Round 1 Bowling & Amusement

Round 1 is the gold standard by which all arcades should strive. While the variety is not as great as seen in the Los Angeles Round 1s, the Round 1 in Stratford Mall still has the «modern» arcade feel that gamers like myself desire. Any game that has Internet accessibility WILL be connected online, and it was definitely nice to be able to play games like Initial D and School of Ragnarok with an Internet connection and an account. The arcade also had a Pop’N Music Fantasia machine which was nice. Conspicuously absent were DDR machines (the location had 2 Pump it Up Primes) and a jubeat machine. Still, this arcade definitely has the Round 1 vibe of an arcade, karaōke, and bowling alley. A gamer’s paradise for sure.

If you love Japanese arcade games, this is the place to go. It is great for all ages. I remember going to a round 1 in Japan and this place is the exact replica (except for the pachinko machine). Me and my friends come here often, and will continue doing so for initial d.

–This place rocks on so many levels. I was literally blow away when I walked through entrance. They had crazy new interactive games that I have never seen in the US. In the back they had a bunch of Fighting games for the true OG’s. The swipe card system was explained to me carefully and efficiently.
–The Interim GM (I believe his name was Jeff? sorry I should have asked) was SUPER helpful, attentive, and on the ball making sure we were taken care of .
–We decided to also go bowling; the lanes were super clean, modern, and most important the area didn’t have that «bowling alley smell». Music selection for the late night crowd was really surprising and mind-​blowing. I Shazam’ed one of the songs, and I saw there was only 234 check-​ins to the song: This lead me to believe this was a hand selected playlist, which is awesome in regards to the kind of detail and admiration for the atmosphere.
–Stopped at the bar to grab some drinks for the squad, I was met promptly by the Interim GM again; who seemed to appear instantly out of no where, coming all the way from the bowling kiosk. He suggested we upgrade to the larger sized drafts so we wouldn’t have to get up as often, well played.
I will be returning who the whole squad & fam next visit.

I’m the Faculty Advisor for a student club, and my students chose Round 1 for an after school field trip.
I called far in advance and spoke with Erica, who explained different karaōke and game packages. She instructed me to come in 5 days prior to the field trip to put down the required $ 75 deposit.
Eurice was there when I went in to pay. My reservation was in their computer, and she worked with me to figure out which karaōke package Erica had quoted me. Luckily I was over-​quoted (.but, hey, with a limited budget, every penny matters!). It ended up being the Sing the Moment package ($ 120), and I added on 20 $ 5 game cards, putting the total at $ 200. When it was all said and done, cost amounted to $ 10 per person — IMO a fantastic deal!
The day of the field trip went without a hitch: I checked in with Erica, gave specifics about our food order (pizza toppings, wing sauce, pop), and set the kids loose.
Food came out quickly and the kids reported it tasted great. I got the wing sauce on the side — and they didn’t skimp! Erica oversaw the room and came back multiple times to take empty trays and refill the pitchers of pop.
The games were in good working order, except for Guitar Hero, which didn’t work and robbed me of 4 credits. (Gahh!)
The karaōke room was clean and, though it says it holds 22, there was room for 10 – 12 to sit on the couches. Some kids sat on the floor, and others were in-​and-​out, so it worked out fine. There was a lag with the songs starting, but sped up once there were multiple songs queued up. I was pretty impressed with the song selection: they were pretty authentic and void of corny instrumentals. The kids sung lots of Beatles and Taylor Swift. :)
In all, the price was right and it was nice to have Erica/​Round 1 take care of the food and details. The kids and I had a good time! I’d use Round 1 as a field trip or party destination again.

I take my kids here every weekend. A nice getaway to let the kids run around and waste a lot of energy so they can finally sleep at night. I recommend getting the member shp card if you plan on coming here more than occasionally. I just wish they would have the tickets all paper-​based instead of digital because the kids love seeing them spit out.

