Too many broken down games and run down building. It does have 1 functioning ski ball and basketball game though.

This place used to be a lot of fun, and a fairly cheap place to take my kids. Unfortunately, the last three times we have been here, over 60% of the games are broken and there is only one employee working. It almost seems lile they are just waiting for the rest of the games to break down so they can close. read more

It's disgusting, broken games everywhere, dirty, smelly, just plain gross. Stay far far away.

I had never been here before but I love arcades (especially SKEE-BALL!) so hubs took me here to indulge me. It was $2 per person to get in, and we got a $7 bag full of nickels to fuck around with. We immediately went to the skee-ball area (I wish there was more than 3 machines!) and I went to town on that shit. After a bit, we wandered to the free play section and played TMNT (note: don't play as Donatello because the joystick is busted) and tried to play Mario Kart but the wheel was also jacked up. We made a shitload of tickets at this ball drop game and then played more skee-ball with the rest of our nickels. We gave our tickets to a well-behaved child because the prizes were shitty - although I did see a giant plush avocado that I wanted to take home but at 2500, I didn't feel it was worth the trouble. So 2 hrs of playing games for $11. Can't really beat it! A few of the machines were out of order and it is kind of loud in there - which is fine. I'd rather hear loud machines than children screaming. We didn't eat there but I heard the food was pretty bad. It had a "$1 Jewel pizza" smell to it, which is nostalgic for me but I can make that shit at home. I'd go back to play more skee-ball :D read more

"Wow mom- this place is JUST like your office!" Yes, we have a game room and lots of energy, but thank goodness I don't feel the need to pull out my hand sanitizer every 10 minutes at work. I've somehow avoided Nickel City and Chuck e Cheese until attending a bday party this past weekend. And now that I've been to Nickel City adding it to the list of places dad gets for bday party duty (NC may even be on the list before pump it up). My daughter and the other kids had a blast here....hence the reason it's getting 3 (vs 2 stars). And it's cheap fun! While we were treated to lots of games from the bday party fam during this visit all the rides are no more than a few nickels. And it's a good thing they are so cheap because at 5 years old my daughter couldn't figure out most of them and was done within 3 seconds. However, there were about 5-10 games she loved. And she really loved the whole get tickets for a crappy toy concept. She didn't nearly get enough tickets for the hot dog shaped gummy she had her eye on but the guy behind the counter was nice enough to just let her have it. As for the bday party we were there during snack time (2-330pm) so they served ice cream, some type of juice and the bday parents brought a massive cake. Ice cream AND cake= every kids dream. And every parents worst nightmare. I dragged my sugared up kid home to throw her in the bath...followed by a good shower for myself to erase all traces of Nickel City. Of course later that night my daughter asked when we could go back. "Ask dad." read more

Nickel arcade for the kids. All games accept nickels. Bring your own or purchase them from the kids that run things. Bags of counted nickels with values of $5 or larger are available at the counter. Admission is $2 per person and for only those playing games. Adults only walking their kids are free. At the front of the arcade they have a few seats for parents that would rather sit and while waiting. Admission pays for their upkeep and for a few free machines found in the way back. A bunch of games that display "Free play" which means free credits for an unspecified amount of time. Nickel city has and serves food, they also have an area separate from the action for parties. The place is dilapidated, dated and could use a Lysol wipe or industrial type, hot water hose down. A decade or more back, the main draw were their video games. Awesome titles like Revolution X, X-MEN, Tekken Tag or GI JOE. Today it's all about ticket games. In comparison to Chuck E Cheese or some of the other ticketed game play places, this one rates pretty well. I've been bringing my nieces and nephews here for some time. Ranging in ages from 4 up to 12. They have a number of ticketed games for the kindergarten aged kids and stuff like "deal or no deal" for the older kids. Many of their machines have high payouts which make it fairly easy for your child to get a decent toy or trinket with even a lower spend of around $5 dollars. Watch out for the skee ball machines, kids often times steal balls or they are thrown elsewhere and your kid could lose nickels on these. If the machine looks to hard to play for an adult, SKIP IT!. Like those big machines which are filled with coins and a moving drawer that is pushing forward and drawing back. Makes you think with the right coin drop, many tokens will fall and you would be the winner of a high payout. BS, I've never seen anyone hit with this suck machine. If you have wee ones and like taking them to these kinds of places, look through some of my other reviews. I've been to a bunch of these places as of lately. Nickel City is worth an outing. read more

