Next Level Pinball Museum Review and Guide – An Incredible Video Game and Pinball Arcade Worth Visiting!

While playing games at home is fun, for decades there was nothing like playing at the arcade. Today, many games are now available to play on Steam and elsewhere, with arcades not as important as they once were. Despite this, there are still some incredible arcades that have a massive assortment of games that are still popular to visit. These are usually a great value for the money, especially when going with friends. One such place is the Next Level Pinball Museum, located in Hillsboro, Oregon. Below is my review and guide, with the hope of it helping you decide whether you should take a trip to check it out. Or you could just use it to see how it compares to one of your local places.

This post is designed to answer frequently asked questions about the Next Level Pinball Museum (also known as Next Level Pinball Shop & Museum), give a feel for what it is like to be there, and provide a review of my experience. With those goals in mind, I’ll begin with the FAQs, and then share thoughts about the experience I had there and the games I played. Many of these sections will have photos of the cabinets I saw or played. My apologies in advance for the reflections and glare in the images, but I really wanted to showcase a lot of what I saw at the museum even if the quality isn’t the best. For some of these pictures, I’ve also manually edited them to remove people from the background or screen so as to preserve everyone’s privacy. Thank you for your understanding.

Since this is a massive post, I’ve broken it up into multiple sections with links to each. Be aware that links to other places will likely take you away from this post. Please come back later if you’re not done reading!

For much of this post, I will be referring to Next Level Pinball Museum simply as “Next Level” for ease of writing.

Here are the sections that we have for today’s post:

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Traveling to the Museum, Parking, and the Outside
• Walking Into the Lobby and First Impressions
• Going Into the Museum and Looking Around
• Starting With Some Shmups (Raiden Fighters 2, 1, and Gunbird)
• Other Games Nearby (Darkstalkers, The Punisher, Heavy Barrel)
• Playing Some Gun Shooters (T2: Judgment Day, Halo: Fireteam Bravo, and Transformers: Shadows Rising)
• Some More Two-Player Fun (The Real Ghostbusters, Micheal Jackson’s Moonwalker, and Ghosts ’n Goblins)
• Exploring More of the Arcade (Top Speed)
• A Discussion on Looking for Other People When You Are Separated
• Finding Our Other Friends (Star Wars)
• Playing Mario Kart Arcade GP DX
• More Multiplayer Racing Games (Cruis’n Blast and The Fast and the Furious)
• Using One of the Restrooms
• Going Out for Lunch (Five Guys Review)
• Returning After Lunch
• The Other Bathroom
• Getting Back to Some Video Games (Tron, Tetris, Superman)
• Single-Player Racers (Super Monaco GP and Radikal Bikers)
• A Row of Classic Arcade Titles (Altered Beast, Pac-Man Plus, Metro-Cross)
• My Friend Really Liked This Game (Gauntlet Dark Legacy)
• A Few Other Multiplayer Games (GI Joe, Golden Axe 2, and Super Off Road)
• Having Fun With Fighting Games (King of Fighters ’98 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2)
• A Discussion on What You May Feel Like After Hours of Gaming
• A Few Rounds of Pinball
• Our Last Couple of Games (Time Pilot and Transformers: Human Alliance)
• Conclusion

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Next Level? It is a shop, pinball museum, and arcade located in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Why do they matter? Because they have one of the world’s largest collections of arcade games and pinball machines. Plus, almost every machine is set on freeplay mode.

How much does it cost? Normally it is $23 per person for all day access. Children aged 3-5 are $17 per kid.

Does it really give you full-day access? Yes, so long as you do not break your wristband. It needs to remain on your wrist to continue full-day access.

What is their website? https://www.nextlevelpinballmuseum.com/.

What are their hours? Please see their website to confirm hours of operation.

Where are they located? 1458 NE 25th Ave Hillsboro, OR 97124.

What is their email address? freeplay@nextlevelpinballmuseum.com.

What is their phone number? 503-608-2605.

How many arcade games do they have? About 315+ of them.

Can I see pictures of them? Yes, please see this webpage.

How many pinball machines do they have? About 300+ of them.

Can I see pictures of them? Yes, please see this webpage.

What about a list of everything? Sure, it is found here.

Do they have any food or drink on site? Yes, an assortment of chips, candies, and drinks can be purchased at the museum. Love Pasta is also stationed in the parking lot some of the days of the week. A hot dog joint named “Dogos El Yaqui” may also be available based on the day you come. Please see this webpage for details.

What about places to sit down? Yes, there are designated eating area tables available in the facility. Moreover, some couches are in various places as well.

Is it noisy? While noise levels may vary, Next Level is a very popular location, and the machines typically make sounds while being played. As such, this is an often noisy place and it can be distracting based on your tolerance level.

Note: Information provided in this FAQ or blog post may not be entirely accurate. Please use the links found above to double-check the answers I provide. You may also want to ask Next Level Pinball Museum staff as appropriate.

Traveling to the Museum, Parking, and the Outside

Getting to Next Level is relatively easy to reach for those who are in the Portland Metro Area. I had no trouble using Google Maps to make my way there. The only moment of concern I had while driving was when my app told me that my destination was on my left. It did not say how far away it was from me. Thankfully, this was not a problem because the arcade has a large sign out front that shows game characters such as a space invader, Pac Man, and the ghosts following him. Once you see the sign, you’ll know you’ve made it. However, the sign is not so distinctive when you are coming from the other direction. If your maps app says that Next Level is on your right, you may want to slow down more so you don’t miss it.

Concerning parking, the front of the facility has at least 25 parking spaces, and 3+ handicap spots. On the side and back of the building there are about 20 more spots. Still further back, there are two more sets of parking areas. These provide space for at least 120 regularly-sized vehicles. It is likely that you will have a hard time finding a spot in the front if you come after the first 30 minutes of Next Level’s opening, at least on Saturdays.

One thing that I really like about the museum is that it knows exactly what it is and that vibe resonates from outside. It is focused on pinball, arcade games, and classic pop culture celebrities and memorabilia. Consequently, all along the sides of the building are images of different media properties, video games, comic book characters, and many other things. These really set the tone for what to expect and remind visitors of why they came in the first place. I recommend a walk around the building after lunch if the weather permits so you can admire all the work they put into such a display.

Please see the image above for a representative example of what one of the walls looks like.

Walking Into the Lobby and First Impressions

Upon walking in, the pop culture references and images of video games continue. Pictures are found on various walls, while a multitude of trinkets and goods are available for purchase. The first thing I saw was a couple of little plushies for Yoshi and Knuckles. They made me smile since I like both characters! Some other items nearby include mugs ($12), key chains, magnets ($4), and other goodies. On the other end of the room there were Next Level T-shirts ($20) and snack chips ($2). Funko Pop figures of Star Wars, X-Men, and other licensed characters were readily available along the wall near the entrance. Many of them were $12 each. Some other characters I saw included Hello Kitty, Pokémon, Kirby, and of course Mario. I had been here once before, and I was glad to be back. One of my friends was already with me, and a couple others were supposed to arrive later.

