Mike Bleier

Review of Kristofs Entertainment

This place can't seem to get it right. Although th...

This place can't seem to get it right. Although they are trying.

Before, it was kind of a mess. It was more of your classic token style arcade from your childhood, where you could put 10 bucks into the token machine and have fun for an hour or so.

But back then, you would come in and it was hit or miss... Lots of games would be out of order a lot of the time. They needed to do SOMETHING.

Unfortunately, they swung the pendulum too far. They've finally started investing into the place. The bowling alley got refurbished and looks great. But it's really the arcade that I have the huge problem with.

My biggest concern is they switched to a card / credit system. No more tokens, just a card with credits. No more tickets being spit out (which the kids LOVED) the credits are just 'recorded' on the cards. And the place is now a HUGE ripoff.

In a way I can't blame them. ALL the big, successful arcades use this system, because they figured out that people just mindlessly swipe their cards and don't realize what a ripoff the games they are playing have become. You don't FEEL the pain of your pocket getting lighter as you insert token after token, they just deduct this crazy amount off your card with each swipe. The really little ones have NO CONCEPT how much they have left, or how much they are spending.

Prices for these games are now THROUGH THE ROOF. The "flappy bird" game costs 6 credits ($1.50) and you get ONE LIFE. "Crossy Road" costs $1.25 and you get one life. I've seen kids swipe away $50 or $60 in less than 5 minutes. You can spend $100 on two kids and they will be done in 20 minutes tops.

Again, I get it. It makes more money than the old token system, and I don't want to begrudge a business for trying to make a profit. But, for a neighborhood place to just brazenly triple or quadruple their arcade prices, it feels really wrong.

And one more thing... Barely any actual ARCADE GAMES are left! You know, just an actual game with no chance of winning tickets? I guess they have figured out that these take way too long to play and are not profitable enough, so the place is nearly exclusively "games of chance" that reward kids with tickets to exchange for little trinkets. People... These are introducing your children to games of chance... I. E. you are conditioning your kids to GAMBLE!

The deed is done, the investment was made and there's no going back to tokens, but I really wish ownership here would find a happy medium, bring back some actual GAMES into the arcade, and reduce the insane cost of credits these machines charge.