LLOOOVVEE THIS PLACE! $2 admission for each nickel games, BEST EVER!!!!! And best part they have free play! what?! What other establishment's do you know have free games? I know they have jungle gyms... but that's about it, but CLASSIC free games? My family and I are IN LOVE! Definitely blows Gameworks! The staff was very friendly and welcoming. The prizes weren't cheaply made either. Honestly, this is the place to take the family without going bankrupt! We didn't go for the food, which we probably won't ever. They have a Tepanyaki place in the same shopping center. Can't go wrong! read more

Nickel City - To those that say this game is luck... it's MaD sKiLlZ - Arcades Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Nickel City is awesome. You can easily spend hours there if you actually like video games. There is $2.00 entrance fee but ALL arcades and games from there run on nickels or are FREE. That's right... there is an entire section of free arcade games ranging from crappy sports games to up-scrolling spaceship shooters. No matter who you are, you will find a free game that you will enjoy playing. Water fountain in that section always shoots a perfect stream and is ice cold. The most expensive arcade there is Dance Dance Revolution which is at the whopping price of $0.50. Most other games are ~$0.15. AWESOME! There is a whole section of carnival-like games where you can win tickets to trade for prizes at the front desk. The selection of prizes isn't bad. Some of the prizes include crappy pencil erasers, inflatable toys, and electronic gadgets. Kids usually leave nickels on the floor or in machines so it's a good place to go if you ever happen to run out of nickels. A little food stand exists but I've never had the desire to eat there. Playing my PS3 or 360 is more fun than playing here, but it's the experience that makes it great. Kids these days probably don't know what an arcade is or what it was like to play video games in them, but as far as arcades go... this is the best! A must-go for all who want to play games. read more

Nickel City - Ticket game area - Arcades Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Nephew Loved it - especially Natalia who served us some delicious pizza and soda - so friendly and kind, would love to see again!

This is an arcade of a dying breed. And, for people like myself, a breath of fresh air at the same time. If you're looking for a place to have an hour or two of fun, without fighting ridiculous crowds, screaming kids, blaring music and still leave with money in your pockets when you're through, this is exactly that kind of place. They don't have all the new high tech virtual reality games. This is good old fashioned fun like original skeeball. Highly recommended! read more

About 1/3 of the games had out of order signs. Multiple other games ate our nickels, or buttons were missing. It was dirty- did not look like it had been vacuumed in quite some time. The ticket counting machine was out of order, and instead of hanging a sign on it, the employees waited for people to ask them and then told then, oh yeah, that does not work. read more

Great stuff! Took my 11 yr old and my 4 yr old and they loved it all. Old school freebies, (TMNT and Pac Man were favorites), the tickets and prizes. A couple games weren't working, but that's to be expected. Food was decent for an arcade and not terribly expensive- $2-4 for most items, we got a whole pizza, pitcher of pop and ice cream for $17. When we went (July 2016), it was $2 for each person to get in and then they have pre-counted bags of nickels. Also, note that most games are 2-5 each to play. Overall a GREAT value. We got a $5 bag of nickels which allowed for plenty of play for two kids. read more

Nickel City - Arcades Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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Great service, Covid safe and kid friendly. Go early in the morning to avoid the cowards. Bag of $5 last a good 2-3 hours of fun.