Once I came to the register, the first question they asked me was if this was my first time. Since I had been here before, I just paid my money, got my wristband on, and was told to enjoy my time. As I shared in the FAQ, make sure not to break the band, otherwise you will lose your access, and have to pay again

Going Into the Museum and Looking Around

Once I entered the museum, I immediately saw more popular media personalities and items everywhere. For example, to my left was an assortment of different Star Wars Episode 1 characters in life-size form. It was pretty impressive! The immediate beginning is also where a lot of the large screen games are found. One of the most prominent was a giant size Pac-Man arcade game that is probably 15-20 feet tall. It is actually kind of incredible! Too bad I don’t really like the game (sorry!). I think there is also a huge version of either Bubble Bobble or Bust-a-Move (Puzzle Bobble), but I cannot say for sure. Some other notable games include the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade game and Star Wars Battle Pod. More on those later.

Also along various walls were a multitude of different pop culture images from movies, comic books, DVDs, video games and more. Another big deal about this place was that it has one of the largest collections of lunch boxes in the world. They are visible by walking along the wall and looking behind the glass. Just so you know, I will try not to mention pop culture and the like as much now, until I get to the bathrooms!

Upon entering Next Level, I recommend that you just walk around and see what they have. Even though the website shows pictures of the games and pinball machines, there is no actual map of the facility, and doing this helps you find those key games you want to play. Although, if you ask the staff at the front desk, they can probably tell you where a specific title is located. As you go from room to room, you should notice that there is a little bit of organization to the chaos. For example, while I was there, many Mortal Kombat and Capcom fighting games were in the same aisle together. Donkey Kong 1, 2, and Jr were near each other, too. Many 8-bit Nintendo games were huddled nearby. Racing game cabinets are often linked for multiplayer and found near other titles of the same style. At least two of the Time Crisis games were together. These are just some of the examples. As you spend time there, you should be able to make a little map in your head of where to go next once you find a few of the games you want to play. Again, feel free to ask the cashiers where a few of your favorites might be if you really want to play them.

Here is a picture of a few Nintendo games that were next to each other. I saw these around this time.

Starting With Some Shmups (Raiden Fighters 2, 1, and Gunbird)

So, before we all came to Next Level, I already knew that one of my friends wanted to play Raiden again. He had fond memories of using the jet with the swirly purple laser. Once I heard that, it made me want to play it too, but me with the blue laser. Eventually we found Raiden Fighters 1 and 2 next to each other and I hit the 2-player button to get started. Too bad neither of us knew which crafts to pick to play with our preferred weapons! Even so, we just had a good time playing, and after a while my friend found the ship he wanted (Raiden mkII). I called it the Lavender Toothpaste Laser. I was actually looking for the Peppermint Mouthwash Laser of Destruction, but never found it! I had to settle for the lame Cinnamon Mints spread shot.

One thing that impressed my friend and I is just how long the missions were! We played for what felt like 5-8 minutes and beat multiple bosses, and only after repeated victories did it say that we were approaching mission 2. I had forgotten that each mission was made up of different parts. Playing the game reminded me of just how excellent the graphics and sound were in the Raiden Fighters series. The enemies are large, with very exciting explosions and a ton of medals to pick up all over as you rain destruction on your enemies. As we played, we enjoyed talking with each other and planning strategies as we took down enemies and bosses (poorly). After one of us would lose all our lives, we would have a great time flying up to their powerups to get the spoils of their defeat. It was hilarious! We did occasionally play well, and I liked strategizing on what to pick up for the weapons I wanted at the time. Protip: To earn extra street cred with your friend, make sure to put your jet between them and enemy bullets. It will cause your friend to thank you profusely when you die for them!

One last thing about this was that Raiden FIghters 2 had a graphical glitch as we played. There was a gray wavy vertical line of junk near the middle of the screen from top to bottom. It was about a quarter of an inch in width, but I think we could see through it, so it didn’t impact gameplay too much. Just know that not every game will play perfectly at Next Level. Most of them do, but usually there are 1-2 machines that have some flaws or are out for repair.

Next was Raiden Fighters 1, which we enjoyed, but we didn’t play as much as the sequel. Not because we disliked it. Far from it! Instead, it was just because we had so many options to choose from. Unfortunately, this made games feel a bit disposable. What I mean by that is if you become bored of a game at Next Level, you may not even bother finishing it and walk away. Besides, there’s probably another 100 games you’d like to play anyway! Of course, you may have a different perspective than that, but that was what I found in my own personal experience. I point it out just so you know that how you play games at Next Level may be different than how you play them at home. One other point to make is that because everything was on free play, the stress of actually playing well may not be as prevalent in your own mind. This is because you can just add another fake quarter when you need it! I felt like things were really casual because if I lost, I could just hit the start button again and continue on.

The next shmup we played was Gunbird, which was across from the Raiden Fighters titles. My friend and I also played this one with me. I chose Marion, the little anime witch girl, and my friend chose the big metal robot, Valnus. I had a good time with the game, and I know that I enjoyed it quite a bit. What I liked was the absurd characters at the end of the levels and their silly dialogs. Like before, we often remarked about what was happening on screen and had a good time doing so. I wanted to play it more, but I don’t think my friend liked it as much as Raiden. One thing that was a shame was that I don’t remember hearing the music easily while playing. That is one of the drawbacks of being in a large arcade space. There were a lot of noises everywhere which made many of the games difficult to hear.

Other Games Nearby (Darkstalkers, The Punisher, Heavy Barrel)

Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors was right next Raiden Fighters 1. I didn’t play it, but I had fond memories come to me when I saw it. I was a fan of the PlayStation version back in the day (I didn’t have a Sega Saturn at the time), with Felicia being my main. She was totally cool, and I still like her!

Anyway, a second reason why I am mentioning it is because I was a fan of the Anime OVA series that came out in the mid-nineties, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (Wikipedia). I had almost completely forgotten about it, but was stoked when seeing the arcade cabinet sparked my memory. I find the art design in it to be really impressive, with it doing a great job of showing the power and the strength of the different characters. The Japanese voice acting and the vivid color was also great! Finally, I want to share that one of my favorite moments from the show was from early on in episode 3. I will do my best to not spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but I really enjoy the instrumental music that plays while a couple of the characters are reflecting on humans and another main character. For those curious, here is a link to what I am talking about. The part I especially like is from 4:00 to 6:15, and just so you know, the scene doesn’t really spoil much of anything. I am just overly cautious when it comes to spoiling shows for others, even if it is from a nearly 30-year-old program. In preparation for referring to this scene, I also watched the English dub, but I think the voices are too loud in that version; they clash against the music a lot. I hope some people see this and give the show a chance. I was rather fond of it! Maybe I’ll watch it again someday?

