Cubed3 was invited to the launch party of the latest NQ64 branch in Soho, London. The new two-storey arcade in central London has over 60 arcade cabinets, a collection of retro consoles, pool tables and interactive dartboards. The new location sits at Orange Yard on Manette Street in Soho, a stone’s throw away from Tottenham Court Road station and just a few minutes away from the previous site. After tasting the delights of the Northern Quarter, Manchester venue, excitement levels were already high!
The new location expands upon the expectations that regular punters already know about NQ64, who have sprawled across the UK since founding in 2019. Anyone uninitiated with NQ64’s particular brand will be pleasantly surprised with the neon glow that exudes from the graffiti wall art or the accompanying soundtrack to go along with it. Entry to the bar itself is free, although it is recommended to book ahead for busy peak times (booking fees may apply). The bar has a number of gaming themed cocktails ranging from Toadette’s Tipple, Aku Aku Fruitpunch, Kong Island Iced Tea and CherryVania to name a few. Soft drinks, mocktails or general beer is also available – although NQ64 doesn’t serve food so bare that in mind.
Most of the arcade machines will take 1 or 2 tokens to play and tokens themselves cost £10.50 for 15 tokens or £14 for 25. From experience some machines are loaded with tokens from the get-go so you might be lucky enough to get a couple of free-plays here and there. There is a strong selection of arcade machines, although I wouldn’t really say there is much different from other NQ64 locations. Nonetheless, for arcade enthusiasts or just the casuals there is a great mix of arcade challenge or easy to play games.
A selection of the arcade line-up includes (as of 10th Sept 2026):
- Bubble Bobble
- Crazy Taxi
- Daytona USA 2
- Donkey Kong Junior
- Galaxian
- Guitar Hero Arcade
- Mario Bros
- Mario Kart Arcade GP
- Mortal Kombat
- NBA Jam
- Outrun 2
- PAC-MAN Battle Royale
- Point Blank
- Puzzle Bobble
- Robocop
- Star Wars Trilogy Arcade
- Street Fighter II
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Tekken 2
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- Tetris
- The House of the Dead 3
- The Simpsons Arcade
- Time Crisis
- Time Crisis 2
- Time Crisis 3
- Tron
- Virtua Striker 2000
- Virtual Fighter
Additionally you can play a few more active games such versions of Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, hire a pool table, play darts, checkout pinball tables , snap photographs in photobooths, play claw machines or hop on any of the free-to-play retro consoles.
These are usually par for the course at barcades these days, but uniquely this branch had a modded Game Boy Advance with Mario Kart: Super Circuit playable on a TV. In addition, there are a range of Nintendo’s other retro consoles from Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube, alongside a PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 loaded with all the multiplayer games that you’d want to play with fellow NQ64 punters. It would be an added touch to be able to play these on CRT TVs or on an FPGA console, as playing original consoles on LCD flat screens can get quite grainy at times. It would also be great to add a Sega Dreamcast to this line-up given the crazy 4-player arcade games available for the system, too.
NQ64 is a great date-night or a place to hang out with friends and family. It is pretty loud at times, but then that is the buzz of any great arcade. There are usually pricing promotions throughout the year for various milestone events such as Black Friday, Christmas or other times of year where tokens for machines could be discounted. The location being right next to the Elizabeth Line and Northern Line at Tottenham Court Road will certainly make getting to and from the venue very easy for any gaming punters.
If you don’t live in the London area, then NQ64 currently has locations throughout the UK including Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham, Newcastle, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Do you have any fond memories of arcades? Ever visited NQ64? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Photo credits: Simon Jacobs/PinPep – provided to Cubed3 by NQ64.
The Manchester one was such good fun. Can’t wait to try it out again. Great to see the launch in London – more NQ64 can only be a good thing 😁
Indeed! It is always a fun night out so I am glad that there is now a bigger venue in London and it close to the station as well so easy to get home in during those rainy winter nights!