CHQ Entertainment

Not impressed in the slightest. Its quite obvious the manager of this place absolutely hates his life. He’s literally a walking dick wad and his shit attitude has clearly rubbed off on the rest of his employees as well. Everyone working there were snarky, sarcastic and rude. Possibly the worst customer service Ive come across in a long while. I hope you all read this so you know what your work is worth. F***ing joke. 0 stars

There just aren’t many arcades left these days :(CHQ is one of the few, and beggars can’t be choosers.
This place is packed very tight with wall-​to-​wall games, so there isn’t much room to move around. It is also hot as balls. It’s not too comfortable and not a place to relax and sit back for a few hours.
I find it’s a good place to have a quick pre-​movie game of air hockey, and maybe to spend a bit of time, but it seems there isn’t much left these days other than shooting and dancing games.
I’ve tried some of the older school games, but some of the joysticks seemed to be broken.

First time I been to an arcade in 7 years. I asked the lady what the machines took and she said tokens and pointed to a token change machine in the corner. I changed my money and proceeded to walk around. I suddenly noticed every single decent game took only loonies and not tokens. I went back and encountered the old Caucasian owner and asked him if I could change a few tokens for loonies thinking it wasn’t a big deal. He yelled at me, «NO!!! You already changed tokens and got free tokens. It is policy we don’t give refunds!!!» I was surprised at his rudeness. No wonder the place was virtually empty.

The manager (or the middle-​aged caucasian man with glasses that always seems to be there) has no business dealing with the public especially when it comes to dealing with kids. My son, who has patronized this place many times before, innocently put a token left over from a different arcade in a machine and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work. He honestly (yes, honestly) thought that this token was from this arcade. When we asked for help, the manager saw that he had used a different token and immediately became very angry and rude. In a rude and angry tone, he said «To play games here you have spend your money on OUR tokens!», and he walked away without letting us explain. So, I pursued him to let him know we have indeed spent many a dollar at his arcade and that this was an honest mistake made by a 10 year old boy. He again walked away as I spoke. My son and I then walked out of the arcade and the manager FOLLOWED us! I turned around and he came out of the arcade to tell me that we jammed up the game for everyone else. Ummm… no. There was a lady playing on it already. It was not jammed up, so why are you accusing us of something we didn’t do? Wow, you’re really good with customers.
So, my son begged me not to get into an argument with this person. Do you think he’s going to want to go back to this arcade? My son spends $ 20 each time he goes. The arcade at Granville island will be getting his money now. Congratulations, Mr. manager. You’ve just scared away a 10 year kid with money to spend.
Perhaps this place is better suited to older teens or people immune to poor customer service. The arcade at the Kid’s Market at Granville Island is more kid friendly!

I brought my friends to the metrotown arcade to play BishiBashi. Half way through the game two of us died. In a rush to get more change to continue playing we accidentally put our money in the token machine instead of the change machine.
We went to the kiosk and asked the owner if we could change the tokens back into dollar pieces, like the game required. In his ignorance he told us he would buy them back AT A REDUCED PRICE.
My friend said «Well that’s just poor customer service.» We left it at that and went back to playing.
In the middle of the game he came and approached us very angry and started putting words in our mouth. He said we were telling him that we want him to change his policy just for us because we made a mistake. He then proceeded to stop me from playing even though I wasn’t directly involved with his argument with my friend. He told us we were being extremely rude and caused me to lose my game.
He proceeded to get in my friends personal space. Almost rubbing against him and continuing to insult us. I attempted to make my case that it was just a mistake and it was over. That we would use the tokens on a different game. He refused to back off and bullied us out of the arcade.

I enjoy coming here with my friends every once in so often to just relax and beat the hell out of each other in fighting games. Most games, other than the Bishi Bashi tower (we are here enough to have beaten the game more than 3 times) and the cutesy Asian photobooth (LOVE IT~~), are paid for with tokens. Games will cost 2 or 3 tokens, depending on what it is. $ 5 gets you 22, $ 10 gets you 46, and $ 20 gets you 99. The other games take loonies and toonies.
Sometimes it gets quite hot as the ventilation or whatever is inadequate, and you may find yourself coming into close contact with a big, sweaty man. Food and drinks are forbidden, and the staff really take that «DO NOT BUMP THIS MACHINE» sign very seriously.
Finishing entire games and continually pounding your friends into the submission in games like Tekken are real money-​suckers. I can’t count the times where we’ve run short of tokens in lengthy, passionate battles between the android-​lady and the stupid kangaroo.
Nevertheless, it’s a ton of fun. Plus, they have card-​based racing games, rhythm games, an air-​hockey table, and ticket-​based games (three cheers for conditioning kids into thinking that gambling is a good thing!).The prizes are far from the best, and by the time you trade in your tickets, the owners are laughing all the way to the bank with how much you would have spent to win them~
DaSHAWN «Gwiyomi» Haynes-​Warren

It’s a more modern arcade with a wide variety of game genres ranging from shooting games, car race games and old school games. I love this place and the noises and the best part is that sometimes they have DDR competitions that are fun to watch.
I have a video game system, however, the idea of going out, getting dressed and sometimes wearing my pac man dress to play at an authentic Asian arcade excites me. It is all reasonably prices, however, like a casino it’s easy to loose track of your money (especially if you’re a bad gamer like me).
The temptation to continue with the countdown timer on the screen is the money sucker :)

Wow, arcades still exist. If you are an otaku, this is the place for you.
The games are mostly older (mid 2000s), but there should be something in there for everyone. One can walk through the premises and check out the blinky lights and sounds.
The one game that honestly made me burst out loud is Tekken where you can go beat up a panda. I couldn’t stop laughing while watching people play. Seriously.
The games are mostly reasonably priced, though I honestly do miss those 25c days.