Nearby was also The Punisher beat ’em up, which is a great addition to the arcade. I tried to see if my friend would play it, but he didn’t really want to. If you want to know more about it, and why it is an important release, please see The Electric Underground’s (TEU) video about it. Just to encourage you to click the link, I will say that Maxmilian Dood’s reaction to its announcement is shown prominently at the beginning of the video, as is Alien vs. Predator (another game available to play at Next Level). Another reason why I like it so much is because he does a real thorough analysis of gameplay mechanics when he discusses games, and highlights the title’s rolling mechanic and gun usage in a well thought out manner.

One game we did play was Heavy Barrel, which was exciting to see because Data East delisted it from Steam a couple years ago. As of this writing, the easiest way to get it is to buy a preowned version of Data East Arcade Classics on Wii (Wikipedia). Since I hadn’t played the game in years, it took a bit of time to figure out how to turn your character’s gun in the correct direction. You have to spin the top of the joystick to rotate where he is shooting. Once we got going, we had a good time, and I was excited to see how all the enemies change color and flip backwards when they die. I wanted to play more of it, but we only had so much time. It is a shame that emulating it is so difficult due to the control scheme.

Playing Some Gun Shooters (T2: Judgment Day, Halo: Fireteam Bravo, and Transformers: Shadows Rising)

My first real disappointment for the day came from Midway’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I really wanted to play this because I viewed it as a classic from back in the day, in the sense of it being exciting to read about in the magazines as a kid. I always thought it had extremely impressive looking graphics. Sadly, I wasn’t able to play it as a youngster, and playing it today was a real disappointment. Once we started, we both had issues aiming the gun, which was probably operator error on my part. My friend noticed that the gun’s aiming wasn’t the best; he had to aim a little away from where he expected his reticle to be. As you may know, the first level takes place in the future and you’re tasked with taking out a bunch of Terminator units. Basically, you’re trying to shoot the grenades they throw at you, or themselves. Unfortunately, the repetition of the sprites was obvious to us, which contributed to us becoming bored of it quickly. Sure, there were other enemy units that appeared as the stage progressed, but we walked away from it quickly. I think I would have rather played something else like the Time Crisis titles. Again, a disappointment.

Both my friend and I were were fans of Halo 1 and 2 on the original Xbox, and of course we enjoyed the multiplayer modes a ton! As such, when we saw Halo: Fireteam Bravo, we both wanted to give it a shot. It was pretty cool, with really high-quality graphics and lots of different vehicles and units making their appearance in the game. I enjoyed the smooth look of it all, with some quality animation with good fluidity of motion as I played. I did miss having free movement of your character, so the game was a bit limiting in that regard. Getting into the warthog in stage 1 was fun, although I was a bit disappointed in the over-reliance of the Banshee units at time. If I went back, I’d want to play it again some more, though!

One of the games I definitely wanted to try out was one of the sit-down Transformers arcade shooter games. Next Level had two of them, and the first I played was Transformers: Shadows Rising. I was immediately pleased that it seemed to be a side story to one of the Bayformers movies. I played through the East China stage. In it, I was going through a building and used a variety of weapons to attack Decepticons. The sound was great, and it felt like taking a part in a movie! I will say that I was frustrated in one aspect in that the enemies often transformed into cars, and I thought the Decepticons didn’t do that! Although, keep in mind that I have only seen the first two modern Transformers films. I have watched a good deal of the Transformers G1 cartoon. Essentially, it seemed like every enemy was a car, and that got really old fast! Plus, everyone seemed to have a silver paint job, which made me wish the game had more of a splash of color.

One unique gameplay mechanic was a sort of gear shifter in the middle of the console. There would often be Quick Time Events where a circle would move across the screen to the center. You’re supposed to move the gear shifter up or down at the appropriate time in accordance with what was shown on the screen. It was a gimmick, but also kind of neat, just to add a little bit of extra interactivity to the title. Additionally, sometimes Bumblebee or another Autobot would interact with you as you fired at the Decepticons. In such instances, the game would go into a slow-mo mode right before the enemy attacked. You would then see a string of circles where the attack was going to be coming from. If you were successful in shooting them, the Decepticon’s attack would be foiled by your actions. I thought that it was a pretty neat mechanic, and kept me on my toes.

By the time that I completed the level there were two more that I could play, but I wasn’t interested in watching a bunch of Decepticon cars in silver just continually come after me repeatedly, so I went on to something else. Before the day was over, I did end up playing one more shooter game, but that is near the bottom of this review.

Some More Two-Player Fun (The Real Ghostbusters, Micheal Jackson’s Moonwalker, and Ghosts ’n Goblins)

Our next set of games are some more two-player titles. The first is The Real Ghostbusters by Data East, a title that has only been ported to computers in European markets (Wikipedia). It was something that my friend was eager to show me because of the terrible shrieking sound effects that are heard often in the game. While playing, I was on the blue side with him on the yellow. Admittedly, one thing that was poorly done was the depth of color use, or lack thereof, at least in the first level. We just walked around, and tried to capture as many ghosts as we could. All the while we were looking for vertical slabs of concrete to take us to the next section of the level. These were not always easy to find since the color variation in the game was so poor. I know as a kid I was always impressed by the fact that this was a three-player game. Moreover, you had fast firing guns that would allow for a lot of shots to be on screen at once. That aspect was still satisfying today. However, once my friend pointed out the sound issues when trying to capture the ghosts, the noise was pretty terrible! Once I first heard it, I couldn’t unhear it, so to speak. I’d like to give it another shot in the future, but more to know what happens next and to find out if the color depth ever gets fixed. Not because I had a blast playing it.

The next game we played was Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, which I was really pleased to see. The arcade title is quite different from the SEGA Genesis game. In this one it’s multiple players at once, which is really cool! I will say that Moonwalker totally feels like a product of its time, and something that I doubt could be made today. I love the fact that Michael has his outfit from Smooth Criminal (Music Video), but with different color palettes. The tone of the game is a great fit for him in the late 80’s and early 90’s when he was incredibly cool and on top of the world of pop. One thing that did crack us up was the little cinemas between levels where MJ yells in his iconic way! It made us laugh a lot! Another thing we noticed was all the kids we rescued, which creeped us out because of the allegations that would come later.

