Arcade Review #6: Game-INN Waregem

After a short trip of about 2 hours I finally arrived in Waregem for the last (or not?) arcade in Flanders that does not work according to a pay per play system, but with free play. When it comes to arcades, there is a real deadzone between the coast and Antwerp/Brussels. Gamestate in Ghent and the Game-INN are, as far as I know, the only 2 arcades in this region. For context, I was here on a Friday evening in late May with a buddy who lives nearby and my girlfriend while the weather was fantastic. So we were the only 3 visitors that day. Unfortunately we only had 2 hours, but ok, we made the best of it.

My first impression, this is really typically Belgian. Take a look at the building on Google Maps. Koterij 💯. The fact that the entrance is on the side of the building makes it complete. We were welcomed by a very friendly student worker for whom I needed subtitles. Luckily my buddy understood what this person was saying. You register under a certain name and from then on the clock starts running. Personally, I find it a bit annoying that you have to keep an eye on the time yourself if you want to stay within a certain budget. The price is €15 for 1 hour, €25 for 2 hours or €30 for unlimited gaming from opening to closing. The logical option here is of course the €30 for unlimited, but unfortunately there was no time for that today. The price for children and students was €5 lower, except for the "1-hour" option, which was €13 instead of €15.

Arcade?

After we had walked quietly through the long Belgian school, we split up. I dropped my girlfriend off to the rhythm games while my buddy and I went to try out the shooters. At the very back you will find House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn… or yes, an emulator version I think, because those are not the guns that come with it and normally that is a cabinet that you have to sit in. Oh well, it did play, although there was some noticeable lag here and there from the emulator. Right next to this was a Time Crisis 3… or at least the mangled carcass of what was once a great game… I hope that one or both projectors or the motherboard gave up the ghost and replacement was too difficult or impossible, after which the cabinet was transformed into a Jurassic Park emulator on the left and Terminator emulator on the right with a partition between the screens. They have frankensteined an extra gun on either side so that you can play both games with 2 players at the same time. I’m going to be honest, I haven’t touched them. I am a big fan of the Time Crisis series and this was really painful for me to watch. What makes it extra painful for me is that I can see on older photos that it was still in working condition at the end of 2024. There was also Gunblade next to it and it seemed real to me, the rumble in the guns worked very well, an amusing game. Fun fact: this box works, just like the Terminator 2, with an X and a Y axis for aiming, so it doesn’t matter whether it is a CRT or LED screen.

Console gaming:

After this I went to check on my friend and found her sitting on the couch in front of a Steam screen while trying to set up Tekken 8. She said she wanted to play a certain rhythm game at first, but couldn’t get it to work, so she started playing Tekken. However, she couldn’t turn it on either because there was apparently something wrong with the screen settings. I went to get the guy at the front who brought out the smallest keyboard I had ever seen and immediately solved the problem. I looked up what kind of keyboard that was and found it AliExpress. I started to have some reservations… Furthermore, there was also a Switch and a Playstation emulator in this room and some gaming stations that I didn’t take a closer look at. The seats and chairs were comfortable, I have to give them that.

Rhythm games?

Then let’s take a look at those famous rhythm games with my buddy. All the big names are there… sort of… Popnmusic, Groove Coaster, Taiko, Project Sekai, Tetote, Guitar Hero-esque game… But if you know anything about these games, you immediately feel that something strange is going on. And if you take a closer look, you will see that they are all emulators and there is a small keyboard from AliExpress everywhere. But, you may say, the controls seem real, don’t they? Yes… but no, hear me out. All the rhythm games here are emulators (except the dancerush dance floor) and the controllers are all 3rd party GAMO-controllers. Now, these aren’t that cheap, especially if you have to import them from America… but still. It seems to me that you can somehow log into some of these consoles to keep track of your scores if you have an e-amusement card as I saw lockers for it. Well, just trying to get it started was easier with some games than with others. Popnmusic and Taiko played quite well so we didn’t notice too much about the fact that they are emulators. However, we could not get Project Diva (or was it Sekai?) that was in the left corner to work. I also have to say now, some of the games just didn’t seem to work when we were there either. It could be that they were just not on but I don’t think that was the case. There were also headphones hanging around in case you wanted to listen carefully to the sound of your own playing, but some of them were clearly past their prime. There was also a Dancerush, a nice dance game but not really one’s thing, this was of course an original machine.

