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Nickel City Amusement Center
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
15 reviews for Nickel City Amusement Center
This is probably one the best places to play music games now a days in San Diego. The selection of games isn't that great but it's better than most *cough* Boomers.
Back in the days, there used to be Ray's Game Center in La Jolla, Golden Token Amusement in College Grove, and the Wunderland in National City that were the cream of the crop of BEMANI games especially Ray's and Golden Token having Beatmania IIDX and even a ParaParaParadise machine. Hell, even the Wunderland in National City had a weird Korean DDR type game called "Techno Motion". However, all of those arcades listed have now shut down. It's a shame but it was due to happen due to home gaming. The video arcade is dieing a slow sad death. :(
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For a while now I've been worried about my reviews; not the individual reviews, but the body of work as a whole. I've never reviewed anything at less than three stars, and I've been worried that this would come across as a lack of integrity, or an unrealistically positive view on things. I'm a positive dude, and I try to avoid places that I think I won't like, but I've still been worried about what people would think of my reviews if they looked at my history and saw nothing but three stars and up. Well thank you, Nickel City, you have solved my credibility problem: this place fucking sucks.
So a cheap arcade sounded like a fun afternoon outing for me and my girl. We're both gamers, and I've been going through DDR withdrawals lately, so I put on my dancin' shoes and we went out on the town. When we got there, I was fired up. Not one but TWO DDR cabinets, Metal Slug 5, Virtua Cop 2, The Simpsons arcade classic; lots of quality titles. But not ONE of them worked correctly.
In Metal Slug I couldn't move or aim left; in DDR I couldn't switch difficulty levels; in Virtua Cop you couldn't reload; in an Aliens light gun game the P1 gun didn't work so it basically ate our quarters. That was all I had the inclination to play, because every game was broken. So we left, flipping the place the bird, and immediately promised to Yelp it and tell the world to not waste their nickels. Stay away.
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Pretty much agree with the 1-star raters on this bomb. I am NOT a gamer, but do understand what quality entertainment is for kids. Had some time to kill with the grandkids and went in. The $2 "cover charge" is bullshit. My wife came later to just see what was up before we took the kids home and they dinged her for $2 as well for about 5 minutes just watching the grandkids.
Nickel City my ass. 3-5 nickels+ per game for aging games about 1/3 of which didn't work. Some didn't accept the money at all, others had controls that didn't work and the entire place screamed of deferred maintenance.
At the end, the excited grandkids took their tickets for the crap Chinese prizes. When my youngest took too long to decide, the reform school graduate just handed him some crap and told him goodbye. No management, no training, no quality. Don't go!
I see this place out of the corner of my eye. Nickel City? Capcom? *BRAKE* Hmmmm.
So it costs $2.00 to get in. This better be worth it. Oh I think I see some retro games. I will pay. Thank you. I walk in.
So lets set the scene. This place is not that big, probably the size of a moderate Blockbuster, kinda the size of a McDonald's restaurant. Yeah, that's about right. About 15% of the floor is devoted to tables for parties. 5% of the space is devoted to cashing in tickets for prizes. The rest is for arcade games. About 15% of that, is devoted to retro gaming. Awesome.
You see, the gimmick is that all the games cost some amount of nickels. Maybe a nickel for some small ticket game, a couple nickels for a driving game, but my oh my only 1 nickel, for Ms. Pac Man... with the speed chip! *Holds fists up to face cheeks, squeals like a little girl* Now I don't know about you, but the is some 4 to 9 nickels less than most places. I do love me some Ms. Pac Man too. Heck its in my profile as one of the things I love.
So I spend about an hour playing this game and I only spend about 60 cents. Jesus that's awesome. The controls were smooth, the speed chip worked like a charm, and everyone else was playing the newer games. Not me though. There's about 8 to 10 retro games here that are calling my name. Although I don't really remember them all, I did notice there was no Donkey Kong. DARN IT! If anyone knows of a Donkey Kong machine in the San Diego area, please let me know.
So after I take a break from the retro games I look around at what else this place had to offer. Like I said, a lot of ticket games, some dancing games, driving games, shooting games, fighting games (what's Capcom without a fighting game), and some big unique games too with some neat gimmick.
They all look good and I think it would be a good place to take the kids. They would probably go through money a bit slower here. I know I did. I only spent about $3 total by the time I left ($2 to get in $1 to play for 2 hours) and that is a nice change of pace.
Now, I have read some of these other reviews so I just wanted to give it the prospective of someone who loves playing the retro games, you know the one's that really only cost a nickel. If you are like me, love some Ms. Pac Man and that era of gaming, I think this very well may be the best place in San Diego to scratch your itch. I will continue my search, but i see myself coming back here for most of my retro gaming.
I wonder if my high score is still up there?
-1 star for no Donkey Kong. That is pretty much essential for a 5 star. Sorry Nickel City. Otherwise, awesome retro gaming.
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OH MY GOD.....THIS PLACE IS FRICKING BOMB!!!!
I came here today with my friends and I seriously was like a seven year old on crack. My age-o-meter had been brought down and my friends and I were seriously running around like we owned the place.
