From Pac-Man Plus and Street Fighter to Guitar Hero and Aliens: Armageddon, the Witches & Wizards Arcade features classic 80s, 90s and 2000s retro games for everyone to enjoy.
The arcade is located at 1214 Eugenia St. in The Arcade District. As stated on the arcade’s official website, it not only offers nostalgic games, but also live entertainment from local bands and an indoor movie theater that plays a handpicked selection of movies. To enter the arcade, there is a small fee of $8 for anyone under the age of 18 and $12 for anyone 18 or older. Once inside, all the games are set to free play, allowing you to play as many games as you would like until the arcade closes. Sophomore Sahara Damon visited the arcade with her friends. Damon loves playing video games and said it was a fun experience for her.
“It definitely showed me how different the games were in the 80s and 90s,” Damon said. “It showed me what my parents played in the 80s and 90s.”
Abbey Gorsage, an art teacher at RBHS, said she went with her husband and two kids when she first visited the arcade. Gorsage said she and her family enjoyed their first experience there.
“I didn’t grow up playing a lot of old school games,” Gorsage said. “[It] was fun because I got to try them out and experience them.”
The Witches & Wizards Arcade is home to over 100 games. Gorsage said that during her visit, she enjoyed playing many of these games with her children.
“My daughter and I really enjoyed playing some of the driving games like Cruis’nUSA, which I think was one that I had played before when I was younger,” Gorsage said. “I don’t remember the name of it, but there’s one game that [my son] and I really liked where you’re monsters destroying a city. You are basically smashing a bunch of buildings.”
With a large number of games in a compact building, the alleys and walk space in-between different games is narrow and confined. Damon said that during her visit, the small walk space made it uncomfortable for her to walk by others in the arcade. She was also unable to play certain games due to malfunctions or other inconveniences.
“The ‘Guitar Hero’ had one guitar that was out of order and so we couldn’t play against each other,” Damon said. “We were trying to figure out how to play one Mario game, and we could not figure out how to play it because we could not read any of the instructions.”
The opening and closing hours of the arcade vary based on the day of the week. The arcade is closed on Monday, open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday to Friday, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Gorsage said she was grateful that the arcade was not crowded during her visit and her family was able to have “some space to check things out and play at [their] own pace.” She also said the arcade reminded her of her childhood.
“It was nostalgic because there were so many games that were of characters or cartoons from my own childhood,” Gorsage said. “My husband and my son have been back since [the first time we went] cause they both really enjoyed it.”
Have you been to the Witches & Wizards Arcade? Let us know in the comments!
