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NAMCO
STATION
LONDON |
Location: County Hall building, Waterloo, London, UK. Pinball News is not given to hyperbole. The reviews you'll find on this website are considered and avoid the hype and over-exuberance you may see elsewhere. Well, just for once, let's throw all that out of the window and celebrate the spectacle that is London. Why? Because the site we're looking at here is in the midst of some of Britain's greatest tourist attractions and you can't avoid seeing them if you're going to the Namco Station on the south bank of the Thames. If you take any of the conventional routes to the Namco Station you will walk around a corner and find yourself staring in awe at the London Eye.
To the left of the Eye is the County Hall building, the former seat of power for London's council, but now housing a variety of attractions such as the Saatchi Gallery, the London Aquarium, several eateries and bars and the Namco Station. But turn around and enjoy this view:
But back across the river and through the doors of the County Hall building, past the McDonalds on the right and we're into the Namco Station; a large arcade featuring examples of just about every kind of amusement game. Despite its size, there is only one pinball game, and to find that you have to descend to the basement into the sports bar which I think has a lower age limit of 18.
The high scores weren't living up to their name with the Grand Champion only 60M points but, with these easy settings and the UK All Skill posts enabled, it was an easy task to rectify the situation. There were no
credits for getting any of the high scores, but with games costing the
usual 50p and the replay level set to a base of 6M points, it was easy
to keep playing for very little money. The bar itself as a very limited range of drinks available and is really aimed at the 18-30 market with lots of fizzy lager and alchopops but little else, but then that is probably the target audience of the Namco Station itself, and judging by the clientele on this evening they're hitting the mark.
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