One star because no one answers and no info online saying if it is open during covid

We had a lot of fun and the staff working here is very friendly. We had 700 tickets, but we could choose something worth 1000, which was a very nice gesture.The reason this arcade get’s 3 stars is because it has lost it’s glory and is in desperate need of a makeover. Lot’s of machines are out of order and the working ones are very old or in bad condition.Nevertheless we still had loads of fun!

Crowded and noisy like all gaming arcades but good option for people with kids. Saw many families playing with kids and having a good time. Price wise too, its reasonable

Loved Arcade, Santa Monica Marathon, the Beach ...it was. Great day for my Kids and I !!!

I love this place good enough to have great fun

Skee-ball and Street Fighter, the making for a good night. Enter through the back to avoid the pier crowds. Avoid weekends. Hand-off your tickets to the kids for bigs smiles.

This is a really fun place to hang out at.

Fun but really needs an update

Best arcade ever. My autistic friend Paul came in and was very frustrated that he couldnt win a prize, and due to the excellent staff, they made his dream come true with a giant slinky! Thanks, guys!

Been here a lo g time allways fun

Great place to come with friends and family.Nearby parking. Games are fun and reasonable pricing. Some games can be out of order. Weekends is crowded. I like the air hockey games and they have like 7-8 tables for like $1 a game.Walk down the pier and enjoy the them park, street vendors and watch people fish, the waves and beautiful sunsets.

Cool little arcade here. Cheap games, some very cool old school games! Highly recommend hitting this place up.

Was visiting the pier with my girlfriend and we wanted to play against each other at two games side by side. She put money in hers, I put money in mine. Hers didnt work at all, I only had three balls. Talked to the attended, he came over, told us hers was broken and we could both just use the machine I was on after he loaded more balls in it. Asked for our money back so we could play a different game together. He told us no. So we left. Lugged around a pocket full of quarters the rest of the day. Do not recommend.

Arcade is awesome. You have to go play there. I go ever two weeks with my Boo. We have this competition gong with air hockey

Doesn’t do enough maintenance on pinball machines. I need to hire someone to come in and re-furbish all these machines. All of them cost one dollar. Way too much for the poor condition of these machines. Jack Bot needs a new rubber in the drain pin. Current one is flat and doesn’t bounce the ball back probably. Many machines off balance. The pinball community will be warned. Thanks for trying, I’ll check back again soon.

Old and very expensive! They still have the quarter system, really 1980’s

Good selection of old school and new school. Would have been five stars if skeeball was in better condition.

The games were fun and its good to win cards like from Willy wonka and the chocolate factory.

Some games need to be replaced But I still had a great time.

Fun fun! My girls won a ton of tickets!

Air guitar is so much fun Ive got to get me 1PlayStation Wii or Xbox Air guitar is my next step

I remember going here when I was little and its still fun.

We really enjoyed playing games, asmy husband made it a point to earn enough tickets to get me the Cubs pillow, lol

Good prices, a variety of games from old school to new school

For the amount of money being poured into this arcade everyday you would think they could replace or fix broken games, and just over all tidy up the place. It feels like they are the slum lord version of an arcade just make everything work well enough to take your money. Dont play the claw grabber game that you can grab rolls of tickets it opens the grabber when it goes back up so anything you grabbed falls back out. They had a Street Fighter arcade in the case of Mortal combat. So many games had faded screens. A couple of the games ticket dispensers were broken. luckily there was a employee walking by and we told him he opened the machine and grabbed us a bunch of tickets. The Mario Kart game one of the consoles button for special items did not work. I went with my kids we still had a good time my kids are not as picky as I am. Whoever owns this arcade must have a very low bar of self worth allowing this arcade to represent them.

So many games of you want tickets best play the circus game spend 20 earn 600 plus

Great place to bring the kids too! Lots of Fun!

Wholesome fun for everyone.

Machines broke down and i put too many quarters becuase it told me to put more but it just broke down. Also, really over priced prizes and I spent 25 for and could only get a 3 dollar plush. Would not recommend. Instead go to a Dave and bustersguaranteed they have better stuff there

An okay place to stop by for maybe a half hour of fun. A lot of the machines dont function properly, and there isnt much variety.

Fun Place, old fashioned quarter machines (a couple only take dollar bills) most expensive game is $1.50 and the cheapiest is 75cents

This place need renovation. It might be cool if not many of the machines simply not working. I love arcades, it is always cool to compete with a basketball game or any of the machines, just that they are not working that great. Huge potential, need some investment.

Skip it and go to a different arcade. It has potential (a lot of old and new games) but it’s way overpriced and 3 of the games malfunctioned in a row last night. I was hesitant to play anymore, because when I told the workers about the first machine malfunctioning, it seemed like they didn’t believe I put in the amount of money I said I did. A lot of the machines don’t give out tickets either. I expect more for an arcade where each game is $1.

Great with retro-games

Its a monolith at the end of an era. with a lack of replacement parts and people who are willing to repair the machines its nice to see a large arcade open. I spent 30 dollars and it was well worth it for a few hours of fun, they have all types of games, from Mario and pinball to angry birds and cruising USA.

Always a good time when we come here. so much fun!

Best way to waste money in style - Tron style.

Its ok all the games cost a dollar and the ATMs were broken

I visited Santa Monica with my family last year. Such a beautiful area, what a magical setting the whole Pier area is. We spent a little time in the arcade and I was underwhelmed. I understand that video games have pretty much been dying off because of the explosion of mobile phone apps with kids period but none the less having old not well maintained video games is not the way to run a business. A lot of the games didnt function properly, and a lot of them probably havent been played in years just sitting there idly. This is a plus prime location to grab tourist business, I would think the owner of the arcade would find a way to seize that opportunity. Im sure they are paying a lot in

The worst customer service. The assistant helping customerswith the games refused to give us back our money when the machine wouldnt work. Blatantly rude and overtly aggressive. Would not recommend to my worst enemy. The experience severely dented our experience at the pier.