We were running around easily won jackpots on the games and just laughed and laughed when we wouldn't cough up 5 nickels for certain games. We ran around playing the games and got more nickels and just kept playing and playing.
At the end of the experience, we came up with just under 2,000 tickets. After the guy at the counter kept trying to get us to get random ish we didn't need, we picked our own stuff that we didn't need.
I must say that this place is totally the best place to come to when you don't want to go to Boomers or Chuck E. Cheese.
**Best Story Ever**
This little kid comes up to me and my friends and says:
Kid: "Hey, I know how to get those nickels to fall off the side, so you can get more tickets."
Friend: "Oh really, how?!"
Kid: "Well, you just bump the side, and they will all fall down."
Friend: *bumps the side....nickels fall*
Worker behind the counter: "If you bump the machine, you won't get any tickets at all!!!"
Me: *laughs*
Friend: "Damn kid set me up to get caught!!!"
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our experience wasn't as bad as some yelpers had reported. While there were a few machines broken and some ate our money, the workers were responsive and helpful in retrieving our money. The games are older, however, but I suppose when you're playing for nickels you can't expect the newest games to be available.
I remember the glory days of this place, when I was about 8. Which was about 13 years ago. There used to be a lot of free play games, and a lot of ticket style games.
The first problem is, most of the games that were old and outdated, and this free over 10 years ago? Still there, and mostly not in any sort of restored shape. So a lot of the free play games are not really hanging tough, and could use repairs.
I really wish they had a fighter other than SeizureInducingFighter (Marvel vs Capcom 2) and Street fighter Alpha 3 (one of my least favorites). Would it really break the bank to buy an old street fighter 2 machine? They still have professional competition for it, some of us slightly older gamers want to play that still
Overall it's OK, but the little things like wonky joysticks and uncalibrated gun games kind of kill it for me.
Small-medium sized arcade, it's got about 5 or 6 rows of arcade games, ticket games, racing games, and etc. $2 admission fee. Some games are broken...Good place to go to kill time. Nothing special.
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definitely a place to kill time before watching a movie at the theater next door. it's somewhat cheap pricing - there is an admission fee, and there's a minimum purchase for a bag of nickels, but there is a selection of games that are free play without nickels. they have some classic games and old games.
the high-end games require more nickels per play, and i think the prize games are rigged, but it's all for fun when you're there.
i might have spent a total of $5 dollars that killed about 30min. i say it was somewhat worth it.
Not a bad place to burn some valuable time you could otherwise be using to change the world or watch TV. Admission is $2 on top of what you pay to play the games. A lot of their newer/better arcade machines cost several nickels (up to 50 cents a pop for their big stuff). That said they have a fairly large selection of single nickle games and about 10 older "free play" games if you run out of cash or are just pinching nickles. Their machines run the gamut from street fighter to DDR to time crisis. I generally get sucked into the ticket machines, spending $5-10 trying to get enough tickets for a tootsie roll and parachute guy. It's all good fun though. If you want to save a dollar or 2, bring your own candy with otherwise it's like going into Costco hungry. You'll end up breaking that extra dollar for you're airhead fix.
arcade games!!!$0.05??
how can you go wrong?!for the price of one game at boomers you can play 10 here! yippeeeeeeeeee
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Ehhh... maybe for the 13 and under crowd. This place is tiny and lacking in variety. True, its cheap. But once you have made the rounds once it gets a little old. Okay if you are seriously, really bored and don't have a lot of money.. but I would much rather go to a boomers.
Nickel City is a fun little arcade. If you like playing video games or earning tickets for silly little prizes, then you'll have a good time here. Don't come expecting anything life changing but it's fun for what it is and it's easy to spend an hour or two here without spending too much money. The free games are pretty ghetto, but they're free so you can't really complain. Basically, the more fun a game is the more nickels you gotta cough up to play it. The Deal or No Deal game is my favorite!
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pros: music games (percussion freaks, beatmania, DDR, in the groove), 2D fighting games (third strike, MvC2, CAPCOMvSNK2, etc), free classic games (centipede, galaga), shooting games (time crisis), driving games (initial D), redemption games (wheel 'em in, rock N bowl, skee ball), and games are cheap.
cons: doesn't always have the best crowds or following for third strike, and DDR/in the groove is way crowded. also, they need new drumsticks for percussion freaks, and even an upgrade.
i'd also like to see guitar freaks there or keyboardmania. maybe also a snack bar? that'd be cool.
i love nickel city. it's a fair distance away from home, but it's really worth it. in general that plaza is full of high schoolers hanging out at nickel city, the next-door movie theater, or hot java cafe, but i don't let it get in the way of my enjoyment. i have some sentimental attachment to this place :)
-Wilmar
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Pretty much everyone comes here for SuperNova and In the Groove, but this place has been one of my greatest childhood memories, especially since I used to frequent the old Mira Mesa location long ago. Now that arcades have been shrinking quite a bit, most of the machines are fairly old, but I still love going here because it's great fun for not that much money. I'll keep supporting this place since video arcades are a dying breed, and since it brought me much happiness when I was a little kid.