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Nickel Nickel Five Cent Games
Category: Arts & Entertainment Arcades Arcades [Edit]
9111 Valley View StCypress, CA 90630
(714) 761-5515
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
20 reviews for Nickel Nickel Five Cent Games
20 reviews in English
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Review from Kellee N.
Anaheim, CA
4/25/2011 5 Check-ins Here
A place where you can get rid of all your nickels. No one likes nickels. I knew where they were going with that. Nickel Nickel, you sly foxes...
If you can get in here at a time when you know all the youngins are in school then this place can be pretty fun. Although depressing looking at first, Nickel Nickel really is one of those "one Yelper's trash, another Yelper's treasure" things.
Admission is $2 so there's really no excuse for not being able to afford it (*coughfriendsmakingexcusescough*). After that, I'd be surprised if I spent even $10 worth on games.
There's gonna be games in there you love like Pac-Man and you'll nostalgia pretty freaking hard when you walk down one of the aisles and see something like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. Then there's gonna be games where you have no fucking idea what's going on it's in Japanese (unless you speak Japanese like me, lol) or can read the Japanese subtitles. Sometimes I still can't understand them.
There are a few machines usually out of order since they aren't state-of-the-art brand spanking new, but this place gets the job done, considering how goddamn expensive Dave & Busters and other competing "arcades" are.
The only thing I can't really stand is how "dirty" it is. I can deal with "old" and "run down" but I've been in here and the floor has been fucking filthy. I had to minus a star for that, 'cause, it's pretty bad. Other than your bad personal hygiene, I like you, Nickel Nickel. I'll pay another visit sometime soon. -
Review from Jenny Q.
Garden Grove, CA
8/13/2011
Being right next to Frostbites, my boyfriend and I decided to try out this Nickel Nickel to kill some time. Previously, the only other Nickel Nickel I had been to was in Anaheim, but that was years ago (which was awesome by the way, though I heard it sucks now.)
There's not much to say about this place except that it sucks. A lot of the games we wanted to play were broken or malfunctioning somehow. We couldn't fully enjoy the DDR since one of the left arrows was broken, but there were a wide variety of songs. We ended up being bored within half an hour and wandered aimlessly around. The prizes were cheapy and worthless, though it didn't really matter since the tickets were impossible to get anyways.
I would suggest not coming to this place, unless you can overlook how rundown the place is. The only upsides are extremely cheap games of air hockey, somewhat functioning DDR, or the free retro games in the back. But for me, I don't think I'll be coming back anytime soon, or even at all. -
Review from Sam S.
Cerritos, CA
6/21/2011
I used to frequent Nickel Nickel back in my junior high/high school days. I spent most of my time in the Whittier location but this location as well. Not only is this place smaller than Whittier, they have some sorryass prizes.
The 1 employee that was there looked like he really hated his job. I don't blame him for it. I paid the expensive $3.50 admission and looked around since it's been a while that I been here. A lot of old games that's for sure. I remember they used to have a DOA game but that's long gone. I'll just name a couple of games I can remember.
Guitarfreaks 9th Mix
Beatmania III
Time Crisis 2
The House of The Dead 1
Crisis Zone
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
Tekken Tag Tournament
Turtles In Time
Some Resident Evil shooting game
Star Wars Trilogy
Some boxing game
A robot battle game
Cruisin World
I was gonna try out Guitarfreaks but the strap and buttons were real dirty so I didn't bother. I was looking forward to playing Beatmania but the machine ate one of my nickels and it was hard to put in the slot so I didn't bother. They have 1 pinball machine and that was broken/turned off. Most of the ticket redemption games were busted too. I kinda felt sorry for the few kids that were there cuz it's such a watered down version of Chuck E Cheese when 80% of the machines here are broken.
Even the free games in the back were broken too! The Michael Jackson game wouldn't even start even though you can see the demo mode. The Raiden game was alright but the shooting button gets stuck. The Ms Pacman game was horrible. It's real hard to press down on the joystick. The Street Fighter game worked alright however.
I only played one of the nickel games which was Crisis Zone. For 15 cents it was alright. However I just couldn't stand to be there for too long and I wasn't even there for an hour.
