Game Lobster

You get what you go for. If you want a hard-​to-​find game, go here. They’ll most likely have it. If you want a pleasant customer experience, don’t go here.

They have a large selection, I’ll give em that. What’s sad, is with a video game store selection should be about all you need to easily get a five star review. Unfortunately, the owners seem to be doing everything they can to frustrate customers.
I’ve attempted to shop here many times. I love retro games, so I keep trying to give them my money, however best I can tell they simply dont want my business. On two of these attempts I actually made it inside the store, as for the other times…
One time it was Sunday, they were closed. My fault. Another time it was Saturday… noon…they were closed (no reason that I can tell, just no one there even though it was during business hours). Another time, it was 630, they were open but told me they were closing soon. They let me walk around for a few minutes THEN told me they turned off the computers so I couldn’t buy anything… yup.
On the times I actually got to shop, I swear it was as though I offended them by being there, they reluctantly took my money and seemed to hurry me out as though it was a drug deal.
I’ll give them two stars only because they do have a nice collection… but honestly I can’t recommend this place.
FYI I’m writing this at 315 on a Saturday… they’re currently closed.

I want to like this place better than I did. I liked the idea of having a good option between Seattle and Tacoma for a good retro game store. A lot of people recommended this place and there are some really positive reviews on here but after you go in this place and take away how you are treated… this can’t be the same place. What it looks like to me is that this place moved around 2012 and got new ownership or management. They do have a large selection… but that’s about it.
The fact this place is really small would not be a problem if it was organized and clean. If you are a serious collector, there is no way they can take care of product and keep it mint if it was that condition. Most everything is really beat up and dirty. You come away from this place feeling like you were rummaging through a back-​alley dumpster.
Not only is everything in poor condition generally, but the prices are average to high for what would be very good to mint condition on eBay. More valuable items are not marked and the guy running the place throws out round and high numbers comparable to eBay buy-​it-​now listings for items in much better condition. Not a good deal unless you are looking for some very cheap bottom-​barrel condition games or absolutely cannot find the item at all. For any rare item I have asked about, they did not have it…
If this all wasn’t enough to deter you, now here’s the biggest issue. The people who run the place are generally terrible. They are rude, unhelpful, paranoid, and do not help you in any way.
How crappy my experience was today made me write this review. You can directly talk to them and be cheerful and they stare back at you without saying a thing. I felt BAD for the customer who came in after me and got hat same treatment. It was just a negative experience. The main guy sits there playing games and never offers help or anything, doing everything to avoid eye contact. You feel like you are doing something wrong by asking them questions. He just stares back at you when you ask him anything, only mustering the effort to quote an overinflated price! I could go into more specifics, but it just gets worse from there. This has happened every time I went in there. They treat customers as well as they treat their inventory: like crap.
Just don’t bother with this place, it’s a waste of your time and money. Go to a great store like Super Smash Games in Tacoma instead.

I’m a father of two boys building up my Super Nintendo library so they can experience the same 16 Bit childhood I did. I read several reviews not expecting much and here’s what I experienced at Game Lobster in Federal Way.
The first thing you notice, is the place is a MESS. Games just everywhere with no clear organization. My three year old noticed an «old smell» but that comes with a shop selling games 30+ years old! I found it funny that when I checked out the gentlemen was literally tripping over product behind the register, it’s like your buying from a massive video game hoarder. Cases are PACKED with games (especially SNES cases) so much so that you can’t view the games behind the front row. Not complaining, that’s a massive collection to choose from.
The reviews throw shade on the prices, but if your an active EBAYer hunting for SNES gold then you can clearly see they are about the same prices, some games cheaper, some a tad more expensive (but you don’t have to pay shipping). I picked up two games today:
Batman Returns (Not batman forever) which goes for around 15 bucks on EBay. Also picked up Super Pinball which goes for around 5 bucks. I paid 21 (that’s with tax). Not bad at all.
The man who works there was decent to me and my kids, he just keeps to himself. The woman doesn’t speak English that well but that’s no reason to claim terrible service.
I will be coming back to the shop to explore more titles and dropping some more coin.
Thanks Game Lobster — 3 ½ stars

Definitely a bit cluttered but they have pretty good stuff and decent prices for the most part. I like how they test the games before you go home with them just to be sure they are working.

Please don’t go here. Their prices are above even eBay prices.
The staff is useless, the store is a mess and I could just go on about the issues that I have with this place.
While it’s true they have everything you can think of when it comes to games, it’s all horribly taken care of (in huge piles and stacks that could fall at any moment) and the prices are through the roof.
I have no clue how they stay open.

They sell broken shit. When you try to return it they accuse you of breaking it and won’t give you your money back. Don’t waste your money. They don’t deserve your business.

