Pretty damn cool. This is the first time that I've ever been in a place that caters exclusively to old and new school gamers. I've only been there once, but I was impressed.
Not too hot on booze or energy drinks lately, but they have a bar, and afaik bottomless energy drinks if you want. Good pub fare is available.
There are a lot of arcade machines there. Place is lined with big flatscreen TVs, each one surrounded by cushy couches, so it pretty much simulates the console gamer living room. They've got a catalog of games you can request for any machine ranging from snes to the modern gaming machines. Just pick a game from the list, and they'll come over and load it into the consoles locked into the wall, and give you a couple of controllers. Come by with a group of friends and chill out for however long. I think there's a membership fee involved, but it's nothing staggering. I can't remember specifically as I was only there one night as a guest to a family member who lives in town.
While I wouldn't want to get started on some kind of super-involved rpg, I think it's fun to kill a couple hours playing some old-school classics like mariokart etc.
A barcade isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, and I wouldn't call it a regular destination by any means, but it scores major points for being unique and relaxing if you want an evening out with drinks, but you don't feel like shaking your money-maker on a dance floor.
This place is as WOOHOO as it gets. I am pregnant, and now do not have to feel ashamed to go out to the bar CUZ I CANZ ORDER CEREALZ Â at this place, and sit wit mah fwendz. They can booz, I can cereals, we all get our game on and get da fuk outta da house. You can't beat this place, seriously! The seating is nice and koozy, the games are spaced out well, Â the ambiance isn't seedy bar gross, it's chillin at a friends place drinkin', snackin', and gamin'. I will not let this place go under, and I refuse to go back into... uh... what's it called? "The other barcade"... Level Up? Yeah, doesn't compare. Shoryuken League make me happy inside, which makes me smile of course!
Review Source:I like to joke about the series of theme bars I'd like to open. Â The one I always used to bring up was a "barcade". Â I thought I was particularly clever coming up with this. Â But then I move to Eugene and there are two. Â Everyone calls them Barcades. Â Damn. Â I'm one of those people now.
The set-up here, though, is what I've always dreamed of. Â While there are a number of old-style arcade games, there are also large flat screens against the wall with tables and consoles. Â You can request a game and console and the kind folks here will set it up. Â This is a fantastic way to come with friends and enjoy, you know, socializing, which is why I, at least, go out for drinks anyways. Â It's not just a bar and an arcade; they are excellently integrated.
Drinks are cheap, but I haven't tried the food. Â Getting food seems awkward unless you are sitting at the bar. Â But I imagine it's hard to get food and constantly move around the place, which is how I've acted when here.
Reserving one star because I think there remain some business-related kinks.
First time in, had a great time. They offer two game-play options: $5 a day or $15 per month, all games unlimited play. They offer a wide assortment of games on NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.
The center of the place has a few support beams/power poles around which arcade games are clustered (just like the retro arcades of yore). Along the outer walls are tables, comfortable chairs, and many flat screen HDTVs on which you can play all of the console game systems mentioned above. On the sides of arcade cabinets, they've mounted drink holders and paper towel dispensers for wiping the grease off your paws.
Their menu is super-charged, deep-fried bar fare, consisting of massive chicken strips, butterfly shrimp and battered fish. You can group them together in combos, add on some tasty-sounding extras, top it off with an assortment of spices and finish it with a slew of sauce choices. Everything a couch potato needs.
...oh, but I didn't mention booze. They have a full bar, so relax. They've thought of everything (except vegetables, unfortunately).
Bottomless soda and energy drinks round out the menu.
I stuck with water during my visit, and was pleased to find it had been well-filtered. So frequently restaurant water seems to taste like they filled your glass straight from a garden hose, so it was great to taste crisp, clean water.
Bottom line: I love the concept and the people who work there were great. There does seem to be a few bugs to work out, but Shoryuken League is new, so I have little doubt it will take them very long to smooth out what few creases they currently have.
For instance, their game list is in one book up at the bar, and it's listed by game system. Half the time I can't remember what the game system was for the game I'm thinking of. It'd be nice if they offered the list by game title as well.
They should also have books at every console station, and some way to signal to the staff that your table is ready to switch titles. Maybe even give each table a way to assemble a list of games they want to play, so the staff can just come up when requested, check with the players, look at their list and go retrieve their next game. As it now, the players have to abandon their table (and keep ahold of their controller so they can get their IDs back at the end of the night), go wait for the bartender to not be busy with customers, make their request, switch controllers out if necessary, and then go back to playing.
But, really, this is just nit-picking now. You'll notice I rated them 4 out of 5 stars, and that's for good reason. The place is clean, fun, has great atmosphere, an easily-approachable staff and delicious eats. I'll go back again and again. And next time, I'm bringing friends.
Entrance into Shoryuken League is $5 per visit, or you can pay $15 for entrance for the month. It opens around noon, and is open to minors until 5pm. Then the bar opens.
