Namco Funscape

Alot of people throw shade on Namco Funscape (the reviews here are a good example — 3 star average = whut?). I’d be lying if I said I understood why. Whether you’re organising an event for gaming fans, hanging out with some geeky mates, or even on a date, Namco Funscape provides a well-​designed, scenic environment with heaps to keep you stimulated.
The arcade booth collection is one of the best in London (rivalled only by Las Vegas) and the bar area is the comfiest thing. And that’s before I even get started on the bumper cars and karaōke… Zeus himself would be proud of this pleasure den!
Anyone up for a match of Outrun?

A great place to have a fun time. Change your cash for coins and burn through it quickly.
Highlights: Star Wars Arcade, Jurassic Park Arcade, Aliens Arcade, Jurassic World Plush Dino Grabber (a total scam, obviously).
The area is weirdly spaced out with lots of odd angles, not exactly ideally used, but who cares when you’re glued to the games. There’s a McDonald’s right at the entrance, so I guess you can save a few coins by chowing down their «food». ;)

Though it’s expensive (it’s Southbank, what do you expect?) I have to say that I have always loved places like this and this place is no different!
CHECK OUT THEIR AMAZING AIR HOCKEY TABLES!!!
Worth every penny for those alone.
Only semi-​complaint is that the place friggin’ stinks. Like, LITERALLY STINKS. But again, what do you expect? It’s a place for kids and kids are gross.
Looking forward to more fun and games in the future whenever my bank account recovers…

I love Namco. We always end up here after a stroll along the South Bank, even if it’s just for a quick game of air hockey.
The place is what I remember the Trocadero being, it has pool and bowling and karaōke as well as all popular video games (and air hockey!)
It’s not really the kind of place I’d go to hang out for any length of time (the beer is pretty boring and I wouldn’t imagine the food being of great quality) but it’s perfect just to stop in for a bit of a change of scenery.
If you check in with Unilocal as well you get two free tokens, but bear in mind the people at the desk probably won’t know what you’re talking about when you go and claim them.

I was here for the Hyper Japan after party last Saturday. It took me a while to find the place as I did not know you had to go inside a McDonalds.
Once inside I was surprised at how big the place was. There were plenty of things to do, such as, bowling, air hockey, table tennis and playing pool.
The food is below average pub food. I had Fish n Chips, which tasted like it was just been bought from my local Iceland.
But I was not there for the food. But for the free Japanese bands that were playing. I must say Namco Funscape was not built for live music. The sound sucks big time.
All in all, I had a great time with friends. Not because of the venue and free music, but for the cosplayers and the beer.

Since I had a London Pass, I get £3 when I come here and get my pass scanned. So with £6 total (with my girlfriend), we spent £4 on a Mission Impossible-​like game where you enter a dark room and maneuver through green lasers and place your hands on different parts of the wall. This game was pretty interesting and I have not seen it in the US. The next game we played for £2 was this Pac-​Man air hockey game where like 20 pucks come down and it just gets crazy. We left right after this to get the most of our London Pass.
Overall, this place seemed like a typical arcade but with cooler stuff than in the US, but not as cool as in Japan. They had a bar downstairs. I feel like every arcade needs a bar.

This review is for the bar + grill food and service.
Service is really poor. My biggest suggestion: hire more employees. This place is seriously understaffed with one person working the bar and taking orders, including serving these orders. I had to ask several times for ketchup but instead walked up to the bar counter to finally get some. My salad had no dressing either…
Food is mediocre. Almost all the main courses came with American style fries, which basically filled you up.
If not for the free wifi and public seating, I would not recommend unless you were here for the arcade and super hungry.

I’ve been to Namco twice already, and everytime I have the same feeling: very mixed…
Paying 1£ per video game, when only a few games are outstanding, is a total rip-​off… The variety of the games is quite average, and some of the motor games (car or moto racing) are very old.
More and more machines are broken, and therefore cannot be played, and the staff look tired, and some are unfriendly at best.
The bowling is a great asset in that place, although the display screen fails more often than not…
I’ll still go, for good old timesà sake, but always wishing to find a Metal Slug 4 or a Puzzle Bobble to play at.

