Location Review: Funland Trocadero, London

Finally! This is something I’ve been meaning to do for longer than i care to mention.

Hit the jump at the bottom of this post for my Funland picture overload!

Funland Trocadero is a big place, so big it’s hard to describe the layout of the place, but essentially there are 5 main floors (I think!). The first floor you come across, after travelling up the main escalator, has mostly new games which include the following; UFO Catchers, DDR, Afterburner Climax, Manic Panic Ghost, TSUmo, Sega Rally 3, Fast and the Furious Super Bikes, Battle Gear 4, Need for Speed Underground, Ford Racing, Primeval Hunt, Wartran Troopers, Rambo, Time Crisis 4, Let’s Go Jungle, House of the Dead 4, Panzer Elite, Lethal Enforcers 3, Big Buck Pro and multiple pushers.

A row of back to back fighters can be found on the floor below as well as a Tekken 6. Every time I’ve been to Funland there has always been a crowd of guys down here gauranteed. Also on this floor are some fruit machines as well as Mario Kart GP, Gaelco Football, Virtua Striker 4, a 2 car Outrun 2 Super Deluxe and another Time Crisis 4. Oh and also a game called Percussion Master, which i don’t think I’ve seen before.

If you head back up and follow the pathway around you walk past the bowling alley and a pool bar as well as a bunch of cranes, a Guitar Freaks and a Pump it Up. Head down half a dozen steps and you are in probably what is the biggest floor which is mainly made up of a lot of redemption pieces, pool tables, an 8 player Daytona, a 4 player WCCF, an 8 player Derby Owners Club, deluxe 4 player Outrun 2’s & Ford Racing’s and a twin Mario Kart GP 2. The rest of the games that make up this floor includes Beat Mania 3rd Mix, Virtua Fighter 4 Evo, Hyper Bishi Bashi Champ, another Pump It Up and an Airline Pilots.

(Sorry if this is just sounding like a long list of games, but it’s very rare that I’ll ever get so many pics and remember all the games there, so I figured it would a good idea to write them all down.)

Moving on swiftly then, and on to the floor below this. Apart from the bumper cars in the middle, this floor is packed full of new and old videos. Starting with the new there is an Alien Extermination, a Paradise Lost, Maximum Tune 3, Initial D 4, Blazing Angels, Virtua Tennis 3, Ghost Squad Evo and NASCAR to sink some coins into. For those looking for something a little more aged and perhaps different there are games like Point Blank, Virtua Striker 2, Virtua NBA, some more old skool fighters (sorry can’t remember what they were), Star Wars Racer, Star Wars Trilogy, House of the Dead, another 8 player Daytona, F355 Challenge and Land High Japan?!?

Just few steps down from here is the final piece of the maze that is Funland. This floor does not disappoint either, with a 4 car Outrun 2 Super Deluxe, Silent Hill Arcade, a range of Dancing games as well as some rarer pieces like Manx TT,  MTV Drumscape, Muzan and Ninja Assault.

So that’s what is there, but how does it rate as an arcade? Well obviously it up there with the best in terms of variety of games and it’s very rare to see any of these machine out of order. I think my only complaint about Funland is that if you haven’t been there before it’s very easy to get lost in the multiple floors and the one way escalator system. But hey, I can’t think of a better place to get lost!

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Hit the jump for my Funland picture overload!