Chinatown Fair's Re-Opening

Nick here with a quick news post. As usual the week I don't go into the city, something happens. Yesterday Chinatown Fair re-opened in New York City. Our good friend JC was there and he wrote an article and took some shots for The Examiner.

Chinatown Fair Re-Opens Article from JC 

As you can see from the article the arcade lacks the games that kept people coming into CTF in favor of a more casual family friendly setting. So gone are the Neo-Geo MVS units, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and even Gigawing. Say hello to Big Bass Wheel Pro and Spaceballz. One surprise is they actually have an AC/DC pinball machine but after talking with JC on Facebook he said the sound was turned down and you couldn't hear the music. (Kinda like most bars) They also have two Xbox 360s that you can rent and BYOC. (Bring Your Own Controllers) They want to expand out with private parties and birthday parties. 

I for one think this change isn't going to work at the exact location. Sure there's room for family friendly places but not at Chinatown Fair. I know I have a couple of issues with the place in the past but it had what you wanted from an arcade that offered fighting games and classics. Nothing else. A couple of prize machines, some music games and mostly the best fighting game fans in New York City. 

As I was saying to JC I think this summer will be make or break for them. If they don't pack the place while the kids are off from school and need something to do then I don't see them lasting that long. Still you have to wish them the best of luck even trying to bring the arcade back in the current climate. I know a lot of people have fond memories of the place and it's sad to see it changed so much from what it used to be, but maybe there'll be a new generation of gamers that get to grow up at CTF and will branch out elsewhere.

UPDATE: Hit the jump for an Edit with a new article from The Gothamist.




Kurt who's still in the middle of filming Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair posted a link from The Gothamist  and it's got a very interesting quote from the new owner..

Article from The Gothamist

 "The bottom line is, there's just no really great fighting games out, so that's why we don't have any"


So you hear that Namco/Bandai? I guess nobody told him about Tekken Tag Tournament 2... The new owner says he's trying to please everybody and if there's a hot game they'll try to get it. How they couldn't keep the one Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in the huge Dynamo Cab is beyond me because that game would have a LONG quarter line on it whenever I went. As I was writing this Kurt posted which fighting games would you want to see, obviously Marvel 2 since that's what everybody played, but if you look at the list of games they have they even got rid of the three classic games. You could still run a Ms.Pac-Man/Galaga machine and bring back a 4 Slot Neo-Geo for space reasons, but not having ONE Street Fighter title? I'll continue to see how this will shape up and keep posting it here.