Namco.
You did well from the demise of the Trocadero arcade.
Namco will always be hit and miss. I find it a reasonably peaceful haven from the manic busy promenade of the South Bank. Step into County Hall and depart on the escalators downward toward retro joy.
You’ll find a mixture of archade games, grab-​its, photo booths and mini rides. It’s major draw is the indoor bumper cars, no need to wait for the fair to come around and face the British weather. It also offers bowling and pool, but as everyone mentioned previously, it is all extortionately priced. Why. Basically, it was (before the tourists found it) a space predominantly for corporate groups. Business people letting their hair down with a bit of pool and bowling. The introduction or private karaōke really screams hilariously bad staff party doesn’t it?
In a good olé summer I use to come here with an old boe, we’d have a play on the games, collect the tokens and get a dodgy picture from an ancient photobooth which did an old fashioned 4 picture strip.
Maybe its a bitter taste in the mouth from a love lost, or maybe it’s that since that picture booth has gone, the large Operations game has gone and I never will collect enough tickets for an inflatable banana, but Namco is not the same.
The last few times I’ve come machines have been broken and the best ones vanished. Still heartbroken from this betrayal, I’ve not been for a while.
The bar however I always find clean, they’ve got some standard hot snacks available. It’s a ten min relief from the manic of the smoke.

Let’s be honest — i wanted to book them for a birthday party. They are not responsive, and seems to be very lazy and not eager to make any money. I would never recommend them to anyone.

I am a tourist from the U.S. in town for two weeks with kids. I bought the London pass which has been fabulous and went to Namco last night as a final stop for some fun, as the London Pass Booklet allowed 6 free tokens per pass good on games and bumper cars… NOT!!! First off, the staff is not friendly or helpful in anyway. They also told me that the info in the book was wrong and that I am not the first one to ask for what is in the book but that they cannot honor it as their rules had changed. now, they only allowed 3 tokens and oh… By the way… they are not good on bumper cars. The sole purpose of my taking the kids was because they wanted to ride on bumper cars after a long day of sight seeing. So I wanted to buy a ride each for my kids so they would not be disappointed. While the staff stand around doing nothing much. They of course would not help me get change for a £5 bill and pointed me to a money changing machine which spitted out 5 £1 coins. I then took it to the token machine and put in the 5 coins hoping to get 2 tokens. I lost £3 (non refundable) and the staff refused to refund any of the money. Of course they were willing to spend any amount of time explaining to me how the machine states that it requires exact change. It does not tell you that if exact change is not put in, no token.
I would not go there again and would say… London you were wonderful until I went to Namco… totally spoiled my London experience!!! stay clear of Namco if you want only good experiences and happy memories in London. For this type of activity, this place is pretty pathetic compared to what we have in the U.S.and I hope this is not representative of what London has to offer for game arcades.

Hmmm. It’s not big and it’s not clever but it seems to attract the punters.
Here are the Facts:
Name — Namco Station.
Location — Westminster Bridge next to the London Aquarium.
Purpose — To suck you in, opps, sorry I mean to entertain visitors through the mediums of visual & virtual interface gaming technologies.
Layout — Spread over two (might be three) levels. Ground floor: Bowling, pool tables, bar, seating and gaming machines.
1^st floor: More bowling, gaming machines and arcade machines (you know the ones, pop ten pence in to try and push all the other shiny ten pennies toward the huge gap. Oh and the claw too.)
Personal comments:
Due to location, understandably it attracts a lot of tourist, fair enough, however my biggest grip is how much it cost for the pool tables. My reasoning, they will be making good amounts of money from the games machine and the drinks. Why then can they justify charging 20p per minute, again that’s twenty pence PER MINUTE, for a game that almost certainly lasts about fifteen to twenty minutes a set. How is that fair? Nobody is saying don’t make a profit, but I believe that to be extortion.
I didn’t check to bowling prices, but I would imagine it would be priced just as offensively.