Before I left I was gonna redeem some prizes cuz I had a buncha points saved up from 10 years ago on a receipt. After waiting like 5 minutes for the worker to come back out to the front (shouldn't he stay out front all the time?) I show him my oldass receipts and he told me I couldn't use them here because it was at a different location. I was real pissed at this point because I wanted to redeem them for something so that I wouldn't have to return here anymore.
The prizes here are real sad. Not only do they charge a crapload of tickets for crappy prizes they have old prizes like a picture of Shaq when he was with the Lakers for 2000 tickets. Come on now like anyone's gonna really get that. Also the really cheap prizes between 10-30 tickets were some crapass plastic stuff you can buy at the 99 cent store. They had candy/chocolate too but at a ridiculous cost of 225 tickets. The only nice thing I saw was some Gundam figures but 5000 tickets? Come on...
I won't be coming back here ever again that's for sure. And I recommend no one should waste their time/money here. Management doesn't care to get their machines fixed and having half empty displays of prizes. -
Review from Howie C.
8/2/2011
This place sucks. I went to play air hockey and the surface was so sticky I couldn't move my paddle. This is how ghetto it is... I went to the restroom to find a paper towel so that I could do a wet and wipe down of the air hockey table. I couldn't find tissue paper or a paper towel so I used toilet seat cover paper, two of them, wet them, and wiped it down so that I could rematch my friend.
More than half of the games on the free wall are turned off. Then of the half that are on, half of those have a joystick that won't go right or down, or a fire button that won't work. Ms. Pacman works, but just don't jerk the joystick too hard, the whole panel will lift. I couldn't reverse direction on Defender. Centipede was turned off. Kangaroo Punch the punch button wouldn't punch.
There's one linked car game that I was going to challenge my friend on but then saw the warning that said, "Game sometimes resets in 2 player mode. Play at your own risk." WTF???
The cool games? They are all in Japanese.
Sad... what happened to nickel nickel? Is it that hard to have someone service the game controls once a month? This chain used to be sort of fun 10 years ago. Now it's like a video game graveyard. You are better off buying a four year old used $5 game for your XBox or Playstation and playing that at home. Like NBA 2K7 with Shaq of the Miami Heat on the cover. $5 at Gamestop.
$3.50 admission... I could barely find 3.5 games that worked. We won't even talk about the three nickels of mine that got eaten by bad coin slots. -
Review from Tracy S.
Harbor City, CA
3/29/2011
This arcade is in very sad shape. The owner should definitely considering renovation or at least repair and replace broken machines. It makes me sad because I came here alot when I was a kid and I always remember it being awesome.
2 Stars cause they have initial D.... but that is pretty much it. -
Review from Daniel J.
Los Alamitos, CA
11/13/2010
Let's be honest, this place is kind of a dump. The floor is always filthy, the poor games are in such disrepair, and there's so many kids running around screaming, it's dizzying. It's Chuck-E-Cheese without the pizza.
So after paying $3.50 to get in and getting a few dollars worth of nickels, now what? I would usually jump straight on one of their Beatmania machines, but there was always a good chance that a button was stuck or the table wouldn't scratch. The place is a decent size, and there's a lot of games. Unfortunately, what ruins this place for me, is that most of the games are broken to the point of unplayability. I wouldn't mind playing a $.15 game of Silent Scope if the thing actually worked. $.20 for SF Rush would be awesome, if the stick shift wasn't stuck in third.
As mentioned by many other reviewers, there's a row of free games in the back in case you somehow managed to burn the thousand nickels in your pocket. Again, these games usually are not working, so it's pretty pointless. And who really wants to waste time playing Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa?
One of my biggest gripes is that I've gone there after not stepping foot inside for a year or more, and it's the same broken games they had last time.
What I really think gets me angry at this place is that it replaced Western Arcade. I practically lived there while it was open. So sad that it had to turn into this pit. -
Review from S. M.
Orange, CA
7/7/2011
This place is horrible!!! They should just close it down. Everything is soo old and most of the machines dont even work. We were the only ones there too when we went. Dont come here its gross and dirty!!!! Go to chuck e cheese instead!!!!!!!!!
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Review from diana o.