Friday, this was my first time visiting nickel city. I didn't know that a fun game place like this existed. It's a good place to bring your family. It's not too big nor too small. It has classic throwback arcade games for the big kids and coin games for the little ones. read more

Lowkey spot that will make you feel like a kid again! I'll begin with telling you all my favorite aspect about this arcade/caesarland type of spot. So it's only $2 for entry, and they have a bunch of arcade games that you can play FOR FREE! No tokens, no nickels needed. I spent like 30 minutes playing Pac-Man, the simpsons arcade game, and WWF wrestling! Everything else, pretty nice. Everything costs nickels and the minimum amount of nickels you can buy are $3 worth. The only thing that was annoying was that like half of the machines I was trying to play on didn't work and we needed to ask the people working to fix it. They weren't ever upset by it at all so I appreciated it, it's just the owners need to do something to minimize the machines from breaking down. I loved NickelCity. It's fun, it's cheap, and they have arcade games you can play for freeeee!! read more

A switch from Chuck E. Cheese and our usual bouncy house places. The kids enjoyed having their own bag of nickels to tote around from machine to machine. One of the machines cheated my niece and daughter out of tickets, and the staff quickly helped us and tested the machine. We all had fun, it was a great evening. read more

Nickel City - A fun time. - Arcades Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Been coming here for years and it's always been a fun place -- back in the day when it was Super Just Games all the way to Nickel City today. I'd give it a higher rating but for the larger than usual amount of non-working games lately and the one employee (who seems to be in charge) could use an attitude adjustment. The last few times there, he's been rude to other employees and short with customers. My advice would be: if working at an arcade causes you to talk to people that way, another line of work might be best. Both for relationships with customers and your own personal stress level. Still a fun place, but I try to avoid dealing with him if I can. read more

I love this place. Its my date spot with my boyfriend. Its like a chuckee-cheese but the games actually work.

Nickle City needs to have their staff go thru an attitude adjustment and some general tips of customer service. The staff is extremely rude. Two were beyond ignorant and almost made me loss my cool. Rolling your eyes and pointing fingers is not something I suggest to paying customers. We booked a party and it almost was a complete disaster but Only one of the staff members was patient and understanding. And went beyond words to accommodate us. I thank the one young lady that helped us in any way she could but the rest really need to get fired. read more

The Good There is a large selection of games of all kinds to satisfy all interests and ages. The place is clean and games are rarely if ever out of order. Your money goes far interns of how many hours of play you can get. The could use work The bathroom while clean doesn't have any paper towels. This is annoying because those air blowers rarely get your hands dry. The Staff at the front seems easily confused when it cones to how you want your coins divided up, or simply how many you get for a certain amount. The bad The cafeteria in needs a lot of work. First off it's usually unmanned and it can take awhile for an employee to come and see if you need anything. You have to ask for basic common sense things. As in we ordered a pizza and they gave it to us with no plates. We had to ask if they had any plates and she's like "Oh yeah, we have those how many do you want?" I told her and she gave me a different number then I asked for. This is just ridiculous. The food it self is not good. My husband got heartburn and my son who loves cheese pizza barely ate. Additionally, while they claim to have iced coffee what that really means is they'll give you a hot cup of coffee and a cup full of ice that you can pour the hot coffee over yourself. Overall. The games are great and it is a clean over all nice place. So, for a couple hours of fun for the kids it's a winner. However bring your own paper towels for the bathroom and plan to eat somewhere else. read more

i mean some of the games are worth it, however a lot of them are broken or always needing to be fixed. I went with my family which consisted of 4 of us. we asked the white male with grayish hair to help us with a machine that was giving out our tickets and then afterwards he kept following us around asking if we've seen his paycheck, which we didn't. it got to the point where we're like wtf, like are you accusing us? i then went to go cash my tickets in since they have to weigh it because of course, their machine to count them is broken. He's still going on asking us if we've seen it and then he says "here's your six hundred freaking tickets" and throws it so aggressively at the counter. and at that point my family member starts saying you don't need to be giving us attitude, you're more than welcome to search our bags and whatnot and then he says he didn't do anything wrong. At that point we walked away to go find the black man who i assume is the manager, he handled it well. he was working his butt off the whole time we were there to fix the machines. After that however the other kid who helped us out was just on his phone while we were trying to get our prizes.. I can't say i can recommend this place. the only reason i gave a star is just for the manager read more

It is a good place but the nacho chips were stale and a lot of the games were out of out of order. Staff was very nice, patient and helpful.