Worst customer service and business practice I’ve ever experienced. They’ve changed over the last few years because I’ve spent a lot of money here with few complaints. I go in 48 hours after purchasing a game and charger for my game boy. (That long only because they’re closed Sunday and I went in Saturday night) the charger works for 5 – 10 minutes and the game is spotty. I was blamed for the malfunction. They said it was my fault and likely my console. Bullshit. I’ve never had this problem before, they just sell bunk shit. Their policy (which is on the receipt but not told to you pre purchase) is no refunds. Exchange for the same exact thing if done within 3 days. Before she even offers the latter to me. She accused me of beating the game and trying to return it. So I suppose I beat the charger too and need a different one? Awesome. Go home.

No customer service what so ever. Dirty nasty place! My son called looking for something they said they had we get there and it turns out they didn’t have the item instead they tried to sell him something more expensive. Left with an upset kid. We will not step foot in this place ever again.

I have a game store by my house that I really like they give fair trade credit and have a good selection with great customer service I decided to come to this one to check it out I walk in and the first thing I notice is it’s dirty and not well taken care of even the display cases or filled with Nintendo 64 games just spewed everywhere they weren’t even stacked nicely I brought in some stuff to trade they told me that my stuff wouldn’t work even though I was playing it this morning and they refused to test it and offered me $ 11 trade for about $ 80 worth of stuff no doubt in my mind the reason they didn’t want to test it is so they can just make way more money on it because it does work never coming here again

Great place for games if you can find it?!? The place is filthy worse than my dorm room in college and that’s saying something!!! Plus games are stacked in cases and very hard to browse through them. The guy who owns the place is a video game junkie and I figured that would be awesome but he won’t even say one word when you ask him questions??? He just sits there in a filthy mess! The place would be better if it were cleansed up and sorted though… prices seem a bit higher as well I love supporting local places but this joint news a makeover!

One star because while they had a nice collection, the guy who runs the store is a rude asshole. Came in with my friend today, said hello, he looked at me and said nothing. Asked him to see some N64 games in the case, still said nothing, shows me a game threw the glass. What? It’s a glass case, obviously I can «see» it. Id think it would be clear I want to hold/​check it out. Come on, now. He never said one word to me the whole time I was talking to him. I drove down there to buy a specific game (which he had) but didn’t purchase it because the way he treated me.

I came in to sell some new, unsealed PS3 games and an opened PS3 game. They gave me an offer, I counter offered, and we came to an agreement.
The place is dirty and scatterbrained. They have a lot of games to choose from, and I saw Atari games here as well.
They have a big sign out that they take utility payments here. Odd.

Really great place to be. It’s messy but they got all sorts of games and everything you’d need to play. They buy sell and trade which is cool. The lady at the counter was really helpful and knew what she was talking about. Will be back for some more games!

This place has A LOT of games but in a really tiny and cramp space. My only grip is that everything is horribly organized in stacks and the store is very messy.
Everything is priced right at market value. They have quite a bit of boxed snes and nes games. They also carrier some consoles that most used games don’t have little sega dream caste and turbo graffix.

This place is heaven! It’s a gamers dream! As a gamer this place makes it very easy to add to my collection of classic games or just finding that game I loved as a kid to introduce to my own, it’s in a decent location and wide selection of old games and systems as well as some newer ones.

This place is pretty dope. The owners don’t speak the best English and they kinda just allow you to wander around. They have almost every system possible with al the games I love. However they are spendy. It might e better to buy off amazon or go to a pawn shop. But you can rest assured that they have anything you want as long as money is no option.

Game Lobster is tight! I used to go to their old location near 288^th. Awesome people. Awesome selection of old and new.

Can it get any more nostalgic than Gamelobster?! Seriously — they have everything.
From Atari and Nintendo/​Super Nintendo to XBox and Playstation, they have games, consoles, controllers, accessories… and everything else.
The store is organized as best as it can be (kind of an organized chaos) and the people behind the counter look somewhat stoic, but they’re really friendly once you get them talking.
It’s a little hole-​in-​the-​wall store that I wouldn’t have just come across, but if you know where to look, it’s a definite must stop. Even if you go without anything specific in mind you’ll probably leave with something in hand; otherwise, you’ll have a great time thinking back to your childhood for a good 20 minutes.
I love it because as gaming technology advances, I can’t seem to keep up (what happened to Start, Select, A/​B buttons, and a few arrows??) so I love being able to sift through all the old NES games.

I am not much of a game junkie as alot of other I know
but if I was going to open my own store it would be close to this or another
game and movie store I saw .
there are a lot of old games that the bigger stores don’t carry any more
some I see a need for others not so much .
at this time they did not have the game I was looking for but I know I will be back.