Las Vegas Arcade Soho — Attraction in London

Really sad to say that I can’t recommend this place for anyone who is going for the rhythm game arcade cabinets.

This WAS a really amazing place in the heart of London to go and play some rare rhythm games that you can’t really find anywhere else. It was amazing to find a place that you can just pay as you go for these machines, and you didn’t need to pay for entry. Also they have an amazing security guard who is very good at keeping out any trouble and is friendly to talk to.

However for over the past 6 months a large amount of the machines (particularly groove coaster, jubeat, Wadaiko, and guitar hero) have either severe damage to their controllers or are straight up unplayable (ESPECIALLY the groove coaster). This is due to the cabinets not being properly maintained and looked after.

If you are visiting the arcade for any of the following machines do not go:

Groove coaster - the front controls are completely broken, one of the buttons just continuously presses even when not being touched making the game unplayable. Additionally, for some reason they have turned the volume for the music way down making you unable to hear the song you’re playing - odd choice to do this to a rhythm game cabinet 🤷‍♀️

Jubeat - the buttons along the front face of the cabinet are very dodgy and do not always respond to inputs, this is applies to both but it is particularly bad on the left cabinet to the point where it is almost unplayable.

Wadaiko - this is probably the most playable out of the broken games. Unfortunately both of the drums have big issues revolving around the sensors possibly slipping out of place or being damaged. The drums frequently will not register your red (centre) note hits unless you hit in a very specific area in the centre of the drum. This makes it impossible to consistently play properly. Additionally, for some reason they moved the cabinet next to a glass claw machine that gives very little room for any players using the left side drum to hit the blue (drum rim) notes without accidentally hitting the glass.

Guitar hero - this cabinet has a quite an odd issue that makes the game extremely difficult to play. For some reason the note chart will go through moments of lag where it will slow down and lose time to the music for around 10 seconds, and then suddenly slingshot back into being on-time, but will completely throw off the rhythm that you should be playing at. Not sure if this is due to old age or internal damage on the electronics.

The lack of care and maintenance towards these games is extremely disappointing, as previous posts from last vegas soho arcade show evidence of these machines previously being quite well maintained and looked after, so I’m not sure why they’ve now allowed them to get to this state.

Hope to see things change but until then I cannot recommend going here for...

A nice third space for people to go in London

I have been going to Las Vegas Soho for a while. It feels weird to say that it's a "Real Arcade" but I'll explain.

It's a coin per play arcade and not a bar-cade like it's alternatives NQ64 and Four Quarters.

Whilst smaller than is competitors, it's refreshingly honest. A pound is a play, there are no tokens. You can buy cash from the change machines using a card or get change from notes.

The cabinets in Las Vegas Soho (LVS) seem to be crated for the rhythm game audience. As a fan of the games I occassionaly go to LVS to play their Taiko games and Sound Voltex.

The Taiko games need a bit of maintenance to be competitively viable, however great if you want a casual experience.

The Sound Voltex Cabinet feels like the first exciting thing out of the arcade since the light gun was invented. I played it 9 times during my stay there, and believe it is the highlight of the arcade.

The other games include, Pump it up (or DDR, I forget the difference), Guitar Hero Arcade, Mario Kart (and 1-2 other racing cabs), and some other rare (in the uk) rhythm cabinets.

If you are a rhythm gamer, this is a great place to get some rounds in.

As I mentioned, this is also a great "third space" experience, as they is no alcohol sold. This makes is appropriate for people looking for something to do that doesn't involve drinking. This also means, I'd be happy taking my younger relatives to burn through a tenner on games there.

Next time you are in Soho, please drop some coins in the cabinets and...

Once a great place, but now turned into a dump. Barely fixing anything, all the games are generic trash, the ones that aren't trash are unplayable because maintenance doesn't exist in this place. Staff barely knows anything and ignores reported issues. Engineers are more rare than extinct species. Arcade manager DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ARCADE. HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW SIMPLE MENUS IN GAMES, LET ALONE CABINET MENUS. BUT MOVING BROKEN MACHINES AROUND THE ARCADE WITHOUT FIXING ANYTHING IS IMPORTANT, BECAUSE YOU WANT TO PRETEND YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT? DUMP. Real dump, just like the area. Come here in late evening to get robbed right outside of the arcade as you have two or three masked groups circling around looking to rob people nearly every day. FUN FOR ALL AGES

P.S. The most competent person in the arcade is the security. He is doing other people jobs on top of his own, he should have been the manager instead for all the hard work. Grateful that people like him still exist, but unfortunately, he cannot do it all alone.

P.S.2 all the recent 4 - 5 star rating reviews look like they come from people that have no idea what an arcade is. These reviews are coming from mugs that have no problem having fun playing generic trash or broken cabinets - they are some random people that have zero idea about the place...