Hadn't been to Nickel City in years! Brought some family from California in and was impressed with the cleanliness of the business. The two young men who were working there were very friendly and helpful. We had a fantastic time! read more

Smells, old games, very small and stuffy. Wouldn't go there again. 2 stars for the workers they were polite, otherwise I wouldn't have put any stars. read more

Nickel City - Arcades Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

The place was great for kids and even for adults. Most of the games worth 4 nickels each and the arcades are mostly free play. The day that we went was really busy but we still had fun. It's easy to win tickets and the kids will love each game. They have a snack bar inside that is not like the other snack bars that will rip you off. The snacks are cheaper than other places. The only thing is you need to go to the counter to get somebody to assist you when they are busy. The owner (I think) was there and even assisted us from getting our prizes. We'll be back again to spend the nickels that we didn't use. Great place! read more

SO MUCH AWESOME! First of all, the machines take nickels. No more "BOO! I only have 1 token left and the game I want to play takes 2. WHAT DO I DO?!" Nickels are nickels. If you don't spend them all here? Put them in your coin jar and then get Starbucks cash credit from Coinstar. Cha-ching! Nickel City has a change machine on-site that takes $1 and $5 notes, AND they give you a baggy to carry around all your change in. Second (and most importantly of all): TETRIS IS FREE. Sure, the machine is a little old and the buttons won't be as sensitive to the touch as your shiny new PS3 controller, but play is free! Oh Tetris, I love you so. They also have other free play games too. They have a bunch of games from my teen years in Hong Kong, when my friends and I would spend all weekend at the arcade. TWO DDR machines (hey, I'm Asian), 1 Para Para Dance Machine (I have never seen one of these in the US. I made J play with me and we waved our hands around like maniacs. So fun!), and a Beatmania machine! WHAT?! All I need now to replicate my childhood is Bishi Bashi, SilentScope, Photohunt, and Typing of the Dead. Some things to note: - This isn't the shiniest arcade. Things are old. Things may need some extra cleaning. - They serve food here. (Not a nickel) - Admission is $2 per person. When we walked in, no one told us. We were only told after I got $5 in nickels. A little annoying, but no one was going to keep me away from Para Para. - As an adult, the prizes aren't too exciting. Right now, we're saving up for a packet of Starburst (or maybe a Cowtail) for 200 tickets. - Not very crowded on early Friday evening. read more

Woot..... this place is great. I remember when this place was called "Super Just Games". I remember coming here for Jewish Youth Group events (we had a freaking overnight lock-in here which is pretty sweet for gaming and then trying your A-game on some girls that were at the event..... nothing gets a girl going quite like the high score in Q-bert), I remember coming here for bday parties.... I've been here lots of times. $2 cover charge is cheap, but necessary since they charge nickels instead of quarters. So those fancy new videogames will cost you a quarter to try, standard video games less, and all the classics are free. So if you want to be smart about it, get there nice and early and go to one of the old school games that you were never able to beat and feel the glory and sense of accomplishment that comes with victory. read more

Back in the way back days of old, Nickel City was twice as big, had three-times as many games and I used to walk five miles each way in the snow to school too. Think of this like a ghetto backwoods Dave and Buster. It's a great place to hang out or geek out, and a great entertainment option for yourself or children on the cheap. I can skeeball until I'm sore or stupid for under $5. But as someone who used to come to this place ten years ago and remembers the glory days of the huge double rooms full of the newest games, comparing the rinky-dinky operation it is now just hurts my inner child. Still, go here and DO IT BIG with some friends or children. Arcades are just about dead. We need to support this final unicorn, if not for the joy it brings, then for the fantasy it represents; The days when we didn't all have 3 different consoles and 4500 games to play at home. read more

Firstly, they have Spider Stomp and Skeeball, though their Skeeball isn't quite as good as Haunted Trails. I'm apparently a connoisseur of this kind of shit now. What is wrong with me? Secondly, there's a section of free games. FREE. You can come in here and just let your brain die and your eyes go blind as you play Mario Kart or Battle Ball and not end up with an empty wallet. I could just keep enumerating this list, but I won't. Lots of good games, no tokens so you don't feel pressured to spend all your nickels. You could save them for annoying cashiers at other establishments. The prizes are pretty much what you'd expect, but who doesn't need a wide variety of putties, goos, and gels? IQ Putty. That's what I need. The bonus entertainment is eavesdropping on the arcade rats complaining that the game was broken and they DESERVE all those tickets. Riiiiiiight. Let it go, guys. It's really freakin' hot in here and the slushies are no good, otherwise this place would get a big fat five from me. read more

