Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center

This place is a shadow of what it once was. Went here and half the machines are a mess and not a soul was inside besides the person working. Sad to see how this place is now.

I love this arcade. Granted, it has changed a lot– but it keeps my favorite arcade game alive (DDR and PIU– and I come here specifically for these games). The DDR and PIU machines are also well updated (they have the 2015 pump and some new DDR machines), so they’re easy to play with and can easily recognize your touch. It used to have a lot of fighter arcade type games (as per the other reviews) and it has become more «dave and busters» style, but the ticket system here is weak as the flagship games are the dancing machines, racing machines, and the music-​hand-​coordination type games that don’t exactly allow you to redeem tickets.
The place is kind of small, and the ventilation isn’t that great, especially since the dancing machines are in the back (unless they open up the exits and the wind outside is coming in). They also have a tiny bathroom in the back :)
Anyway, I’ll keep this short. It has my favorite games and it still gives me an arcade feel– so I am happy.

Sweaty hot and small cramped place but fun. $ 10 swipe card, each games seems to be about $ 1 and all games were up and running except a few when I was there a few nights ago. It’s worth it to go and kill an hour. They have a ticket section where you claim your earnings and prizes

Broken air hockey (scores were wrong).
Broken photobooth (error message).
Super sweaty smelling and humid in the back.
The bathroom door didn’t close either so my boyfriend and I took turns standing guard outside for each other.
Despite all this, we had tons of fun playing the broken air hockey game as well as the dinosaur shooting game.
Would I come back? Sure. It’s a good place to kill time.

I felt inspired to write a review after reading many of the high star reviews listed here. Most of these reviews are coming from the newer generation of people who probably did not know how the original Chinatown Fair was. Ever since they reopened several years ago after a hiatus of being closed… I only poked my head in once and was pretty much let down completely. Gone are the good old days of numerous arcade hits of fighting games, old school games (altered beast), 4 player quarter eaters, and I the infamous tic tac toe chicken and dancing chicken, which I felt bad for as a kid.
Yes, according to some other reviews this was a popular gangster hang out back in the day. I remember coming here as a kid in the late 80s and 90s making sure to keep to myself and the crowds for SF2 were nuts that I didn’t bother putting my quarter up on the screen for next. I just watched and admired. I stuck to the 4 player games like the Simpsons and TMNT and the classics. Now this place is sterilized and over priced. It has lost its appeal and no different than a Dave and busters.
The good old days are gone… A lot of people reviewing this place never knew how it used to be… Dirty but great.

A little small but has a great selection of games, including Initial D, which is a game I always hope to encounter when entering an arcade. They use a reloadable card system and have ticket exchange for prizes, much like Dave and Buster’s.
4 stars just because it’s an arcade. Sad to see them closing out one by one, online gaming has really killed the business but will never replace the experience.

During the 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s, the Chinatown Fair (its name back then) was a gangster hangout (not kidding). It also wasn’t the best place for impressionable teenagers to go to either.
As a teenager, the only times I’ve ever step foot in the arcade was during the early hours when the gangsters were still sleeping (from hanging out all night). Other times I would sneak in and look for my high school crush (which wasn’t the smartest thing for a teenager to do).
The arcade was small (compared to the Times Square and Coney Island arcades) but did have most of the popular games for a quarter per play.
Fast forward to present time, the Chinatown Fair is no longer a gangster hangout (at least I don’t think so). The size of the arcade hasn’t change but the games are alot more expensive to play.
If Unilocal existed 30 years ago, I’d give the Chinatown Fair one star for just being there…

The clown game is amazing.
Air hockey is pretty good too.
Ice ball is far inferior to skee ball. Basketball games don’t work.

Expired from two years ago motivated me to come here. glad I did.
Redeemed without any issues, I came here to this closet-​spaced old school arcade game spot. they had Tekken, street fighter, some dance revolution games, guitar hero, air hockey, foos ball, basketball shoots, and some shooting games
Everyone here besides me and my friend appear to be professional gamers, the ones who would play games for 16 hours a day with a thumb print on their fingers from the controllers with maybe two bathroom breaks and one pause to snack on frozen foods.
Regardless, didn’t feel intimidated, killed about 3 hours rediscovering my love for gaming. especially with Tekken and street fighter.
The place is a greasy, hot spot with borderline working controllers that can use some updating but if you’re here for a casual outing it is truly a gem.
Will be back!