About the game itself, I thought it was funny how actions in the level(s) seemed completely absurd and nonsensical. Robots would come on the screen out of nowhere and when Michael turned into an android we busted a gut! It was hilarious! Plus, why is he shooting lighting at everything, too? After about a couple of stages we stopped playing. I did actually like it some, but part of me also thought it seemed janky as well. I’d want to play it again.

Next, we found a number of different Capcom arcade games nearby. These included an aisle featuring a bunch of fighting games such as Mortal Kombat 1-4, and a lot of Capcom’s VS titles. In regard to Capcom’s classic releases, my friend played Ghouls ‘n Ghosts while I played Ghosts ‘n Goblins. We did an impromptu competition between the two of us where we’d see which could get the furthest without using any continues. He had trouble getting to the bridge after the vultures in the first stage. I honestly thought there’d be no way for me to win, especially since my game had Firebrand to deal with in the first stage. Then there were those enemies who flew up and down in the second part of the level. Luckily enough, I stayed away from Firebrand and was able to defeat him. I even made it past the gauntlet of flying enemies and beat the boss. It was the first time I had ever done so, and even with the holy water weapon! I did get a bit into stage 2, but eventually died. I actually had fun with the game, probably more so than I had ever had with the game in the past. I typically prefer its sequel. Even so, it makes me want to play the NES port on the NES Classic Edition, which is surprising. It was something I was not looking forward to playing! Now I am looking forward to comparing the NES version with the arcade release in the future.

Exploring More of the Arcade (Top Speed)

Near the end of the area that has fighters from Capcom, SNK, and Midway, there was some more old school driving games. One I had never heard of was Top Speed by Romstar. There was also Road Blaster, but I did not play it. Which is unfortunate because it was a favorite of mine on the Atari Lynx. I did play Top Speed and liked the graphical style which reminded me of Sega’s super scaler games. It has a different art style so that was kind of neat. I’m glad that the racing genre was well represented at the arcade. I’ll discuss more of the sit-down variety later in this post.

Around this time I saw Alien Vs Predator. Unfortunately, we didn’t play it, but I know it is a well regarded beat ‘em up. If you can understand the gameplay mechanics then it really opens up as an excellent title.

One welcome inclusion was the arcade version of Karnov. Whenever my childhood friends and I were kids, we enjoyed the NES game a lot. I am glad it is available on the Evercade with a recent release.

At this point we had been at the arcade probably for over an hour and a half, and whenever we planned this trip, four of us were going to meet up together. However, a couple were running late. Consequently, that is why two of us played together for much of the beginning of our time here. By this time, it was about 11:30 am and we were wondering what the other two were up to.

A Discussion on Looking for Other People When You Are Separated

Before coming to Next Level, you need to be aware that it is easily possible to become lost, and that you should be mindful of that. Even if you have your phones with you, you may not have cell service while inside. My friend did not have service, but I did, with T-Mobile. I was able to text with my phone but that didn’t help much. Since the place is so noisy and there are so many games around, it is very likely that the person you are trying to reach has his or her phone in a pocket or purse. As such, your friends will likely not respond to your calls or texts.

I know it sounds obvious, but to find people walk around the 6-7 large rooms of the facility until you find them. Keep in mind that they could be at the back of a room playing a pinball machine by themselves. Being so out of the way could make them difficult to find. Staying together in groups of 2 or 3 is a good idea. If you need to pick someone up and don’t have a wrist strap, ask an employee and he or she may be able to escort you around to find the person you are looking for.

Finding Our Other Friends (Star Wars)

Eventually, after about 10 minutes, we did find our two other friends. They were near the Star Wars arcade games that are close to the entrance of the building. I did not play the trilogy game as a kid. However, for a number of people it is quite nostalgic. I expect that for them, to play it again will be great to enjoy. Seeing it in action was really cool.

The game I knew I wanted to play was Star Wars Battle Pod. I will say that this was probably the most fun I had at the arcade. The game was just an impressive visceral experience! As an on rails shooter with impressive 3D graphics, it really made me feel like I was flying through scenes from the original trilogy! For example, the first level has you play out the ending of Episode IV while flying an X-wing, going into the trench, attacking Darth Vader and his two escort fighters, and firing the proton torpedoes into the exhaust port of the Death Star. I also got to hear Han Solo cheer after the success and see the Millennium Falcon fly by.

On the next level, I was on the ice planet of Hoth and had to protect the escort vessels leaving the planet. Sadly, I wasn’t successful, and one of the ships was destroyed by a Tie Interceptor. I do not know how much variation there is between the different levels with repeated plays, but the graphics and audio were just amazing and the control of your ships was great with the cabinet having sold me on the experience. It provided a real top-tier experience. This is especially the case if you’ve never played it before (like me). For those of you who are Star Wars fans, you’ve got to play it, hopefully as a two player experience. I easily had a very positive time with the game!

Coming off of Battle Pod, I then followed my other friend as he went to play some pinball. When I caught up with him, he was playing the Jurassic Park pinball game, and since he had just arrived, I wanted to stick around him for a bit. As such, I played the Star Wars pinball. This is actually one of many Star Wars themed pinball machines they had there. I thought it was quite good, even though I am no good at pinball. I liked that it had a little screen showing scenes or animations to indicate things that were happened in the game. Some examples included R2-D2 being referenced when there was a ball locked. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia were also shown depending on what was going on so that was pretty cool, too. I would want to play this one some more, but it actually gave me a mixed impression. The problem wasn’t with the game itself, but rather that I had discovered my favorite Star Wars pinball game last time I was here, which was Star Wars Trilogy. Because of this, the one described here isn’t as exciting as that one.

Another Star Wars-related item I saw was the Star Wars: Episode I pinball machine. I bring it up because it was not working at the time I was there. This is important to note because at least a few games will probably not be functional when you come. In fact, in the two times I have been here, there has always been at least one or two games not working when I’ve been on site. Hopefully an important game for you is not having a problem when/if you come here. For this time, the Star Wars: Episode I pinball game was out of service for repairs.

Playing Mario Kart Arcade GP DX

One of the other big highlights was playing Mario Kart Arcade GP DX. I played this three player with a couple of my friends. I wanted to play as Luigi, with others playing as Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Rosalina at various times. When you start the game, you choose your character and course. Since multiple people are making choices on what track to race on, the game will compare the different ones picked and make a decision between them. The game also takes your picture before each race. Along with that, you can pick various things to put on your picture such as a hat or mustache. Making your picture goofy is also an option (such as using a mirror image). This makes you easily identifiable whenever you’re racing against your friends.