From the rest:

Then go to the front part of the room where there are some racing games and vintage arcade cabinets. Someone who even takes one look at this one "vintage" However, Kast immediately sees that they are clearly emulators, so we ignore them. They have 4 original arcade games here! A Harley-Davidson racing motorcycle game. A kind of flying bike game that I have encountered before in the arcade museum in the Netherlands (quite fun). A Star Wars Pod Racer (nice thing, works pretty well) and some kind of skiing game. I don’t know anything about skiing myself, so I put my buddy on it. He thought it was funny, but the controls were quite stiff at times. There were also a few sim racers lined up. We tried 2 of these where the aim of the game was to ram each other (and the NPCs) as hard as possible. It worked quite well and was quite fun to play. Finally, they had VR games before. We didn’t try them ourselves, but I saw that they had a VR set linked to a Steam library so I knew roughly what to expect. You’re either for it or not, but bon. Apparently there was another room upstairs with some gaming PCs, but I wasn’t interested in that at all. Then I can just as easily sit at home behind my own gaming PC.

Conclusion:

I looked at my clock and saw that it was almost 2 hours. Quickly go to the front to pay, the clock was stopped at 1.58 hours of gaming, which resulted in €25 for the man. Now, I wonder what would have happened if we had been there for 2.05 hours now. Were we charged the unlimited rate? I’ll never know for sure. As you may have noticed from the tone of my review, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with my experience here. I’ll be honest, I expect a bit more from a place that charges €30 for an evening of unlimited gaming than a lot of emulators and a €4 keyboard from China. Is this a nice thing for people who don’t know any better and children? Probably yes. What I have noticed from all my arcade visits is that children (and especially the youngest ones) when given the choice between an arcade cabinet from the ’90s, ’00s, ’10s or a PS5/Switch/large TV/gaming PC, they always choose the latter. So yes, the little ones will certainly have fun here, but I think anyone over 20 will quickly see through this. Look, I can understand that you have emulators, the original ones are expensive, some of them anyway. But to have a business that you describe as an arcade/arcade, that is almost completely full of emulators and then charges an entrance fee that is much higher than that of the 2 free play arcades in Limburg, no, I don’t think that’s okay. Certainly not if you have been open for a few years and should have already made some profit to purchase some real machines. If you live nearby with some children, an annual subscription may be worthwhile as it amounts to €120 for a child and €140 for an adult. But if you just want to play some arcade games… then drive further to Atom City in Lille for the real rhythm games or drive to Ostend and go to the Reflex or maybe even Gamestate in Ghent… although I don’t dare say anything about the latter as I haven’t been there yet. (Supposedly it would be less disappointing than the one in Antwerp, but oh well.) Up front you have a very nicely decorated cafeteria with board games, which can be fun for an evening with friends. I assume you don’t have to pay an entrance fee for that. To be honest, I didn’t even look at their second floor as I assumed that there are only PCs and gaming consoles there. If someone were to say that this is not the case (which cannot be deduced from their site) then I will drop by for an hour to adjust my review, but I have my doubts about it.

Final score:

All in all, I’m going to give this case a 6.5/10. And that’s a generous score that they mainly owe to their non-arcade games. My girlfriend was happy that she could play Tekken 8 and my buddy also had fun and I can imagine that young children could certainly have a lot of fun here. However, if you are a true arcade enthusiast, this place will hurt your heart and leave you wanting. For me, that Time Crisis 3 cabinet especially hurts, may your soul rest in peace buddy.

For more information about this case, please visit their website: https://game-inn.be/

Next reviews:

This will come as no surprise to those who paid close attention at the beginning of this review, but a 4th business has recently been added in Flanders with a free play concept: Continue in Nederokkerzeel! I think I’ll try to visit here with another buddy very soon. At first glance it looks very good. I also have to go to Atom City in Lille to take some pictures. I’ve been there a few times now but keep forgetting about it as it’s a really cool place (and I’m making a deal to buy 4 machines for another arcade but maybe more on that later this year!)

Previous reviews:

Gamestate (Antwerp): 3/10 https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/1o3vu9r/arcade_review_gamestate_antwerpen/

The Zone (Pole): 8.5/10 https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/1oi6dvp/arcade_review_the_zone_paal/

National Video Game Museum (Zoetermeer NL): 9.9/10 https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/1owte4l/arcade_review_on_tour_nationaal_videogame_museum/

Free Play (Lanaken): 8.5/10 https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/1pq06jg/arcade_review_4_free_play_lanaken/

Dutch Pinball Museum (Rotterdam): 9.9/10 https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/1sld2xc/arcade_review_5_dutch_pinball_museum/