Fun N' Games in Wayne NJ Closing

[Klisk]

Klisk, that's basically what I heard about Willowbrook. That closing FnG was a "get the kids hanging out here at midnight the fuck away" move.

The Wayne Hills Mall thing is a shocker though. Section 8 housing? Hell will freeze over before that happens. All the Wayne-ites will go berserk if that happens.

I'd love a new FnG. Seriously love it.

Yeah.... There's so many nasty things I could say about Willowbrook, and that's even BEFORE they pressured out Fun'n'games. Now I'm pretty venemous about the place. If you're actually a regular inside the mall it's definitely noticeable that they're changing things inside as well. But the changes seem backwards. I'm kind of confused as to what kind of shopping community they are trying to attract.

It's funny, though. Wayne is the first type of town to go and complain that kids having nothing to do but get in trouble. Then when the arcade closes - Which is pretty much a haven for a lot of kids, hell - I grew up in FnG when I was as young as 6 years old - Well, then they'll go and claim that this has nothing to do with it. This is a whole other rant I could go into, though.

Anyhow. When I was a little kid it was always my dream to work in an arcade. Small dreamer, right? Now I'm starting to realize that I want to own one. It's a tempting proposition and a risk I wouldn't be against taking.

I'd really prefer seeing a new FnG, though. But the owners are so impossibly tough to track down, and I can't think of anyone more experienced. People still see Saif around, though..

Sportsworld's laser tag was fun, otherwise it was a waste. If I was the FnG's guy I would never go back to Willowbrook. Should look into one of the many small strip malls around. One problem is that many towns actually prohibit arcades.

You mean Walktag? They even messed that up. I never understood the point of laser tag where you can only walk.

There's plenty of strip malls in Wayne with vacant shops, though. There's plenty of space for an arcade here alone. The issue at hand is the fact that the willowbrook spot was pretty tough to beat. It was the perfect location since kids are always hanging out at the mall, yet it's not in the mall which means you can stay open late, and you even get random passerby's who otherwise were just going to go shopping at Sears/Macy's/whatever. A strip mall would be a lot lower traffic. Which lowers the likelihood of success. Asides from your really dedicated hardcore/classic gaming crowds not many people are going to go out of their way for an arcade. Location is immensely important now. It's all about high volume.

Anyone else remember the arcade that was in the strip mall near the Best Buy / Barnes and Noble? I think there's a Gamestop there now...

I also think it's important to really select the right games, though. There's certain games we all know everyone wants to play, but then there's less obvious choices. A lot of arcades make the mistake of filling up with racers and ticket games. It's more important to get the newest fighters and keep the hardware well maintained, I think. I've spoken to quite a few west coast arcade owners over the past 6 months, and they all point their success at the competitive fighting game crowd, saying that fighting games like SFIV bring in the biggest cash and most loyal customers. They also hold regular tournaments which keeps those people coming. They have their classic games as well, but supposedly that isn't their bread and butter anymore keeping them afloat.

If I was to set up an arcade my idea would be to have about 4 pinball machines, a solid group of classic staples that you can't NOT have - Since, y'know, who doesn't love them? Maybe one setup of Maximum Tune, and then likely dedicate the rest of the space to Viewlix-based fighters / 3S, MvC2, etc. I think it's also obligatory to have at least 2 DDR machines and a Pop'n Music of some type, but otherwise avoid the stuff no one will ever play like the gimmicky motion-sensor games and what have you. There is something to be said about having good light gun games, but then I just think of the monstrosity that is Dave and Busters. (Which is, like, 90% lightgun games.)

But if you notice, this pretty much sums up what FnG's was doing. They really knew their stuff, and it was always the pleasure to go into the arcade. The staff was always familiar and friendly/remembered you if you were a regular, and it was just solid. Every time I go to the mall I walk past the arcade with some sort hope that maybe I'm just dreaming that it closed.

[GCB2KT]

Damn Fun N' Games......I spent many evenings there during late middle/early high school playing MVC2 and House of the Dead 3. I was a huge Mallrat at Willowbrook around 2006/2007, my friends and I used to practically live at both the mall and in Fun N' Games on the weekends. It's a fucking shame that they closed, and I heard it wasn't due to poor business either. Mall management shut it down because they felt it was "lowering the status" of the mall, which is total bullshit in my opinion. Around late 2007 (about the time the economy tanked and Fun N'Games shut down) many of the stores that my friends and I used to frequent inside Willowbrook such as the 4 different Gamestops, the two FYE stores and the Suncoast Video shut down and we found ourselves hanging out elsewhere. Willowbrook is now a shadow of its former glory, nothing but a plethora of generic women's clothing stores. Ironically, I work at Willowbrook now and I walk past the empty space where Fun N'Games once was almost every morning. What really annoys me is that other than being used as a haunted house during the month of October, the space has sat vacant for almost 6 years while hoards of mallrat kids crowd the main entrance (which wouldnt be a problem if they had a place to hang out). To be honest I do not believe that closing the arcade helped the problem of, "loitering" at all.....totally counter-productive.

R.I.P. Fun N' Games