Came here for the first time the other day, and I was surprised. they have a decent selection of arcade games and a large selection of games that give tickets. there is also a bowling alley and ping pong tables. Its open til 2AM. overall I was impressed by the selection, had a good time, and definitely will be back

Great selection of games. Not a good selection of food, beer is slightly over priced. But they do have game you will not find anywhere else

I love Round One. It’s my favorite arcade so far! The karaōke rooms are so cheap depending of when you go, and I can’t ever deny taking Purikura pics:)!

Really great place for a gathering, a party, or just to relax. I was really impressed by the game selection here, everything from the simple mechanical games you’d find at a Chuck-E-Cheese’s to games you’d find similar to a carnival to crane games to modern video games to rhythm games. This place truly has it all for games — but to make it even better, they have all the alternatives for people not as interested in this, such as: ping pong, bowling, karaōke, billiards, and darts. A truly one stop shop for all your entertainment needs in a huge place. The only drawback I really have is that the prices are a bit high so it’s not difficult to spend a lot of money in a short amount of time — however, given the selection and quality of entertainment options here, these prices can be justified as there’s no reason you need to go anywhere else to get everything you need for your party.

I love the games here. I’m a big fan of the ufo catchers. Haven’t tried the food or the bowling, so I’m not one to comment on it. But the staff is nice and the place is clean.
The ticket prizes are a bit high, and I’m sure you can find more than half at a store or
. But then there are a few Japanese exports. The ufo catchers have cool plushes, I just wished they’d change them more often.
Caution: The Wizard of Oz coin pusher is addicting.
Can’t say much more, except I love this place.

Came here after dinner for our friendaversary. Excellent game selection, better than Dave & Buster’s.
Like Dave & Buster’s and Gameworks, Round 1 uses a card system rather than tokens. You can buy a card and load credits onto it, or pay for a card by the hour for unlimited «green light» games. We chose to buy a card ($ 1) and $ 30 worth of credits, 150 credits. Can also opt to do a club membership card for an annual fee of $ 5, which would give a $ 1 discount per $ 10 spent while at the base level of membership. The membership level upgrades with more money spent. Bit meh about their membership program, could be better. Just take out the annual fee, let us sign up for free with email, and we’ll buy the club card.
At the end of the night, we had won ~450 tickets after playing non-​ticket games too, like Project Diva. (I’d recommend avoiding the game where you beat a ghost head with two sticks, only 1 ticket after 6 credits spent ._​.). We redeemed our tickets on stickers and candy. No gundams, but I have my heart set on a few things for next time: D

Didn’t stick around too long but left a lasting impression on me for one awesome reason… purikura machines. PURIF******KURA. If you haven’t heard of purikura, it’s pretty much a photo booth on kawaii steroids. I’ve only made frequent contact with these gems in LA so you can imagine my excitement. There’s a total of 3 so go crazy.
Also, a lot of UFO Catchers with tons of Rilakkuma, Domo, and hello kitty plush which is something I can appreciate except I don’t appreciate UFO Catchers at all. They are a total rip off so beware.
Wide selection of games from what I saw! I really dig the fact they carry a lot of Japanese/​Korean games.
This is pretty much an arcade I’d find in LA and I’m stoked this place exists!

Had an absolute blast. Careful with the claw machines in the arcade. Straight money gobbler

3.5 Stars
I came here for my fraternity’s pledge event tonight and the atmosphere seemed kind of dead for a Friday night. The bowling alley itself was nice and the bowling balls were in really good shape surprisingly. It’s just stuck in a cheap mall which was probably why it wasn’t very lively. I wouldn’t mind coming back if I had another mandatory event there.

This place is awesome. Nestled away in a mall, Round 1 had a huge arcade, bowling, pool, and even table tennis. They’re open until 2am EVERY NIGHT! They do have beer as well, making for an awesome bowling night. Unique to this place is the bowling shoe vending machine; a must-​see. The prices are extremely reasonable too. We paid $ 10 for an hour of pool and could not have been happier. Customer service was great as well. The main thing I wanted to comment on was the music. Perfect hits for 90s babies. I’ll be coming back here next time I’m in the area.