Note that this was 4 players only max, even though the website says it is set up for 8 players. Actually, when I was there, it was two sets of 4. This may be a bit disappointing for those who are currently enjoying Super Mario Kart World with its 24 racers at once. Regardless, we all had a blast with about 5 races completed between us all. One thing that was cool was that with so many challenges between us three, all of us had an opportunity to shine, and I even won once. Oh and by the way, the force feedback in this title was really good and something that I enjoyed as well.

However, there were a few things I didn’t like. One was that you had to take your picture between every race, which quickly got old. Also, I am unsure if the game had Battle Mode either. Even so, I would definitely want to play this again. It was a real positive experience!

More Multiplayer Racing Games (Cruis’n Blast and The Fast and the Furious)

After Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, we played some Cruis’n Blast, which was the game that we had the most problems with. Even though there was three or four arcade cabinets linked up together, there was obviously some communication issues between them. The game allowed you to choose from different vehicles as one would expect, and most of us had fun with it. It was enjoyable to use the nitro or blast mechanic to race down the track, even though we only did one race. I was pleased when I got to the end of the course and was in first place! But I wasn’t?!

Imagine my surprise when I looked to my left and one of my other friends had already completed the course. Then we looked at the other friend’s screen and his machine was a complete choppy mess! He was still trying to race even though his machine was running like junk! The fact that he wasn’t done was amazing considering that he was normally the best at racing games! When looking at his screen, it was running at about 10 frames per second and he wasn’t going very fast. I could tell that he was getting really frustrated by it, which soured the whole experience we had with the title. We tried to help him with it for a couple of minutes, but then abandoned the game after that.

Another racer we played later in the day was The Fast and the Furious. Note: There are two different games related to this movie franchise. We played the one that only had two machines linked together. Another one has four units connected.

Anyway, after coming back from lunch two of my friends were playing this racing title. Unlike the previously mentioned game, it was functioning well and an enjoyable time was had by at least one of us (the one that kicked everyone else’s butt!). A cool thing about this game was that it featured a multitude of upgrades that could be applied before each race. Some of these are just cosmetic, while many of them are proper upgrades that improve top speed and the like. When I played it, the game didn’t really stand out. Yet, I had some fun with it, but I didn’t think it was exceptional. Much of my time was spent smashing into stuff on the side of the road. It seemed really difficult to control with my car spinning everywhere on the road. My fun was impacted by operator error, I think.

Using One of the Restrooms

At this point, I want to highlight something that I didn’t think I would care about, but I gotta mention it! The restrooms were super impressive here, and so I want to show them off. At this point I’ll just share a lot of photos of what one can find in the guy’s bathroom on the far side, or back of the museum.

At this bathroom there were graded copies of Sonic the Hedgehog comics. Since I was a SEGA kid, with us owning a SEGA Genesis (Mega Drive) during the Christmas season of 1989, I thought this was fabulous. As one would expect, there was also tons of memorabilia related to Super Mario.

There’s pictures of things everywhere, with the wall covered in video games and pulp culture memorabilia. These may be the aforementioned comics, or video game cartridges. Next to a water fountain was a cool image of Sonic, Tails, and more. On the Nintendo side, there was dozens of Super Mario Kart toys.

Even at the urinals you can pick your system! You can choose from PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation 3 or something else. Other gaming-related images include Donkey Kong, Nintendo Power magazine, Super Mario Bros 3, or the Game Cube.

I really like the wonderful SNES advertisement where it says, Eat, Sleep, Repeat. Check out the many photos to see more from this amazing (!) bathroom.

Going Out for Lunch (Five Guys Review)

At this point we needed to go to lunch, with three of us carpooling together. One of my friends had already eaten, so he didn’t come with us. He did say there was a pasta place (Love Pasta) which was right in the parking lot that had fair prices on food. If you want to know more about food options on site, please see this link.

We quickly decided to go to Five Guys because one of us really wanted to go there again. It was about about 6 miles away and took approximately 15 minutes to reach. One of the nice things about the drive was that there wasn’t a ton of turns in the route. Much of it was a lot of straight sections of road. Once we arrived we had almost no wait to place our order. Remarkably, after my first friend paid for his food, I looked behind us and there was over half a dozen people waiting! Because of this, I give my driver friend a very positive ratings for doing so well on getting us here quickly and before the rush started!

Concerning the menu, be aware that Five Guys has peanuts everywhere, so those who are allergic to them should stay far away from this place! You can have as much as you want. Beyond that, a lot of the menu items include burgers, cheeseburgers, double cheeseburgers with bacon, French fries of various sizes, hot dogs, and shakes.

With the french fries, be aware that the portions for them are huge! I bought a regular size and they come in a round cup filled all the way up, then for good measure, more fries are poured on top of those. The amount I received was enough for at least two people. I think if you are a family of four, two regular orders of fries should be enough for everyone. A large order may even be an appropriate amount for 2 adults and 2 kids if each of you have a modest amount. In regard to their texture and flavor, they’re thick cut, a bit greasy, salty, and taste good. 

For prices, the regular fries were about $6 and a double bacon cheeseburger was $10.99. I almost never pay for a drink at a restaurant, so a water cup was free. When you order you need to tell them the condiments you want on your food. Some of the options include,

• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Onion
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Green Peppers
• Pickles
• Ketchup
• Mustard

Know that you won’t have access to the condiments later so make sure to mention what you want up front. There was a ketchup dispenser with little cups to use at one end of the room. There was not a dispenser for mustard, or little packets for them. Although, I assume you could ask for the latter if you want (I didn’t).

I though the price of the food would be closer to $20, so to spend less than that for two significantly sized items was a reasonable deal to me. I would give the restaurant a very positive rating, and I would be happy to go there again if I am able.

Returning After Lunch

We returned to Next Level around 2:30 pm. At this point I walked around the building quite a bit. This was because the availability of parking wasn’t nearly as good as it was at the beginning. I did like that the outside does a great job of providing representative examples of what you’ll find inside. I recommend that if you have the opportunity that you walk around the building for a little bit of exercise. Hopefully it won’t be raining if/when you come!

Once I came back inside there was a bit of a line. To pass the time, I decided to take some more pictures of the different items that were located in the lobby. You can find some of them up above, as well as more of a description of what is in the lobby. One thing I didn’t point out last time is that they have signs saying that they are not responsible for accidents. On another wall, it speaks about no running as well.

The Other Bathroom

Before getting back to the video games, I wanted to use the restroom again, but this time the one that was closer to the entrance. Returning to the the pop culture concept, this one features famous 1950’s stars James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. As apposed to the previous one, this bathroom had more memorabilia related to American pop culture. I took some representative pictures such as of Superman, magazine covers, and images from popular TV shows and movies.

