London is getting a new immersive gaming experience this September that will bring your favourite arcade video games to life
Game on
Living or even just visiting London can sometimes feel like you’re in an immersive gameshow, as you dodge between historic buildings, avoid people filming down Carnaby street accosting people with a mini mic, and see all manner of outfits from cosplay to corporate. Now, London is getting an arena entirely dedicated to bringing your favourite video games to life.
Arcade Arena will be bringing iconic arcade classics to life, where you won’t just be playing the games, but you’ll be in them. Three iconic gaming worlds will be brought together all inside the one arena space. There will be retro favourites you'll remember from rainy days inside your local arcade spending your life savings on another attempt at a high score in 2p installments. Plus, there will be new next-gen challenges, brining the kind of adventure you won’t just watch but can see, hear, and feel. There is an exclusive new game, Alien Invasion, which will be launching at the Arcade, bringing a new world and host of challenges into the experience.
It’s the first arena of its kind in London, being helmed by Little Lion Entertainment – the company who brought other immersive experiences like the Crystal Maze Experience, and Maze Runner Live to hundreds of guests. Basically, it brings all the best of gaming with the fun of doing it irl with your mates – without any of the Jumanji style sci fi implications. The new London arena will span roughly a whopping 15,000 square feet, blending the digital world with huge projections bringing the games to life.
Currently, the London arena will host Chaos Karts where you’ll be go-karting around a projected track which will make you feel like you’re racing around your favourite on-screen routes. It uses state of the art technology to combine real-life racing (see: Go-Karts) with augmented reality to immersive racers in a variety of track designs, drivable karts, and even usable in-kart power-ups which will allow you to battle all the way up to the finish line.
There will also be the PAC-MAN Live Experience where you’ll take on the game IRL, navigating through a life sized glowing maze as you transform into the PAC-MAN himself. You’ll be dodging ghostly pursuers, collect Power Pellets, and chase high scores in the big recreation of the world’s most famous arcade game.
Whilst the Arcade Arena is new to London, it’s not its first rodeo, having launched permenant sites in Manchester and Dubai. The London iteration will be opening up in September, but you can already book tickets, which start at £30 for an individual entry.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