A Chinatown classic. My boyfriend and I go here often to play games. There aren’t any retro arcade games but they have a good eclectic selection of video games, plus ski-​ball and air hockey. The only drawback is the prices. $ 10 gets the two of us maybe 20 minutes of entertainment, usually less.

I would be completely shocked if this place is really called «Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center» but like the Awning states «Chinatown Fair» would have to do. They have lots of video games and have a ticket redemption for prizes system. It is far from a Chucky Cheezes or Dave and Busters but as high end as those are, this place does it for a fraction of the price though for foods/​drinks in the same vicinity you’ll want to go back to the aforementioned. Then again, you’re in Chinatown, the best place to eat in all of NY so why bother.
Unfortunately this place is really not as popular nor as welcoming as it used to be and a lot of the legendry games are gone. Once they changed to a supposed Family/​Fun Center, well it’s not longer Fun, nor do I see Families and it’s certainly not a Center. I mean they will probably attract more people, if they called it «Games For The Lonely.»

Its ridiculous because i been with this NEW china town fair since opening and they did nothing to improve the games in quality or quantity but kept raising their prices on games. Their games cost about $ 1.60+ to play and some machines dont even work. Im a groupon/​livingsocial buyer at this place but now. i dont even think its worth the money anymore. All this place does is milk you off because the owner Lonnie owns another arcade and business in returns, does not really care about their customers opinion.
I’ll continue to come here because my friends hang out here. But dont expect me to pay anything over 3 dollars anymore.
YOURE READING A REVIEW FROM A LOCAL CUSTOMER WHO COMES HERE RECENTLY.

I had so much fun here on Saturday night, but I honestly think it was just the circumstances surrounding the visit that made it so much fun.
First off, It’s advisable that you come here with a slight buzz. Things are a lot more fun when you’re playing games buzzed.
Secondly, don’t take yourself too seriously. There will be hardcore arcade buffs who will stare you down as you go through DDR on beginner level, but just ignore them and do your thing!
I’d say tickets are fairly cheap. I bought a $ 10 one and it lasted me through multiple games.
There are a lot of broken games here and some machines just swallow your credit, but just let the employees know and they’ll give you your credit back and do what they can to help. It was pretty disappointing that some of the more popular games were broken, though. I got myself all psyched up to play.
The best part about this place? Get yourself all tired out from playing all these games, and then pop over anywhere close by for late night eats in Chinatown!

place is ok, good game selection. Narrow. Lots of teens standing around and sitting on games taking up space not really playing anything. The only shooting games they have were out of order. The only good thing is that you get a lot of plays for your money.

As an avid rhythm gamer, this is THE place to go in Manhattan.
They have:
–DDR 2014: Other than the left arrow on the right pad, the cabinet is in excellent shape, has USB support.
–ITG ‘Simply Love’: Pads are both in excellent shape, and the machine has over 1600 songs, including ITG1, 2, and Rebirth, as well as some other popular packs like ‘Dragonforce’, ‘Pendulum’, and many more. Unfortunately the screen sometimes flickers, and the pads will sometimes completely shut off, though it only seems to happen at the start of the song. The cabinet is an old DDR machine (wish it was a dedicab!) There are almost always people on this machine.
–PIU Infinity: Lord, this cabinet is beautiful. I prefer 4 arrow games, so I can’t write a ton about this one, but the pads are in excellent shape and the machine is decently popular. The volume is very loud.
–Neon FM: According to the Neon FM website, this is one of 5 locations in the world that has this machine. Very cool cabinet, and fun game. The soundtrack is incredible — check out the YouTube playlist.
–Beatmania IIDX: This is very rare in the USA, and it is in great shape.
–ReRave Plus: This game is awesome
They also have another broken DDR cabinet, with broken pads piled on top of each other — no idea what their plan is with this, but I’m hoping they fix it up. I’ve also seen various versions of Pop’n’Music in and out of the arcade, as well as an additional ReRave machine.
I’m taking off a star because the place can sometimes be quite dirty, and it can be hard to find the staff. The staff, however, are very helpful — my friend lost his game card, and they tracked it, cancelled it, and gave him a full refund. $ 50 saved! They have also refunded many rounds on ITG for me when the pads have shut off.