I thought it was pretty funny that at the baby changing table there was a Tiny Toon Adventures image (which is a great cartoon, by the way)! That put a smile on my face. The room also featured a number of films such as Braveheart, Beverly Hills Cop, National Lampoon Vacation, and much more. Many of the images would be things that are popular with teenagers. At the right of the sink I was excited to see signed photos of Wiliam Shatner as Captain Kirk, Anthony Daniels as C3PO, Kenny Baker as R2-D2, and also Clint Eastwood on the cover of a 1980’s Rolling Stone Magazine. That was fantastic!

Getting Back to Some Video Games (Tron, Tetris, Superman)

Having taken care of business, I wanted to play games on an individual basis before returning back to my friends. One of the first that I came across was the arcade game of Tron. As shown in the picture, there is a joystick with which you move your tank around. What is surprising about this game is that one of its levels is actually a tank maze game. It reminded me of Namco’s Battle City (Wikipedia), but much more difficult to control, with fewer enemies, and more walls to bump against! You use the joystick to move your tank forward or back and press a button to fire your weapon.

The interesting addition to the game is that there is a little dial on the cabinet that you use to rotate your turret. I tried the game multiple times, and frankly, I was a complete disaster at it! The little tank at the bottom left would come up to me and blow me to bits every time. Even when I turned my turret in advance, my aim was never good enough, or I wasn’t fast enough on the draw. He destroyed me every time! I think the most frustrating aspect was having to wait 10 seconds to play again between deaths. Eventually I just gave up on it. More info on it can be found at Wikipedia. Since I only played one of many game modes in it, I think I would try it again if I came back to Next Level.

Surprisingly, I played Tetris. It does play as one would expect. However, I was disappointed with one aspect of it. Namely the music! Due to all the noise around me, it wasn’t very easy to hear, so that was unfortunate. Additionally, I had difficulty playing the game with the joystick instead of a D-Pad, and it hampered my control of the game. Using the joystick make me feel like controlling the pieces was stiff. One thing I liked was how the game told me the number of lines I needed to go to the next level. For example it may start with 8 lines for the first level, 10 for the second, 12 for the third, so on. I played it for about 5 minutes and had a good time with it. Amazingly, it gave me hope that playing it on the Japanese SEGA Mega Drive Mini 1 may be funner than anticipated.

In this area there was also a Superman game, which was developed or published by Taito. What struck me about this game was that the kicking of the Man of Steel looked super wussy! It was like whenever he would kick he would just lift his leg up about halfway and stop. I thought it was funny, especially when he flew around. The punches were fine, but the kicks were just pathetic to me. Sadly, that animation took me out of the mood to play the game so I moved away from it rather quickly. I did enjoy the art style, though. Although, one last thing, when I looked at the attract sequence, I noticed that it was a two player simultaneous game, which was cool to see!

Not that I played it, but the Battletoads arcade game was here, too!

Single-Player Racers (Super Monaco GP and Radikal Bikers)

Near this area was a couple of other racers I wanted to play. One was Super Monaco GP, which I had played on the SEGA Genesis, but never at the arcade with the steering wheel. I was quite pleased with the super scalar graphics and the smoothness of the game, especially during turns. I was also impressed by the sense of speed. It seemed to be a game that would take some effort to learn.

Just a little over from it was Radikal Bikers. I only knew this from the unfinished Gameboy Color port that is available on Piko Collection 3 on the Evercade. Because it was one of the games I wanted to play most on it, I was curious to try the arcade original. Once I started it, I was honestly disappointed by the graphics. Yet, the character of the game still shined through! I liked how you could choose your character at the start of the game, and the animations when you lose were quite comical. When I saw those two aspects in the arcade game I was impressed that that those elements were incorporated into the portable game. I would want to play this again some more, and it is a good addition to the museum!

A Row of Classic Arcade Titles (Altered Beast, Pac-Man Plus, Metro-Cross)

Nearby I found an assortment of classic 1980’s arcade titles from all sorts of developers. Some notable ones include Capcom and Namco. It was good to see Final Fight present. Another was UN Squadron, also known as Area 88. I didn’t play either of them because I want to pick up the SNES port of the latter one in the future, and I have Final Fight on two different platforms.

One surprising inclusion was Altered Beast. I mean that in the sense of being shocked at how it appeared on an arcade cabinet monitor. It looked quite a bit different from what I had played on the Xbox 360 via the emulator (Altered Beast Review). The colors were much darker than what I remembered and it had an impressive look to it. The greens were quite bold and the sharpness of the pixels were a sight to behold. I felt compelled to give it a spin. I played the first two levels so I could fly around as the green weredragon (my favorite). I was also happy to check out a couple of the mid-level cinemas. I enjoyed it a good deal, but I think the big takeaway from it was that an arcade monitor can make a big difference in the perception of the art design and color of a title

Another developer well represented was Namco. Many of the cabinets at this part of the arcade were also on the Namco Museum releases for the PlayStation 1 (Wikipedia). I was curious about the inclusion of Pac-Man Plus. I played it a little bit to try and figure out what made it so “Plus.”. I think I noticed that some things were different than what I expected, but not enough for me to care too much. In the game’s defense, it had been a long time since I played the original arcade cabinet. Please see this Wikipedia article if you want to know about the differences between the regular and Plus versions of Pac-Man (of which there are several).

One other Namco game was Metro-Cross, a title produced in 1985 that I had never heard of before. To me, it seemed like it was an early runner where you control this chubby dude who’s running from left to right and needs to get to the end of an electronic looking area. While doing so, you jump over obstacles in the way, such as barrels, and use springboards. I played about 3 or 4 levels of it, so I got kinda into it! I thought it was old school arcade fun and I’d like to play it again. This highlights a major benefit of a place like Next Level; you can explore a wide assortment of games and literally go through a history lesson of video game cabinets and pinball machines while you’re here! I found the game enjoyable enough that I looked into buying it, and discovered it is an Arcade Archives release!

My Friend Really Liked This Game (Gauntlet Dark Legacy)

Through much of my time at Next Level, while I was playing some older retro games, there’s a good chance that one of my friends was playing Gauntlet Dark Legacy. It’s a polygonal Gauntlet game from 2000, and is a followup to Gauntlet Legends (Wikipedia). He really wanted to play this since he was quite nostalgic for Gauntlet Legends on the SEGA Dreamcast. Additionally, he saved a character saved two months prior, and wanted to continue with him, assuming it hadn’t been deleted. Thankfully, his character was still there!

I decided to join him a couple of times. Once I played as the jester, who I really didn’t like. The two main characters I used were the Dwarf and the Sorceress. Sadly, for the former, I didn’t enter my initials so my progress for him wasn’t saved. The way saving works is you associate a character with your initials, and then enter a short password. Each are three letters in length. I did save my Sorceress character. Once I picked her my friend busted a gut because the way she walked was so funny!

