What is the best video game arcade in Bangkok?

[KunMatt]

Anyone know where is the best, or a really good arcade, is in Bangkok?

The best I have found so far is a few separate arcades at the top floor of MBK.

It seems that every Central Mall has an arcade but they always seems to be the same "Fun Planet" and they all have the same games and machines.

In particular I am looking for an arcade where Street Fighter 4 is popular. If it also had SF2 and SF3 or any other Capcom fighting game then I would probably flip my sh!t. I saw that SF3 was re-released in Japan yesterday but the chances of any arcade in Thailand having it are about zero.

I don't know where the fighting game community is most popular in Bangkok. Tekken seems to be much more popular than anything else and every arcade always has like 8 of the same version of Tekken. TBH I hate Tekken.

Anyone have any advice?

[crabdog]

Arcades in BKK look to me pretty much the same as what I saw back home 10+ years ago. I'd be curious to see what they're currently like in the west because I find it hard to believe they could change so little since then. I could however totally believe that Thailand's arcades are 10+ years behind the rest of the world.

[KunMatt]

Arcades in BKK look to me pretty much the same as what I saw back home 10+ years ago. I'd be curious to see what they're currently like in the west because I find it hard to believe they could change so little since then. I could however totally believe that Thailand's arcades are 10+ years behind the rest of the world.

Really? I don't know where you are from but in the UK most of the arcades have shut down and what remains are only fruit machines.

The UK has 1 decent arcade open in London called the Heart of Gaming (HoG) which is trying to reignite the arcade culture but apart from that it Is dead.

The arcades in Bangkok are still popular probably for the same reason that arcades were popular in the 90s in the West because nobody could recreate the arcade experience in their own home.

I was at the arcades in MBK today as it happens. It is called Ex10 and there are a few Super Street Fighter 4 cabs, loads of Tekken as usual, but also lots of large expensive sit down special cabinets like Transformers and Mario Kart DX.

[SlyAnimal]

Arcade games are often just too expensive. The arcades try to get the big sit down ones instead of the basic machines, and then have to charge a lot for each game. Also I've found they often don't maintain their other games well, with broken buttons etc being the norm (At least from the ones I've used anyway).

I really like Tekken, although the Marvel ones are my favourite, especially the Marvel vs Capcom style. But broken or sticky buttons just ruin the game, although admittedly, I haven't been to any of the arcades in Bangkok, so maybe they machines with working buttons lol. Because of the bad experience at the arcades I have been to, I just don't really bother (Although if my wife is keen, we'll occasionally have a blast at a 2player gun game or similar, she's not as keen on vs games & the broken buttons just make me rage lol)

[davejonesbkk]

Are arcade games even made anymore? I thought they were all pretty much killed off in the last 10 years as game consoles got better and better. Aside from SF4 what else has there been?

I guess it would be fun to go to one as a novelty but thats all it would be and I doubt anyone would go there to really play games, damn I remember in the 90's some of the most recent games cost 1 GBP which would kill your wallet unless you were really good and could stay on it a while!

[KunMatt]

Arcade games are often just too expensive. The arcades try to get the big sit down ones instead of the basic machines, and then have to charge a lot for each game. Also I've found they often don't maintain their other games well, with broken buttons etc being the norm (At least from the ones I've used anyway).

I really like Tekken, although the Marvel ones are my favourite, especially the Marvel vs Capcom style. But broken or sticky buttons just ruin the game, although admittedly, I haven't been to any of the arcades in Bangkok, so maybe they machines with working buttons lol. Because of the bad experience at the arcades I have been to, I just don't really bother (Although if my wife is keen, we'll occasionally have a blast at a 2player gun game or similar, she's not as keen on vs games & the broken buttons just make me rage lol)

I have seen a Marvel Vs Capcom 3 cab in our local Tesco arcade. Generally the cabs are in good condition. The Tekken cabs are a lower Vewlix cab I think and the SF4 cabs look like a custom job but with Sanwa controls.

All of the regular games are just 10 baht but they are always set to the hardest difficulty setting so it's very difficult to clear it even by continuing. Not sure why they choose the hardest setting as it's not like there's a queue for the games and being so tough puts people off and stops them improving.

[KunMatt]

Are arcade games even made anymore? I thought they were all pretty much killed off in the last 10 years as game consoles got better and better. Aside from SF4 what else has there been?

I guess it would be fun to go to one as a novelty but thats all it would be and I doubt anyone would go there to really play games, damn I remember in the 90's some of the most recent games cost 1 GBP which would kill your wallet unless you were really good and could stay on it a while!

Yeah, I was surprised to see new arcade games in the arcades here. I used to work in Hong Kong and the arcades there were still extremely popular too.

The new games I've seen here are always the large sit down theatre games like Transformers Human Alliance which is the typical coin guzzler or Mario Kart DX which looks like a Wii or Wii U port upgraded to an arcade style game. Light gun games and racing games seem to be most popular too.

I know that in Japanese arcades fighting games are still popular and being released there which then get released on home consoles in the west, like Ultra Street Fighter 4 a few months ago and Tekken 7 is getting released next year. I saw on YouTube a new Batman driving game which was released in the States quite recently.