In the hustle and bustle of touristy Westminster and the South Bank today, I saw lots of families with happy smiley faces in the morning, which had started to look a little weary and in need of a rest.
Namco Station is a little potential lifesaver for parents needing a quick break. It’s located in the old County Hall building but has an unassuming entrance. It has 3 floors of perfect kiddie entertainment providing you have the cash to feed the machines.
There’s dodgems and bowling for all the family. Kids will have fun on the video games though I did spot a granny having a go at Dance Revolution! The lowest floor has pool tables and a little restaurant for food and drink — mostly fast food style and café fare, I saw adverts for private karaōke but I’m not sure how that operates.
I do miss some of the older games but I’m always up for a few bumps in dodgems

it was kind of funny to go here but i wouldn’t be running back anytime soon.
bought a groupon voucher for tokens and went on a random monday. the place was pretty empty.
there are bumper cars, bowling lanes, loads of games for either tickets or just for fun. one of the machines ate our token and the guy working there bought us off with 100 tickets. pretty good deal considering i played the game and only got like 5 tickets.
anyway, could be fun for a group bowling event or something but don’t go beating down the door.

Have you seen a troop of real zombies? Well, if you were around the south bank last sunday around 8; you might have. Coz this is what the Namco Station does to you after 5 long hours of enforced gaming.
Some of the games could be newer and huh? An Arcade without Street Fighter? WOT! And the Bowling Alley cheats. Oh the numbers of strikes and spares that went uncelebrated…
But the bumper cars were fun. I will always remember plowing into Avi. And urm, if you are over 20, try not bumper cars 5 times in one afternoon– you might wake up the morning with symtoms of being run over and then backed up by another bumper car.

Basically Dave and Buster’s comes to London. Really old arcade games, and only shooting and racing ones at that. Where’s the Street Fighter?

The Namco Station is part of the County Hall/​South Bank tourist trap. It sells itself as an «entertainment centre», with much of its floor-​space dedicated to ticket redemption scams *ahem* …ticket redemption arcade machines, plus a dodgem rink (good) and something which passes for bowling (not so good).
The «bowling» is not bowling. Their version involves everything being made of plastic, and pins attached to strings. If you are looking for a bowling alley, Bloomsbury Bowling or All-​Star Lanes is a much better alternative (although, admittedly, costlier).
The dodgems and arcade machines are good fun — but to get anything positive out of a visit here, it will be related to having slightly mindless fun with whomever you are with, rather than the arcade and the location
itself!
If you go with this in mind and have your expectations set correctly, then you are probably going here for the right reasons. Otherwise, this is probably not what you are looking for.

I love it around here — especially good around the spring /​summer time when it is a little warmer around the area, ice cream and hotdogs for sale on the bank (although london pricing structure applies) —
Namcostation — this is the best of a few in the country — why? well it has a pretty cool indoor dodgem cars — along with plenty UK exclusive machines that you won’t find anywhere else.
Great to waste a couple of hours getting back into coin-​ops — they really are a lot of fun fun fun!

Namco Station is really a tourist trap on the Southbank. Situated at /​in County Hall, it’s one of the many attractions here. However, this attraction is for the brainless /​bored /​average tourist. With the Aquarium, Dali Universe and various other great sights and attractions in the area, I fail to see why this would appeal.
There are lots of bowling alleys in London, Bloomsbury Bowl being the best of the bunch and this one is a little cheap. There are a plethora of arcade games, coin machines etc but there’s really nothing that would make me want to stay more than 10 minutes as there are always too many tourists or teens /​young kids running around.
It doesn’t make for the most culturally rich, mind bending experience, just dumb fun…

Having tried in vain to book bowling alleys around central London, we eventually decided to try the ones at Namco Station. They work on a strange vending machine type of system, whereby you put in a couple of pounds for each person playing, then the computer registers you and you get on with the game. This works pretty well, though is probably a little more expensive than regular bowling.
There are all sorts of other games to keep you amused, from shoot’em ups to skiing. The presence of a bar, serving mainly beers and alcopops in plastic bottles, makes everything seem far more entertaining. Hardly adult entertainment, but Namco Station makes an amusing night out for when the thought of another night at the pub gets a bit stale.