Don’t expect this arcade as big as Chuck E Cheese’s. It’s pretty small but it’s definitely worth checking out if you are in the area. They have Tekken, Racing games, Alien, Terminator, Dance Dance Revolution and more.
I was late for redeeming my $ 30 store credit for only $ 15 Groupon, so I was only expecting to get $ 15 store credit out of it. The person behind the counter was nice enough to still put 120 points ($ 30 worth) into my card anyway. I was really happy.
I was here on a Friday afternoon and it was pretty crowded, so you might have to wait before you get to play the machines.
As for the prizes, 75 tickets could get a pack of playing cards, 180 tickets for a Hershey’s Chocolate bar. I wouldn’t come here just for the prizes though.

you got game? you’ll need it at this arcade!
this ain’t no Chuck E. CheeZ spot or some Lana Del Rey song called video games.
this is a small hardcore gaming joint that welcomes newcomers.
WARNING: going head2head against regulars at Street Fighter IV, Tekken, or other fighting games will be a painful experience in losing quickly.
Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center has a variety of games from games that win you tickets to cash in for prizes to rhythm/​dance games like DDR to Guitar Hero to Street Fighter IV and Tekken 5 to shooters like Terminator Salvation and Alien. There’s an air Hockey table, a crane game, electronic poker for tickets, and other random games.
The layout here is narrow and these games are big, so it can feel crowded when it’s not. It can get steamy in here if you are DDRing or there are a crowd of people in here.
There are no tokens here. You feed cash into a machine and you get an electronic swipe card.
Staff seems friendly enough. They don’t really need to do anything unless a machine is broken or you are cashing in tickets. They are chill.
All you need is cash and open mind to game. Since arcades are disappearing at an alarming rate in NYC, this is a awesome throwback to those days where stand-​up and sit-​down games ruled and console and mobile gaming were still in their infancy. Oh how times changes…
Droppin’ that mic, so I can shoot some Aliens! BOSS LEVEL!!!
I out!

Like being transported back into 10^th grade, hanging out at your friend Fat Tony’s basement and playing Counterstrike on a LAN connection. Except they have tickets here.
I had a blast.

One of the fighting game communities «landmarks» if you been here before this is where some of NYC best pros started from!
Pros
— this is a ultra casual place it is welcoming to hardcore to tourist.
— they have Japanese sf cabinets for hardcore gamers (for right now it’s arcade edition not ultra they have yet to update)
–they have ticket game for those tourist or casual gamer who like that.
–it is open till midnight so it is a social spot after dinner time
–they have a organized cars system to store money in instead of putting in coins to play
–they have rhythm games (DDR, più, itg) which require to use your feet and hands
–buses and trains are accessible and many good choices nearby and all of them are cheap in price so you won’t go hungry.
CONS
–if it’s your first time and you go on a busy day you might feel a bit overwhelmed because of the small space.
–sometime the cabinets are broken and it takes a while for them to fix it
–some of the games are outdated
Overall this place is a landmark according to gamers every where and I’m glad to see that his location is up and running strong!

This place is awesome. I love spending time in arcades, so this is a fantastic sanctuary for me and an INCREDIBLE revival of an arcade legend.
A lot of people don’t know that the Chinatown Fair has an amazing history of video gaming and people of its community. Besides this, it had been one of the last arcades to remain in NYC and certainly in Manhattan.
This reopening is a bit of a detour away from what it used to be, but I LOVE IT. They have about a third of the place stacked with ticket games and the rest rhythm (music) games, fighters, and racing games. The place is decently clean for an arcade and has a lot of new/​modern games. I see kids here all the time, so bring ‘em! Don’t let arcades die in NYC forever!
They use a card system here to store your tickets and credits. It makes for a tricky conversion. If you’re not careful, you can blow $ 20 pretty quickly.
Anyways, I hope everyone gets to experience this place. It is a rare thing to see now-​a-​days.
NEW Games: Wizard of Oz coin game, Fruit Ninja, Ball toss (knock over clowns)
Games you won’t want to miss!: Skee-​Ball (DUH!), Wizard of Oz (No joke, this is my favorite game here), and the many variations of DDR.
See you at Chinatown Fair!