Anyway, I went through the majority of a couple sets of levels with him, facing off against two of the bosses. One thing I really enjoyed was our chatting as we played. Doing so reminded me of classic couch co-op gameplay. As we journeyed through the levels, we would work together to decide on routes to take, what keys to use for certain doors, when to use magic, and the like. Since I was unfamiliar with the game I “successfully” walked by keys and items when I first started playing. It was quite funny!

I consider Gauntlet games from this time period to be kind of mindless fun, and I enjoyed myself with this one. The graphics were about SEGA Dreamcast quality. Since my friend was a fan of the game, he also gave me strategies on dealing with death, beating bosses, and what items to use in the shop between levels. Here’s a couple tips for readers:

• First, don’t be a jerk and take the item from  a chest after someone else has used their key to open it.
• Second, there are specific items in the shop that permanently upgrade your character. Focus on those instead of spending gold on items that are just temporary power ups.
• Finally, it was funny to spam bosses with you attacks since the game was set to free play. Just hit your player start button to add more to your health!

Hopefully I will be able to play the game again in the future. It is fun with multiplayer. By the way, the cabinet at Next Level is a 4-player version, with Gauntlet II right next to it for more retro fun!

A Few Other Multiplayer Games (GI Joe, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, and Super Off Road)

One of the multiplayer games I definitely wanted to play was GI Joe: A Real American Hero. As is the case with many games here, it has not been ported to home consoles (as of this writing). I played it in 2-player mode with my friend choosing Scarlet and I choosing Snake Eyes. Surprisingly, this game reminds me of Operation Wolf, but you are able to see your character and you don’t use a gun controller. We had a regular attack and a special weapon. In the two stages we played, we were running toward the enemy base to face a boss at the end.

One thing I appreciated about it was that it felt a lot like the TV show with the good guys blasting away at the enemies. Another distinctive aspect is just how much this game looks like a super scaler title, which I wasn’t really expecting. Remarkably, my friend noticed that the normal enemies don’t use their guns! This was stunning considering just how much the bad guys fire their weapons on the show! Of course, their aim was atrocious, but I would still expect them to shoot at you in the game! I think the main enemies that actually fire at you are the bosses who shot grenades or rockets at you. Maybe that changes later in the game. From what we saw, it was like all they were doing was running up to you so they can stab you with a knife or beat you with their gun, which is hilarious! Overall, I liked it quite a bit, I would want to play it again in the future. The fact that the good guys say “Yo Joe!” when you come back after losing a life is a real joy! I recommend playing it.

As we were coming to the end of our time one of my friends asked me if I wanted to play anything else before leaving. One clear choice was Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. Like GI Joe, it has (sadly) never been ported to home consoles. Next Level has a four-player cabinet and it was a really impressive game. I played as Goah the giant with Gilius Thunderhead on his back. My friend played Dora the super cool centaur.

I was really pleased with the color depth and the animation of the characters. Sprites were large and expressive as well, with cool little details present often. Although I didn’t get to see the impressive full-screen magic attacks, I did like the scaling that is featured when you walk into the background to go to a new area near the beginning of the game. I would definitely want to play this again, but try out different characters as well.

Another multiplayer game I tried was Super Off Road. This one I played with my racing-fan friend prior to us going to lunch. I’ve always been impressed with the animation in this series, with an excellent feeling of physics as you use nitro over obstacles and drive around the hilly paths around the stages! The cabinet at Next Level was for at least three players, and it was fun to play, but also extremely frustrating. I had a difficult time steering with the wheel so I made a bunch of bad turns as I smashed into walls and went in reverse. Still, my respect for the series stays true and I was glad to play it. I think I would need to practice it a lot to get good at it, though.

Having Fun With Fighting Games (King of Fighters ’98 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2)

Near the classic arcade games and the fighting titles, there was also a few SNK cabinets around. Some of these included King of Fighters ’94 (KOF ’94), Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, Samurai Showdown II, and King of Fighters ’98 (KOF ’98). I have fond memories of KOF ’94 since it was one of the first fighters that made me look at SNK as an important developer of fighters. Along with Samurai Showdown 1 on Genesis, of course.

I eventually played KOF ’98 with a friend. I had intended to just fight against the CPU as Kyo, Terry, and someone else, but my friend jumped in instead. Sadly, it wasn’t an even match and once I stopped attacking my friend walked away from the machine because he noticed I wasn’t fighting back anymore. I wanted to let Kyo lose so I could play as Terry, but wasn’t able do so. It was harder to pull off Kyo’s moves than I remember. I think it was because I wasn’t used to playing with a joystick anymore. Still, it was quite fun and I was glad that we were able to hear the game this time, which wasn’t always the case. Back in the day, the version I played was the SEGA Dreamcast version. Here’s a link to the SEGA Dreamcast Intro uploaded by iPlaySEGA.

The other main fighter we played in this area was Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Frankly, both my friend and knew little about it other than it looked cool and I think he had played it once before a couple months ago. I had never played it, but I was aware that it is one of the most important fighting games ever. I played as Mega Man, Chun Li, and Wolverine. My friend chose the biggest characters around, with Amingo and Tron Bonne, along with one other character. The great thing about this was that we even though we were bad at the game, we still had a blast playing it!

For me, I had forgotten that the game does away with the six-button control scheme of more traditional Street Fighter games (I didn’t look at the buttons closely enough, obviously). Anyway, since I used to rely on heavy attacks a lot in Street Fighter 2, imagine my hysterical surprise when I was playing as Mega Man but Chun Li was jumping all over the screen repeatedly! Plus, my friend would just be mashing buttons and doing the most absurd things with his huge characters! Sure, neither of us had a lot of skill, but we had a good time, and that was great for both us! Playing it was one of my most fond memories from Next Level, and I am glad it is easily buyable again now on Steam.

Just for fun, here are some more pictures of fighting games that were at Next Level:

A Discussion on What You May Feel Like After Hours of Gaming

At this point I had been at Next Level for about five hours so far. I bring that up because even though playing video games and pinball machines is fun, it’s important to know that doing so for such a long period of time may have some short-term negative consequences as well.

Potential examples include eye strain from looking at lots of monitors all day. Stress on the neck and back due to poor ergonomics. Tired hands, fingers, and wrists because of repetitive motions hundreds of times throughout the day. It may sound a bit silly, but smashing buttons with fingers for hours can get tiresome, especially for older games that don’t use turbo fire much (such as Time Pilot). Finally, people who are sensitive to a lot of sensory stimulation may also find Next Level to be stressful. Not because people are intentionally rude or irritating, but since the place has so much to see and do, with sights, sounds, and people everywhere all the time. As such, be mindful of your personal triggers or tolerance levels if you decide to come here.