Buena Park, CA
8/29/2011
Most games do not work. Facility is dirty. I find this with most Nickel Nickels. They have that reputation
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Review from Hazel Q.
2/22/2007
Ahhh. Nickel Nickel located in my favorite cheap night out plaza - sandwiched right between Campus Billiards and Albertacos. I turn the whole place into my own low rent Dave and Busters.
You can spend a few hours in here for 6 bucks and that's including the $2 admission. I spend most of my time hooked on the free Ms. Pacman on the back wall - along with various other retro video games for free. The rest of the time I'm playing some wacky untranslated Japanese game anxiously asking, "Wait....what exactly am I supposed to do again? Oh...I already lost."
The main drawback other than the kids (it's not like I can complain about kids being in an arcade, they should probably complain about me being there) is the lack of pinball. Every once in a while they'll actually have a barely functioning pinball machine there, but usually it's out of order.
Great cheap night idea:
Drink or two at Campus Billiards
Nickel Nickel fun times
Back to Campus Billiards for some pitchers and foosball
Late night drunken carne asada fries at Albertacos.
Note: Not the best idea for a first date - more along the lines of you've been dating for a while and don't feel like spending much money going anywhere.
Thumbs Up:
-Cheap, cheap, cheap.
-The free video games on the back.
-With a little work you can make it out to be Dave and Buster's...only cheaper!
Thumbs Down:
-Rarely any pinball.
-Kids, kids, kids!
-Kinda dirty -
Review from Albert W.
6/4/2009 10 photos
Parents, do you want to train your children for a bright future in one of the following exciting careers?
Airline pilot: http://static.px.yelp....
Prizefighter: http://static.px.yelp....
Jockey: http://static.px.yelp....
Counter-terrorist sniper: http://static.px.yelp....
Nickel Nickel offers accelerated learning programs in these fields with advanced interactive simulations, along with training in many other careers such as professional basketball player, policeman, and more. Class credits are at the low price of FIVE CENTS per credit and enrollment in the program is only $3.50. Several of the training units here are free with enrollment, while others will reward you with tokens you can exchange for prizes!
Our hero even benefited greatly from sociology courses from his instructor, Ms. Pac Man, who taught him about the social side effects of consuming too many yellow pills. Remember kids, don't do drugs!
PROS:
- A very kid friendly arcade.
- Quite a few free play machines, and the rest are pretty cheap and don't take a lot of credits.
- Their "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker" arcade game is set on free play, and boy is it ever hilarious. Up to two players can play as MJ, fighting zombies, robots, and gunmen in an attempt to rescue little kids. The only controls are a joystick and a "fight" button and a "dance" button. This is 5 levels of 80's glory.
CONS:
- They recently raised admission from $2 to $3.50.
- Most of the free games are from the 80's and some of the controls are uncalibrated/broken -
Review from Mike T.
Long Beach, CA
8/22/2007
Nickel Nickel has seen better days. My recent trip found that about half of the machines were either broken, malfunctioning, or eating nickels. I also found that very few, if any, new arcade games have come online in the past year.
People who like Dance Dance or Guitar Hero will be happy to find several of these games in working order (for now). Also, skee ball and basketball shooting are still here. For me, the old, free arcade games in the back are still the main attraction, but I was sad to see Galaga gone. I think they should offer more of these old games because there are so many true classics that can still attract business. They don't even have to be free.
In my opinion, Nickel Nickel needs to offer a much better experience if it wishes to compete with home consoles and online gaming. -
Review from Michael C.
Newberg, OR
5/28/2009
Sidenote: I can't believe I am reviewing this place. I used to go here when I was like in junior high, so all the following review is based on those experiences.
The Good: Games for 5 cents. You feel so rich when you bust out a 5 dollar bill and you get a ton of nickels to last you the whole day there. If you run out, there is also a row of free arcade games in the back. There are also plenty of ticket games, so getting prizes is way easier.
The Bad: It's so small. The place gets crowded, stuffy, dirty, smelly, frustrating, and annoying. Also, the admission price to get inside keeps increasing.
Try: going somewhere else to play some arcade games. I assume if you're reading this, you're old enough to get out and enjoy life, not spending your Saturday in some kid-infested arcade room.