This arcade caters to more Asian style arcade games. So you have your rhythm based game, Street Fighter, and Gundam games. Not my interest though though I do like that they’re trying to get the more classic arcade games back.
— The place is rather small and there’s no air conditioning.
— some games a little pricy (A dollar for some) I guess it’s a way to cover cost from importing games from Asia and maintaining the games.
Sadly, this is best arcade in Vancouver but least they exist in 2013.

I guess you could say I’m a sucker when it comes to arcade. I’m the type of a girl who would classify an awesome date as going to an arcade and eating junk food.
I come to CHQ pretty often, probably once week to get my arcade game fix. I like it here because games are constantly updated and the variety is good. Everything from racing cars to slot machines the really do have it all. They also have a prize bar where you can exchange those hard earned tickets for prizes, gotta admit though the prizes kind of suck compared to other arcades.
.25 per token and most games go for 2+ tokens, so it’s pretty easy to rack up a large tab. I think lugging around tokens is pretty heavy, if thy updated to newer coin systems (electronic) it would be awesome! Also it would mean that you could save up tickets redeemed an easier way than having tons of redemption stubs on your wallet… Just a suggestion.

Pro
— Tons of the latest games is in stock
— Prices are somewhat reasonable
— Games are quite fun
— You can win prizes (despite the fact that some of the prizes are stupid as fudge or impossible to win)
Cons
— You can easily overspend your tokens or money at games trying to beat it
— Its going to cost a fortune to finish a shooting game as it is not meant for you to finish without shoving tons of tokens in there
— The prizes for the tickets are stupid and are obviously too cheap for us to even bother collecting our tickets from the games.
— They don’t have a spot where they could sell food and drinks as it does get kind of stuffy in there after a long period of time.

Alot of neat imported machines but I was constantly bugged by this kid named David who squeals and talks to himself beside me when I was playing Gundam. He annoyed me so much talking to himself his own lingo that I wanted to walk out and not come back. I’ll never forget the time he was threatened by a guy for being cheap and annoying throughout a multi-​link match in Gundam.
If the manager reads this, please make sure David is never welcomed again.
**01/​04/​13 — Walked past CHQ recently and saw Ernest Tsui (again), who proceeded to say «Miss me, [n-​word]?» with his arms spread in a mocking tone and I walked away from him to take the stairs instead of the escalator to the first floor. Seriously, how is this guy still getting away with everything?

I haven’t seen an arcade this packed in 10 years — I don’t even know if things like this still exist in the United States. All the newest games, people rocking out to simulators of everything from dancing to drumming to fighting — all the blinking lights and familiar sounds of my childhood. Awesome.

I LOVE this place!
I make it a point to visit here at least once every time I’m in BC, as we no longer have any arcades in Calgary, and even if you can find the odd game machine at the theatre, they rarely stock the latest games.
Here at CHQ, you can find some of the latest arcade cabinets, many of them I assume are imported, as not many arcade cabinet distributors are left in North America. Everything from the latest Street Fighter games, Gundam fighting games, Dance Dance and other rhythm games, and a whole lot more.
Games are about $ 1 per play, with the latest and marquee games taking loonies, and the older games or games where you can play for tickets and redeem them for prizes taking tokens.
It’s a little expensive, although I remember in my University days spending up to $ 2 per play, and it’s not like you have any choice in the matter these days.
Anyways, I usually end up leaving this place with extra tokens (either because I buy too much, or I’m so good that I don’t require many tries), but I always pack them up for my trip back home to Calgary and bring them again whenever I return to visit to use again.
If you grew up as an arcade brat, or just want to experience one of the few arcades left these days, make it a point to visit CHQ in Metrotown.
¹¹⁄₃₀

When I walked into this place, I felt like I had walked into a parallel universe where arcades were still thriving. CHQ has new machines, imported from Japan, but best of all, it is *busy*. Community is what makes a good arcade. Go there late on a Friday afternoon, and you will find it filled with young men *and* women.

One of Vancouver’s arcades that keeps the latest machines in stock, including music games that aren’t able to be found in the USA.
+ Good variety of games (Jubeat, Taiko, SFIV, Initial D)
+ Machines are in good working condition
+ (TIP) Even though the mall closes around 9pm, the arcade stays open till at least midnight on Friday/​Saturday.
~ Staff aren’t very friendly, but not intrusive either.
— HOT. The place is small, and I was feeling warm in shorts and a t-​shirt.
(TIP) You can buy soda from the pizza place near by, or a smoothy shop to cool down).
For full details about the music games at this location as on 8÷14÷11, here’s the list: