwich, so it's not outside of the realms of possibility that I might get to pop in some time

It’s called Retro Replay Arcade and it’s in Castle Mall, 2nd floor.
There’s also a bowling place opened up in there as well that has a Luigi's Mansion Arcade with the vacuum attachments, looked cool.

[fuse]

It's probably for the best, as I'm picturing a wrong move on Dance Rush Stardom and your bushy beards become inexorably entwined.

A wrong move? I am the lord of the dance, I'll have you know!

[importaku]

I still haven’t learnt how to shuffle step the lesson mode is too fast, really need to learn the basic steps at home before I try properly but thankfully the machine can be tricked as long as you hit the start of the shuffle it doesn’t seem to care if you drag your foot so at least I can play the songs without failing but I currently lack finesse

[QualityChimp]

If it's on Freeplay, can't you film the lesson, then watch it at home later?

[fuse]

I've not actually played it yet, but my understanding of Dance Rush is that it's far more orientated towards freestyle and folks who actually like to dance rather than the way DDR has leaned further in to supporting 'steppers' over the years. I used to be quite seriously into DDR, but since getting more into IIDX and GF/DM that waned quite a bit. I'll probably have a crack at Dance Rush but it's not really for me (have similar feelings towards Dance Evolution).

[fuse]

As we'd planned to leave on Friday and stay with friends in Manchester, Euston cancelling all outbound trains was a bit of a spanner in the works. A bit of frantic planning later though, and we were on a train direct to Leeds, with a city centre room and breakfast lined up to help see us through the visit.

In terms of layout, the ground floor is mostly full of Japanese cabs & games. Lots of big dedicated units, a very impressive array of rhythm games (Pop'n, Dance Rush, Gitadora, DDR, Pump, Nostalgia, JuBeat, Taiko, FF Theatrhythm...), and a nice smattering of candy cabs too. This is where I spent the bulk of my time.

















Important to mention - there is also a corner down here with a bar. They have plenty of snacks, some beers on draught, and some hot food offerings that I didn't brave but would likely keep the kids happy. Everything's quite reasonably priced, too! The retail park it's on also has a Starbucks next door, if you need a break from the noise and neon.

The second floor mezzanine-type bit had lots of western-style stand-ups and a few cocktails too. There was a pretty neat effort to try and group things - games next to their sequels, or other titles from the same dev/pub etc. There's also a little cove full of light gun games too (Point Blank 1 + 2, Time Crisis, Lost World...) and a pair of Namco Noirs running Tekken 7 FR.











3rd floor is divided up into some smaller, more separate rooms, and has a couple with LAN setups, running your Fortnights and Minecrafts, and keeping a lot of the younger kids somewhat isolated in the one place (smart move). With it being a bank holiday weekend, it's perhaps not surprising that these were quite busy. However, there was also another, bigger room, operating a couple of big-screen console setups (FIFA and Smash were in play), a generous and well-cordoned off VR area, and then a wall with even more candy cabs running a range of games, including some very nice shooters.







In summary: for my tastes, I'd rate this as the best arcade I've been to outside of Japan. It's catering to a lot of different crowds, and for those relevant to myself (rhythm games, fighters, general Japanese AC love) it's doing things pretty damn well, and based on how busy some of the other areas were it seems to be onto a good thing all round. Mercifully it's pretty well air conditioned too, which I understand is quite a problem over at the Bury site.

Pretty much everything I played was in great shape - even down to candy cabs having the right kind kind of button layouts in the CPs, matching buttons, and so on. The only gripe I have is that some of the music games are being totally drowned out by others - ideally solved with better volume control, noise isolation screens, and headphone jacks in more of the cabs (you can tell they've started this journey on some other machines). Sadly, the guitar half of Gitadora was pretty much unplayable, but I'm sure is also entirely fixable.

Big thumbs up.

[wakka]

Awesome post. Looks so good!

[importaku]

It really is, shame they still havent gotten sound voltex set up.

[Atticus]

Looks ace [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION]

[cutmymilk]

That looks like a much nicer building and layout than the Bury AC. I will visit one day, but its an 8 hour round trip for me!

[QualityChimp]

Amazing scenes, [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION]! Thanks for sharing.
Has anyone been to both locations to compare?

[wakka]

Pretty sure [MENTION=39]importaku[/MENTION] is a regular at both.

I really want to go to Leeds now

[importaku]

Amazing scenes, [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION]! Thanks for sharing.
Has anyone been to both locations to compare?

I have been to both quite a few times but Bury is tricky to get to for me as i can't drive and it's not easy to get to by public transport. They are better than each other in various respects but i'll say this they are both awesome places all the same. It totally depends on what games you are into on which one you'll find better. Each site has a duplication of certain cabs but they also have ones exclusive to that site too for example Leeds has a lot of hydraulic Sega machines that Bury does not but then Bury has a lot more music rhythm games than Leeds. Bury has a larger selection of retro games including a lot that are not in Leeds but thats down to space. Leeds has a lot of the classics though i'd be shocked if anyone walked through the retro floor and didn't find at least a few cabs they love. Bury has a lot more pinball than Leeds but then Leeds has a pretty cool wizard of OZ table that they just got in.

Bury also has a lot more space to have other stuff too like the Pool table and a lot more sofa seating to lounge around on and more places to scoff food. Speaking of food both sites do some pretty nice stuff it's cheap and filling the usual snack bar type stuff like pizzas and burgers. The drinks are fairly priced too.

Been a while since i was last in Bury so i don't know their exact game list as they do keep adding and swapping out new machines all the time even Leeds gets new machines frequently, although i'm still waiting for that sound voltex to appear in Leeds they bought a ton of new machines a few months back but they have yet to get around to installing them all. Wonder if they have properly linked up dance rush yet to the eamuse servers as the last time i tried using my card it wouldn't connect so you are stuck with the same 20 or so songs as you can't unlock anything which sucks as some of my faves have to be unlocked.

[importaku]

I really want to go to Leeds now

That is a sentance you rarely hear LOOL