YESTERcades of Red Bank NJ (July 2014)

Here's a brand new video of a place we haven't checked out yet! Finally I made it to YESTERcades in Red Bank New Jersey. Just a few steps away from the famous Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic shop, owner Ken started this new arcade. Ken runs it on the POP (Pay One Price) model. So for 8.95 you get an hour pass or a flat 25 dollars for a daily pass. Inside you've got a wide selection of classic arcade games and a solid lineup of pinball machines.

Ken also offers console gaming as well. While I was there Matthew (Shock) from KombatNetwork.com was setting up an Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 stream with a player who came all the way from Russia! He was a Kabal only player and he was wreaking stuff up. One other cool thing that Shock did was they got the ROM chip upgrades for the Mortal Kombat II machine into the brand new fan update, Ultimate Mortal Kombat II Tournament Edition. This isn't some simple hack. The fans have gone over the game and gave it a complete overhaul with tons of balance updates and even some new moves! (Baraka now has an air throw!) They've also extended the time of fatalities so you have a little bit more room to pull them off and now Babalaties and Friendships work like MK3. In MKII you could only attack with kicks, now if you hit the block button on the round you can't do them.

I love the way the arcade is set up. It reminded me a lot of Flashbacks in Seaside Heights with the 80's movie posters on the walls and at night they bring down a screen and they play classic 80's music videos. The biggest complaints for me was the pinball. During the day the light comes in off the skylights causing massive glare, thankfully that's gone at night. Some of the games needed a little TLC. The bank door and safe on Monopoly and The Soprano's didn't work right, the flippers on Twilight Zone weren't set right so you couldn't make full shots up the middle ramp and the Metallica Pro pinball was about two or three updates behind. Hope they'll find time to update it while the shop's less busy.

Overall even with some gripes YESTERcade's is an amazing place. Ken's got a good thing going and he's even expanded to another location in Somerset New Jersey! If you're in the area make sure you go and check them out!