Don't Try: this place if you can drive. Go to like Dave and Busters where you can be a grown up and play games. Oh yeah, there's alcohol there too. -
Review from Joni K.
Anaheim, CA
11/5/2009
Ewww, this place is dank, dirty, and dismal. The 3 D's I guess. The floors have never been vacuumed (I am making a pretty good guess), the prizes are from---a loong time ago.
But if you want to get your Ms. Pac Man fix, they do have it set on fast mode :) which is great for Pac Man Arcade game lovers. If it wasn't for this, it'd get 1 star!. -
Review from Mike L.
Norwalk, CA
8/27/2006
The great redeeming thing about going to Alberto's or Albertaco as it is now called, was that this arcade place is right around the corner.
When you first get in, just convert your dollar bills into nickels. You'll have a great time with some of the games only costing you $0.15. Most of the guys are ancient, as I think that the store probably bought the used machines that was being discarded and decide to open up a shop with old games.
College kids hang out here after classes at Cypress College, but junior high kids ruled supreme in this place. There is not really any hot new games here, but you can find the yesteryear's hot games like Tekken or Street Fighter. Mortal Kombat is here too. Nostalgia will bring back the memories of the hot 90's game.Listed in: Places My Mom Do Not Know…
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Review from Rob S.
Long Beach, CA
8/9/2010
This place is a dive. More than half the machines are broken. The ones that do work are so friggin' old. A handful are in Japanese and can't understand what to do. As for the junky ones that do work, they gobble up your coins and never actually work and need an "out of order" sign posted on them...WTF, how does this business stay open? I guess it's the $3.50 admission fee they charge on top of those cheezy nickel machines. Embarassed that I even brought my kids here.
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Review from Keven W.
San Jose, CA
Updated - 5/28/2010
Okay it been three years since I been back to Nickel Nickel. Unfortunately, the games have not changed, the machines are still there and also some of the machines are still mal function and still do not work. However, it is cheap I have to admit and better than going to dave and busters and spending an arm and a leg there. The only difference is the prices went up especially on the Skee ball machine and they are not so generous on the tickets.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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5/15/2009
I like Nickel Nickel because the games are cheap and you can get practice for a cheap price… Read more »
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Review from Loreta L.
Anaheim, CA
11/12/2009
They need to clean this filthy place lol. I honestly couldn't tell if I won or lost in some games because all captions were in Japanese. Ok I didn't mind it so much. Admission is $3.50 now, it was $2.95 when I was in high school! Grrr. Oh and I spent five dollars in nickels and I was able to redeem the tickets I won and I got a whopee cushion and a twix candy bar. Yay.
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Review from Stephanie E.
La Palma, CA
3/22/2010
This place is pretty dirty and gross.. It is cheap...$3 admission (I think..) and then you buy your bag of nickels. They do have a huge selection of free games too though (old school ones.) I would rather spend more and go to Dave and Busters...
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Review from Holly T.
7/7/2006
Yeah! Best way to spend $3 ever! On old school arcade games! Seriously, this place makes me so happy. I pay $1.95 to get in the door. I can either bring my own nickels, or I can buy $3, $4, or $5 sacks of nickels when I go in. All the arcade games are old and have been modified to accept nickels instead of quarters. And the REALLY old ones (i.e. the ones old skool enough for ME) are on free play, requiring no nickels whatsoever! Amazingly, some of the games here are really not that old, so you really get your money's worth (something that would cost say 3-5 quarters per play at D&B or Gameworks is only 3-5 nickels here). One time I passed like a million levels of some game because I kept feeding in nickels each time I died, and I still didn't spend more than a dollar. More often than not, though, I don't spend my nickels on video games; I spend an hour or two on the free games (TMNT, Ms. Pacman, etc.), then I spend my nickels on skee ball, get a whole bunch of tickets(!) and then spend my tickets at the end of the night on some groovy toy. Not only is it a good time, but it is a cheap night out. On top of that, they're open until midnight!
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Review from HUI C.
Pasadena, CA
11/23/2007
First time I heard about this place, I thought every game was literally "$0.05" cents. but nope, the name just means, the games only takes nickels. But other than that "uniqueness", there's nothing special about this place. Just a good place to fry the brains.