This place is pretty run down, wish theyd close it up and remodel the place. Gets sadder and sadder each time I visit.

Pinball and classic cabinets along with more modern seated shooters and racers. Very cool.

Arcades still exist?! This place was awesome, my gf and I spent a bunch of money playing their Jurassic Park game. Ton of fun!

They were very friendly to my autistic cousin Paul. We will definitely come back again.

The employees there are Soo super cool and friendly!!!

Rundown and not cared for at all. All the ATMs were out of order, only one out of 3 photo booths were working, Don’t understand how they are still operating as they don’t want to seem to take your money!!

I truly love this arcade I been coming here for more than 10 years. Needs the owner to care about it more! If the arcade were mine it would be like the arcade from the new Tron movie

Most of the arcade games I played were not in good condition, or broken. Not to mention its ridicously expensive to play The House of The Dead 2(75 cents per credit), even though the light gun doesnt even work! Killer Instinct 2 only works with 1 player, I dont want to come back to the place.

The DDR machines are broken but I won the jackpot for Pop the Lock so I cant really complain overall

Dont play pinball here, they dont take care of their machines and they are in horrible condition

Not a fun place place to game anymore....

A little run down but still fun none the less. The prizes have gotten better since the last time I was there. They have the classics like skeeball and air hockey but they also have some new games like Mario kart where you can race against someone else or the 3d shooter games that you can play together. The 3d one was pretty cool but if you like retro games they have Pac-Man and Galaga ect.

Really fun,very nice people,and really fun games

I understand this is an arcade and it’s designed to make money, so games won’t pay out all the time. However, all the claw machines I played didn’t grip at all and give any chance to win and the clown game where you use the balls to knock over the clowns was totally RIGGED. First of all, one machine only had 3 balls and the other only had 4. In contrast, the Dave and Buster’s I’ve played that same game at dozens of times always have about 10 balls in each machine. The point of the game is to beat the high score which gets you 500 tickets (which is a ton for their prize area). I could have beat the high score multiple times if the machine wouldn’t have stopped counting points and giving me balls when there were less than 5 seconds left. The game was more RIGGED than the Democratic Presidential Primary. The prize area was terrible as well unless you are a 5 year old. Save your money and make a trip to Dave and Buster’s. The one on Hollywood Boulevard was great on a Thursday afternoon we went.

A really fun and electric place to play games such as air hockey. Everything is so entertaining and the place feels very lively.

It might be a bit run down, but the sheer nostalgia that floods this place will always make up for it.

The WORST service ever. Most games dont work and the money gets stuck, and worst employees. I went in with my siblings to get them to play since they wanted to go in after we came from getting inside the water, and one guy made us leave cause we were getting sand in the games and they had to clean . Well you dont get paid to not clean the games and couldve politely asked us to wash off outside or something cause we didnt know. Instead this guy kicked us out and was so rude and even told my little sister to grab her stuff and leave. He was so ignorant i swear never take your kids here for rude service and waste of money on games that dont work!

Lots of fun and overall a pretty inexpensive place to take your kids considering the location.

The Playland Arcade is an absolute mess! Not only is it extremely crowded and dirty, but many of their games that are in order are not working. The only redeeming qualities are the table hockey tables and some of the newer games.

A VERY FUN TIME 24 7

Some machines were broken, also where you change your money the small machine sort of has this glitch were if you put a 20 dollar bill it will give you your quarters but after 5 minutes like 10 quarters or more drop out of the machine its crazy. Not only that but its filled with bozos just causing a mess, in conclusion the place is dirty,some arcades are broken and is filled with knuckleheads.

Low customer service. Need Air conditioner in there, you could really smell everyone. Not cool. Not cool

Very fun place to play!

Its awesome that they have arcade games. However its always packed. On top of that its just cramped even regardless, the place needs renovation.

Kinda dusty looking but worth going in :)

Grimy, nasty, unsavory and unnecessary. Its filled with knucklehead boys. I wish they would close this place down. Do not send your kids into this place. Didnt arcades die in the 80s? Save your money and get your kids a funnel cake on the pier. If they need entertainment walk up to 3rd street promenade and watch some performers.

The Arcade is ok. Its pretty small though, and there are not many games to choose from.

A fun, pier arcade. Great for people watching.

Beautiful place and beautiful view.

Sometimes its too small, but this old fashioned arcade games are best!

Expensive but fun.

Here for the pinball machines, all of which are broken except for the Star Wars game, which rocks! Beautiful views from the pier!

Not bad, fee old arcades only

Some games are not well maintained, but still a good time with the family.

Best arcade in town! They even have Mario Kart Arcade GP DX!

Plenty of games and not too terribly overpriced. Definitely gets congested though.

Waste of time and money. 2 of the 3 games I played didnt have functioning controls. Dirty.

A bit crowded sometimes but conveniently located on the pier, great for youngsters and teens.

Its fun to play a few games.

For some games its nice :)

Nice place for all age people .

I was playing 3rd strikkee and eating manwich with a cuties, they kicked me out...

Cool spot

I enjoy it

Most of machines steal your money

Its OK but games with prizes dont give you the prizes you get

Nice place to play some videogames

The best

There was an arcade

Its awesome fun and nostalgic

Old and outdated.

Pretty decent arcade, although some of the machines were malfunctioning.

Not bad

Fun

Top !!

Fun but expensive

So gross and smelly with flys everywhere

Nice place

Awesome classic arcade.