GameWorks

Information

At a Glance

What is it?

A rebirth of the games and entertainment complex that used to be on The Strip.

Where is it?

At the Town Square shopping complex just south of The Strip.

Is it worth the cost?

If you are a gamer or have kids who want amusement, then absolutely yes.

What else do I need to know?

The have a full café if playing all those games gets your appetite worked up and a full bar if the kids are getting your nerves worked up.

What’s the bottom line?

One of the few family friendly options in town..

Full Review

When GameWorks left The Strip in 2013 it took with it one of the few family-friendly destinations that Las Vegas had to offer. You could almost hear parents saying “What am I going to do with the kids now? There’s only so much time I can spend at Adventuredome!”

Well good news, Mom & Dad, GameWorks is back and the even better news is that the new version has enough to keep you entertained as well. And I’m not just talking about the full bar, although that helps, I’d imagine.

This incarnation of the entertainment complex is located at the Town Square shopping center, about a mile south of Mandalay Bay. If you don’t have a car, it’s a $10-$15 cab ride, a quick hop on the SDX or Deuce bus lines, or a ride on the free Town Square shuttle bus that departs regularly from Planet Hollywood and the Tropicana on The Strip. For orientation’s sake, it is located at the very back of the property, closer to Interstate 15 than to Las Vegas Boulevard.

The facility packs a lot of fun and games into their 37,000 square-foot space. There is a big arcade with both high-tech, interactive experiences (Super Bikes, Pac-Man Smash, Virtual Cop, Super Shot Basketball, etc.), which you play for fun and high scores, and more traditional arcade style games that you play for tickets that can be redeemed for merchandise in the small gift shop.

If the virtual world is more appealing to you they have an eSports lounge with 60 gamer quality PCs loaded with hundreds of different games plus X-Box and Playstation consoles. You can either play alone or network in your friends, plus you can even bring your own console if you want and plug it into their system.

An 8-lane bowling alley has all the latest high-tech scoring systems with a cosmic bowl style look and feel and there are a couple of billiards tables as well.

If all that fun is making you hungry or thirsty, there is a full restaurant with everything from nachos and wings to sandwiches and steak, plus a full bar serving a bunch of craft beers on tap and in bottles and specialty cocktails. Although kids are restricted from the bar area, adults may take their cocktails anywhere in the facility.

Costs depend on how much you want to play and how long. You can buy either credits or time, with a basic 20 credit card costing $5 plus a $2 activation fee for new cards (which can then be reloaded). The more you pay the more credits or time you get, obviously, and the cards work on every game and attraction in the facility. Bowling ranges between $5 and $7 per game depending on the day of the week and time of day you are playing plus shoe rental. The eSports stations are $5 per hour. In other words, that $20 you were going to lose in 10 minutes on a slot machine can provide you with a lot more entertainment time here.

Of course being a family friendly place means that it draws lots of families. If you want to play games but don’t want to be around children, I suggest you get your own gaming console and hole up in your room at the hotel.

With as many entertainment options as they have, GameWorks’ return to Las Vegas should be welcome news to more than just parents of bored teenagers.