Of course, a lot of the above may not apply to you specifically. However, I felt compelled to mention these things. Of course, none of the above is any medical advice on my part. I just want everyone to have an enjoyable, safe experience. Oh, and try and be alert and aware of your surroundings while here. It is possible to hurt yourself while on site. Likewise, no running is allowed on site. Next Level is not liable for any injuries that may occur.

A Few Rounds of Pinball

I did play a few games of pinball while I was at Next Level. Instead of spacing out all my experiences throughout the post, I thought it would be easiest to just mention them most of them in one place. Just be aware that I am not a pinball enthusiast so I will be describing them from the perspective of a novice.

The first one I played was Transformers: The Movie. I liked the audio clips that were taken from various scenes in the movie, with Optimus Prime and other characters talking as I was playing. It was pretty cool! However, I was confused by the different things I had to do to complete the objectives.

Next was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Stern). I had a better time playing years ago than now. What frustrated me about it was that I had a hard time hearing the music and the little sound clips. Having too much noise nearby definitely dampened my fun. I remember really liking the spinning pizza near the middle of the playfield last time. I didn’t play the Data East Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine that was nearby.

I also played the Dirty Harry and Doctor Who tables. I like the former with the handgun being used to shoot the ball onto the playfield. Plus, it has a number of sound clips from the movie and moments from the film are referenced in the design of the table. I really liked those aspects, and had a good time with this one.

My favorite pinball machine is Doctor Who. While I haven’t watched much of the modern Doctor Who, I’ve enjoyed many stories from the original show with the first Doctor, William Hartnell. I have a lot of fun with this table, with various sound files from the show, images of many of the early doctors, and with a board design that doesn’t feel like it is designed to defeat me all the time. I also liked that the progression in the game, as it made sense to me, and it was easy to understand what I was supposed to do next. I got a real kick out of it when the Daleks showed up. I hope to be able to play it again someday!

With Super Mario Bros, I find this one to be a real frustration. It has an easy to hit part where if you knock a ball into a certain place it will just come back down and you’ll be drained in quick order. I don’t like that about the T2 pinball machine as well. Still, I want to like it because the art design is fitting with the source material and the sound effects are great. It looks like playing Super Mario World, which was very cool! It also has tons of flashing lights which was a bit distracting for me.

Previously, I also played the Street Fighter II pinball machine. I consider this to be a kind of bad game, but I did like the sound effects and that you can beat up the car with your ball like in the first bonus stage of the arcade game. I didn’t bother playing it this time.

They also had a Spy Hunter table, but I don’t have anything to say about it. I wanted to try it again but didn’t do so. I think the artistic design is fabulous, though!

The last notable game I played was Attack From Mars. I chose it based on the recommendation of a friend at work. I thought it was a great table, with quality 1950’s style sound effects. Plus, smashing the UFO with the ball was a lot of fun! This was one of the last things I tried before leaving, and it was at least the 2nd best table I played while I was there.

By the way, I also played Star Wars Pinball. Click the link to go up to it in this post.

At this point, I want to mention something else. That being that there were a number of pinheads that were crowded around a specific machine for much of the day. I think there were about 8 of them, with many reacting as people would play the table in question. I thought it was cool how they were all so into it and having a good time together. It just reminded me of how video games, or pinball for that matter, can be a healthy source of fun with friends!

Our Last Couple of Games (Time Pilot and Transformers: Human Alliance)

At the end of our fun, I wanted to play a couple more games before leaving, The most important of which was Time Pilot by Konami. It is one of my favorite games from the mid-1980’s! Once I started, I saw that the top score wasn’t too huge, so I thought,”I can beat that!” I played the game a few times, and was reminded why I like it so much! The control is on point and precise, and the way the waves of enemies come to you is systematic and somewhat predictable.

As such, when you improve at the game, you can develop really good muscle memory and swerve your jet easily to make bullets shoot out at a good spread which is effective in taking out a bunch of enemies at once. Plus, the sound effects are just great! Sadly, I was pretty tired at this point and my hands and fingers started cramping slightly as I played the game repeatedly. Also, the game doesn’t have pure turbo fire. If you press the fire button once a few shots will fly out, but then it will stop firing. You have to keep pressing the button to keep the pressure on the enemy. Anyway, I wasn’t able to beat the prior player’s top score, but I came close; within 1000 points actually! Playing it made me want to own the game in the future, but shockingly enough, it isn’t available on Steam. On the other hand, it can still be bought on the Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Sony PlayStation.

After that, the last title I played was Transformers: Human Alliance. This was a lot like the previous Transformers game that I played earlier at the museum. Like in my section on the gun shooters, I had one of my friends with me to play. We were both worn out by this point so we didn’t feel compelled to play it for very long.

I will say that I do get tired of when these games swarm you with a ton of little small enemies. They popped up quickly in our playthrough, which was irritating. Like the other title, there were moments where we had to shoot a string of targets to block an enemy attack and the like. The most distinctive part was when my friend and I had to hit a center button in unison to do a combined attack or action. Remarkably, this was actually a test of our friendship, because once we did that we completed the level and were told that our friendship level was 76%! It’s great to know that this game is so advanced that it knows about the friendships of the people who are playing! Even today, this is an inside joke between the two of us. Maybe someday we’ll play here again so our friendship level can get to something better, at least 80%.

After this we gladly walked out of there and went our separate ways for the day. It was a lot of fun, but it has taken almost two months to write this post about my experience! Even so, I am glad I came again.

Conclusion

All in all, Next Level Pinball Shop & Museum was a lot of fun and a great place to spend the day for fans of video games and/or pinball machines. The location isn’t too difficult to reach for those in the Portland metro area, and the hours and price are reasonable. There’s an ample amount of parking and the museum has a lot of games to see and play. I’d personally recommend going to it with a group so that you and your friends and family can enjoy the time together and build shared memories among yourselves. The game selection is amazing, with a wide variety of titles from the 1980’s all the way up to the early 2000’s.

As I shared earlier in this review, one of the greatest strengths of a place like this is being able to see a ton of gaming history under one roof. The occasional thematic assortment of cabinets helps with this, and thanks to the helpful staff, finding that key game you want to play isn’t that hard! Just be aware that your time at Next Level may not be as amazing as you initially hope due to a few machines being broken, or you may just become a bit tired after playing for so long! Even so, this arcade is amazing, and it deserves nothing less than a Very Positive rating!

Title: Next Level Pinball Shop & Museum
Genre: Various
Year Released: Various
Developer: Various
Played At: 1458 NE 25th Ave, Hillsboro, OR 97124
Price Paid: $23

Remember, we can have different opinions about the games we play. If you like something more (or less) than I do, both of our perspectives are valid.