The Arcade Warehouse North Shields — Local services in North Tyneside

I've always wanted to try this place and finally booked us in. £10 each for 2 hours unlimited play on all the machines, great! We're avid gamers so we were eager to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in. Well, it would be great if the machines worked!

Now, you'd always expect one or two to be out of order at times due to wear & tear or technical issues but all machines were on and advertised as ready to play.

The first game we realised didn't work properly was the large family looking zombie game at the front that fits 4 players (the left player control didn't work properly and it would aim the opposite direction you pointed the control at and then wouldn't cover to the corners of the screen).

The Classis Donkey Kong game was a game we always enjoy to play but the left analog stick was completely out of action so Mario could only jump on the spot and not move so as soon as donkey Kong threw his barrel in the first 5 secs it was game over 😑

We moved on to a football kicking machine. You had to kick the football through the net down a short flashing alley to score points on the screen. Sounds fun if there was an actual football to kick. Instead there was a hole in the net where the football was supposed to be and no football in sight.

With that machine out of action my son turned his attention to the projector football game that looked inviting. 2 penny floaters were provided in a basket for players to help themselves to and you had to take penalty shots against the screen being projected on to the wall. The first penalty shot bounced off the wall and went straight under the netting and got lost amongst the machines. Thankfully another customer passed us the ball back but it wasn't long before it travelled under the netting again. It was quite frustrating to have to go out of the netted areas to retrieve the ball whenever it accidentally went under, which was a LOT. Looking back at past reviews and picture I can see that this isn't a recent issue and judging by the picture the netting from last night is also riding higher than a previous customer's review photo. Such an easy fix that management have decided to ignore as well.

Frogger... Another classic game made in to an arcade machine. Not working as it should. As soon as you pressed to play the frog would continually leap forward until it fell into the water, no way of stopping or controlling it. Just rolled my eyes and moved on, by this time I was becoming to expect empty machines to not work.

We finally got the chance to try the Dark Escape 4D game as it was popular with other customers but noticed a pair of 3D glasses were missing. Looking at the screen without the glasses was a hassle so I quit before we even got started.

We even tried playing pool. We were handed two rattly, scabby looking pool cues. No chalk to be seen. A member of staff did say the chalk should be around somewhere as it was present on the last games session before we arrived but we couldn't find it anywhere. No spares available either. I asked the table beside if they had chalk and they didn't. Surely a box of pool cue chalk won't break the bank for a business like this?!

Overall 7 issues with machines/games that weren't even put out of order or no attempt has been to improve/fix game equipment for what seems like a while now (judging by past reviews). 4 of those issues (netting X2, missing 3D glasses and new pool cues and chalk) could be fixed in one day if the company actually pulled their finger out. I wouldn't be in a hurry to return unless improvements are made.

The staff however were lovely and pleasant. Service with a smile when ordering drinks and a nice greeting and farewell from them. At least they seemed to be happy to work in that building... unlike...

I wouldn’t get your hopes up but it’s okay. For the price it is you can still have a good time but do expect some machines to be faulty.

Some issues I came across: Some used duct tape to fill in gaps, some had faulty controllers like some racing games and a couple just didn’t work at all. One bike racing game didn’t let me turn left very well and the throttle button was broken. It was also using an emulator instead of being an actual arcade cartridge. A deal or no deal game had the screen flashing constantly. The whac-a-mole game hammer was quite beat up (though I probably expected it to be) and some moles just didn’t pop up at all (assuming they were broke). The DDR game sometimes didn’t register my steps. The basketball game only registered points about 10% of the time. One immersive alien shooting game only had one controller working so you couldn’t play with another person. Also, it had an emergency stop button for the immersion which didn’t work, quite worrying (it should have stopped the chairs from moving but it didn’t). A racing game just didn’t let me use the steering wheel at all. Mario kart had a faulty wheel.

However, that being said, a lot of the machines did work fine. We enjoyed a 4D horror shooter which had 3D glasses and worked fine. Same with a terminator shooter. Air hockey worked really nicely. Some racing games worked with no problem. They had just straight up gaming PC section and another desk with a big arcade controller linked to an emulator with loads of games. Some cool arcade cabinets in the 80s style are there too (though whether they run off an emulator or not I don’t know). Also, VR section Woop!

I guess since I’ve been to NERG I had my hopes up for there being a much bigger selection of games, especially since it is an arcade “warehouse”. Also I had hoped the machines had better maintenance. But, like I said, for the price it’s not bad but yknow...

Edited again after company removed their reply. But I’ll add their reply to the pictures so everyone can see how much these as a company tried to lie and make a 12 year old boy and his Dad out to be horrible after the boy was assaulted by their employee and the Dad was angry about it. Not once was a threat to life made to the worker. If I’m wrong please I welcome you to post the video absolutely anywhere. Edited after compony’s reply. Thanks for slandering my name and also my sons. We will now take this the full distance. I can prove everything I’ve said. Can you?? I’ve added new pictures so people can literally see from this review who the liar is. Check the bottom of the screen you can see from the worker storming over to ripping it off my boys head to then putting the headset down on the table. There is a 3 second difference. Nice try though. Can’t believe how you as a company are dealing with this. Trying to blame an innocent child for your staff’s disgusting behaviour. Please please give the video to the police I’ve begged you a thousand times. I’ve been to your venue today and showed you the video of the whole incident and you were trying to justify it by saying “well he shouldn’t have been in the area”. You are telling complete lies. He ragged it off his head, pulling his hair. Not once was he spoken to. Not once. Please please post the whole video anywhere, somewhere, everywhere I give you my full permission. You won’t do this because you are liars! On the other hand I will post the videos I have absolutely everywhere!! We were there on Saturday celebrating my 12 year old son’s birthday. My son went into the VR section at 4:50. Apparently this is not allowed. Instead of telling my son this the member of staff literally marched over and ripped the headset off his head. He actually hurt my boy and left him very upset. Absolutely...