They have so many rare arcade games ! Its open until 2am every day. This place is PERFECT. Round 1 is by far my favorite arcade. I look forward to bringing all of my friends here to play games and take purikura photos.
When I was serving overseas in Okinawa, Japan, Round 1 was my go-​to place to go have fun. Now can you imagine how thrilled I am that they have chosen to open one so close to my home in America?! I wholeheartedly support this establishment. Please support this business so that they can import more fun things from Japan (like Jubeat Prop) Thank you !!!

A very nice and clean arcade and bowling alley. I visited just to check out the arcade games, so I can’t speak yet for the rest of what Round 1 offers. However, I was pleasantly surprised. If you love Japanese gaming, then you will love this place. There are tons of rhythm games, driving games, and the ever-​frustrating claw games (try and win a stuffed animal-​they try to set up the machine and give you tips so you can succeed!). The photo booths are also very unique and fun to mess around with. Games are pricy, but comparable to all other arcade establishments similar to this one. I would definitely visit this place again.

I really wanted to like this place. We came here for our work holiday party in January. There were about 12 people. And our boss purchased a party package with bowling, game cards, and karaōke for all of us. We also lots of pitchers of beer and food throughout.
The bowling was a lot of fun minus the sweltering temperature of the place in general. It was very uncomfortable for all of us. The games were fun and they had an interesting variety.
When karaōke started we were not allowed to bring our drinks into the room despite the bartender telling us we could. We ended up having to leave them outside the door on a tray.
About 45 mins to closing the bartender came around to the room and slammed a sign on the window saying «30 mins until we close». We all thought it was rude but just kept singing. From that point every 5 minutes another employee would come around again alerting us how long until they closed. Somewhere in between all the reminders one of the employees came and poured all of our drinks into one giant pitcher of beer and left everything still sitting on our tray outside the door.
This place is not cheap especially for a group with 12 people getting a party package plus food plus drinks all night. I understand you need to clean up and close but you don’t close 45 mins before your closing time and we paid for the drinks the rude employee discarded without permission. Maybe it’s because they are new or just young and don’t care about customer service, but it was just not a good experience.
I will not be coming back here anytime soon. The subpar service is not worth the price.

This place is pretty nice, albeit a bit pricey per game like most amusement places are. The bowling alley is very nice and the prices are reasonable on the weekends if you’re willing to go before 5 pm. I’d like to come back soon to check out the ping pong and pool tables.
Please note: If all the lanes are full and they put you on the waiting list, you need to stick around the bowling alley area in order to hear them call your name. If you go into the arcade there’s no intercom there. My group learned this the hard way since they didn’t warn us!
Visited: January 24, 2015

This place is similar to a Dave & Busters, but I like this more, due to the different variety of video games and they also have billiards, darts, and a bowling alley. The setup is similar — you buy a card and charge it with an amount, so you can use it to play the arcades. The people behind the counter were super nice and friendly, and explained how it works and the best deal — the $ 20 card gives you an equivalent of $ 40 worth of credits. That’s not too bad for a night out — we didn’t finish using the $ 20 card after sharing it amongst the two of us and we played several games.
They have the Japanese imported racing games, where the words and graphics are completely Japanese. There’s also fun staples like air hockey, skeeball, basketball, games that spit out tokens, and the cool fun arcades you expect to see at any arcade.
All the arcades were in good and working order. They seem to be maintained pretty well and I didn’t see any arcades that had any «Out of order» signs taped to them. We didn’t go bowling but the prices were kind of high — the prices change based on the day and time of day. For Saturday night after 10PM, it was rather pricey. The beers they serve were average — about $ 4.75 for a Heineken.
Overall, fun alternative place you can check out. Oh, TIP! After hours, when the mall is closed, to get in this place, go to the LOWER part of the Stratford Mall and head toward the Carson’s and Century. In between these two venues is the entrance to Round 1 Bowling & Amusment.
BATHROOM REVIEW — Big sign showing where the bathrooms are. Inside, there were plenty of stalls and urinals. Super clean and secure. Sit or squat? Sit!