Once you get through the doors the games are free. They have about 12 or 13 arcade cabinets. They are all in excellent working condition. I cannot stress enough on how important this is to me when playing games at an arcade. No sticky buttons, no limp joysticks. Everything works great. Some cabinets are dedicated to one game, others get a new game daily. They have any fighting game you could ever want, and if they don't have it they will try to get it. Three of the machines are 4-player cabinets so there are three different 4-player games each day. I love it!
Along the walls on both sides of this establishment are HDTVs. All equipped with gaming consoles. They have games to choose from in stock, or you can bring your own. The variety ranges from old to new. NES up to current generation gaming.
The last bit to address is their menu, which is, I think, a work in progress. That being said, they have really great prices on beer. $3 micro brew pints! I don't know of any places that have that price, unless it's some happy hour or some nonsense. Then again I don't go out that often to drink.
The food is also pretty decent, though there is not a lot to choose from. Typical fried bar food I'd say. Everything is affordable, and this is good.
Quick overview
$5 dollar entrace or $15 monthly membership
open to minors until 5pm
free games once inside
nice variety of games that are in GREAT condition
cheap beer! or sodas for like lil ones. and cheap, tasty food
ps I love this place and plan on being there a lot.
I checked this place out last night with a few friends and it was pretty awesome. I've always sucked at video games so the idea of going to a barcade always turns me off a bit, who wants to pay $0.50 to lose in 5 seconds? But since you pay $5 and have unlimited free play here, you can try as many games as you like as many times as you like and not feel like you are wasting money.
There are a ridiculous number of big TVs set up all around to play Xbox 360 and PS3 games, and if you want to play something that they don't have they will get it for you as soon as they can. Seriously, I wanted to play Castle Crashers (from the Xbox Live Arcade) so they bought it and set it up in about 5 minutes for us to play.
The staff are all extremely friendly, you can tell that they really want this to be the perfect place for gamers to hang out. They have a decent selection of beers on tap, and they are very open to new ideas for what to put on tap/buy in bottles. Plus the beers are only $3! The food selection looked pretty good (and reasonably priced) and the menu made me giggle. I only got to try the sweet potato tots (with cajun seasonings) but they were delicious!
So even if you aren't a big gamer, I would definitely suggest giving this place a try. Good times were had by all.
So, $5 bucks a day and $15 a month (per person) to play literally all the video games you want until the roof falls off in a barcade that puts the ARCADE in barcade, vs. putting the BAR in it, if you take my meaning. Well, what can I say. I find myself trying not to sound too dumb  in describing a place I know to be first-rate, and guaranteed to drive  the hardcore video gaming fanbase into what my husband would term "nerdgasm," basically because the experts I treated to an evening out here last night vehemently proclaimed it to be so.
See, my hands-on video gaming experience amounts to playing halfway through the original Zelda in my mid-20s on a PC emulator, and abandoning that enterprise in despair & disgust after saving over the file a couple of weeks in -- and, prior to that, repeatedly falling down that first pit in the original NES Mario, usually in an unsuccessful effort to pursue that first mushroom just seconds into Level 1-1 Â when my little brother and his friends would grudgingly let me take my "one turn" per day since I was the girl.
Which kind of tramatized me for life against playing video games myself.
But I will and do watch other people play them, LOL, so the advent of the so-called "barcade" was a delight for someone like myself. Eat and drink WHILE you watch other people play them instead of just standing there looking like an idiot! And to people like my husband and his friends, who define entire epochs of their young lives as having been spent hanging out with friends in arcades or hunkering down at home with video games, Shoryuken League's like dying and going to heaven.
It was great fun watching people who play video games, in particular my little crew of course, having so much unbridled fun at a place upon which they heaped such enthusiastic commentary. Every single person there seemed to be having the time of their lives too. Although I would bet you money that, in particular on Beta Night, I was the only person in attendance who doesn't actually play video games.
Even if the only video games you can recognize at a glance are Duck Hunt, the original NES Mario and Pacman .... If you thought those thingies people stand up at to play games in an arcade were called "consoles" because obviously people play video games on "consoles," right? (unless they were pinball games) until, um, well, yesterday .... Still, do yourself a favor and take the gamer(s) in your life down to Shoryuken League anyways.
They're gonna love this place.
Not to mention, do you know how much money you're going to save at an arcade if you take the gamers in your life, be they kids, friends or husband, out to a place where for $5 they can hit a red button marked FREE on all the arcade games and play over and over and over again? Without you shelling out a single quarter? (It's all ages until 5:30 I believe .... That's when the bar opens up, anyway).
The food's tasty if simple fare that's cheaper than at the local competition and the drinks are strong. If your idea of 3D gaming is sipping on double vodka-and-crans until the NES Duck Hunt you're watching your friends or husband play starts  ~turning~ 3D, that's important.
I invite any person with a more detailed "geek-based" knowledge of why  Shoryuken League is awesome to review it here in more meaningful color than I'm going to be able to provide here, LOL.
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