Took my family there on October 2018 and we had a blast. To start off with the staff was so friendly to my one year old daughter and it was affordable. They have newer and older games and we all had blast. Deff. coming back. Games are for older kids but we still had fun. It is very affordable as well!! I deff recommend this place!! read more

Horrible ! Do not go! We had a flyer that said free entry and coins but the arcade did not follow through. Liars. The games suck and eat up all your coins. Then when you do win a game it won't spit out any tickets. Arcade is out of date and broken down. Cheap but not worth it at all. Oh and the prizes even suck. Worst place. Should be torn down read more

I just can't stand this place anymore. I use to come here frequently as it is the ONLY place nearby to have the 1 and only game I want to play, Initial D Arcade Stage 3. The last time I came here was 7 months ago. Dingy looking, dirty, and machines sitting around broken. My favorite machine the right cabinet has a very dark screen, but otherwise OK. Left machine is unusable. Steering wheel does nothing but turn. And once again, no cards for the machine so unless you had one of your own you aren't saving any progress. Just came back today after being gone for 7 months and the SAME PROBLEMS still plague my machine. Not only that, but I called first to ask if they had it and they said "yes" and then intentionally I asked "is it in good working order?" and he told me it was. Bold-Faced lie. Not only that, but there are even MORE machines broken just sitting around. What do you know though? The redemption side is looking pretty nice with all working machines.... read more

Flippin' sweeet! I remember when this place was super just games - I geeked out when I first came here - Everything in nickels?!? WTF? Back in highschool this was a great place to spend a whole lot of time for like less than ten bucks...TEN BUCKS! If you don't want to be surrounded by kids, I recommend going a couple hours before closing time read more

Straight fire I absolutely love Nickel City I have been going here since it was called super just games. it is one of my favorite arcades. They have nickel games, some are 4 nickels, but it is a great deal. $2 admission includes free games, or they have a punch card for admission! They also have food and drinks and do parties! I had a surprise bday party here as an adult and it was a blast! read more

I still play video games, so what? I'm a gamer and I'm not ashamed by it. Nickel City is a paradise for fellow gamers like myself being one of the few last standing arcades in the Chicagoland area. Bring loose change and your piggy bank because everything runs on nickels. Nickel City is preserving the culture of arcades by catering to multiple generations. Originally Super Just Games, the place hasn't changed for 15 years. There is the same $2.00 admission fee, prizes, and several arcade classics on free play such as Pac Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Street Fighter Alpha. There is plenty of variety from fighters, shooters, racing games, and Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). You will see just as much excitement from five year olds as the many 20 and 30 year olds there. What better way to celebrate a birthday, bar mitzvah, anniversary, or promotion than with pizza and video games? I know where I'll be celebrating my birthday this year. During my most recent visit, there was a large group of competitive players who brought their own consoles, televisions, and joysticks playing in the back room. Imagine cult followers of Daigo and Justin Wong gathered in the same room playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Street Fighter 4. Many of these players were at the tournament level often doing ridiculous and mind blowing combos. How they memorize these button combinations is beyond me. Whether they were still living at home or had a full time job was debatable but everyone was having fun regardless. I thank the management team for keeping this nirvana alive. Nickel City, may you prosper and be a city that never dies. read more

Some of their games are inevitably broken, they don't have best selection of games, and they do not have updated decor. Understandably, their free play games in the back are well-worn. You get what you pay for and what you get here for $14 is well worth it. This is a budget-friendly arcade where your kid (or husband) isn't going to blow $200 in an hour playing games they could play for free at home or flying on the high of trying to win a $20 toy. If you want top of the line arcade games and cost is no factor for you, look elsewhere. This place arguably has all the essential games. Skeeball, basketball, air hockey, pinball, coin pushers, coin rollers, a couple shooter games, a couple fighter games, racing games, etc. I miss this place because going to regular arcades is dangerous for us. My husband is addicted to those coin pusher games that eat your money FAST. Nickel City is the place to go for that. With $2 entry and a $5 bag of nickels for each of us, we can spend at least 2 hours here having a great time. There's free play games in the back if you run out of money. That's a cheaper date than going to the theatre. If you're going as teens or adults and want to avoid tripping over kids, go after dinner. This place is open pretty late so you'll have plenty of time. Bring your nickels, they don't use tokens (hallelujah). read more

I used to come here all the time when it was called "Super Just Games" and once or twice when it was "Capcom Super Nickel Arcade." Aside from being turned away for some kids birthday a couple of times, the biggest disappointment I had was discovering once that they had gotten rid of all their pinball machines. I'm not sure if this is still true since I haven't been back for a couple of years, though I'm trying to arrange some kind of trip with my friends from the city. Overall, it's a fun experience. For adults like myself, I wouldn't plan on spending more than a couple of hours in there unless you're dragging a niece around or something. The games are fun, but the whole place can get a little tired after a while. Don't make this place a destination, but it's a great place to drop by if you're checking out a movie or a bar elsewhere in the same night. read more

DON'T GO HERE!!!!!!! This place is so awful that I literally downloaded Yelp just to review this tremendous place. About all of the games there either don't give you tickets or are out of order. So, when my family and I went to go talk to management, they said "what games?" And I yelled at the guy and said "YOU MUST BE BLIND!!!" because how are you the one asking me, "What games are down?" when YOU GUYS ARE THE PEOPLE THAT PUT UP THE OUT OF ORDER SIGN. Then, if you don't spend all of your nickels and ask for cash one of the people said "I don't know if we do refunds". I swear PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! Also, they have free games to play and ALL OF THEM ARE TURNED OFF!!!!!! Just don't waste your time here. We (me and my family) got into a whole argument with them and we did not even waste our breath on this people. Also, when you ask them "so, when are the games going to get fixed?" They say "we don't know how to fix them just how to make sure they are not jammed." That is BS. I would've gave this place zero stars if possible. Another thing that is messed up is when you win tickets they don't count them they weigh them which is such an inaccurate of measuring them. Overall, I would not recommend bringing anyone of your loved ones here. read more

If I could give this place no stars I would. First of all 90% of the games have a out of order sign on almost every game. Some games aren't turned on and some don't give you tickets. They have more workers than games that actually work. When you asked staff questions about the establishment they had no answers. Why even allow people to go in when 90% of everything is out of order. The staff didn't seem to care that nothing was working. When we question a manager about the place he refuse to think there was a problem. When I question why was everything off he refuse to acknowledge that the place is going down. I wish I would of read reviews before going here. I use to come here years ago and clearly this establishment is not run by the same management. Don't let your kids have a party here for their friends to make fun of them to have a party at a place that has none working machines. I ended up coming home with the same amount of Pennie's I purchase. read more

I am an expert at this place. Since I used to get paid to take kids out on fun outings, this was always my alternative to Chuckee Cheese...and the kids always liked it too. First off, Julia K. explained the concept pretty well...games cost between 5-40 cents. In the front there are a whole bunch of ticket giving/skill type games. In the middle there are numerous racing, shooting and fighting games. Then you have the rhythm games....and then in the back are the games people over 15 would spend hours playing. Revisit all the wonders of the 1980s and early 1990s and play Packman, Tetris, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Viper. Best of all is that the games in the back are all free. When I go here I end up playing a lot of DDR because I'm addicted to it. Their console is okay, but sometimes it needs adjusting. However, the little sign says that it costs 8 nickels to play...but if you put your nickels in slowly, it only costs 6...oh yes I have been here waaaaay too many times. The prizes you can get for your tickets are waaaaaay better than those at Chuckee Cheese. However, unlike at Chuckee Cheese, there are games that won't be appropriate for children. Oh, and if you to their website they have a coupon for getting free nickels with paid admission. read more