This past Friday night saw the Grand Opening of Las Vegas’ first “Videolounge Gamebar,” Insert Coin(s).

The idea behind the place is sort of a fusion between an arcade and a club environment, with a huge bar in the middle of the floor, booths with flatscreen TV’s and attached consoles (from NES to Xbox 360) lining the eastern wall, arcade machines scattered throughout the building, and a DJ booth in the back to keep the beats coming.

The layout of Insert Coin(s) mostly works, but there are a few areas where only one person can fit through at a time. This makes it kind of difficult to navigate if someone’s trying to play a game. As with any arcade, I suspect the floor plan will be constantly changing and improving so this isn’t a huge issue.

The drinks are somewhere between dive bar and club prices, with a Jack and Coke running me $7. This is reasonable compared to some of the other places in Vegas, but I can’t see myself going here to get drunk when I can easily do so for a lot less elsewhere in town.

Since it’s located downtown parking can be a bit of a pain if you go on a busy night, but it’s not enough of a deterrent to stop me from taking a friend from out of town to check it out.

A lot of the machines reportedly weren’t fully working Thursday and Friday night. I can say from firsthand experience that on the Street Fighter III Third Strike machine the 2P side’s up-left refused to register. I still managed to get a few wins, but it was pretty difficult not being able to jump forward. Something like that seems like a pretty easy fix so as long as they’ve got one or two competent techs on staff it shouldn’t be difficult to get these kinks ironed out quickly.

Vegas already has a locals’ arcade, called Gemini, and at this point it’s a much more solid choice if you’re looking to actually go play games at an arcade. They focus 100% on getting and maintaining a wide variety of games that its customers want to play, and they’re very good at it. Gemini doesn’t need to worry about running a bar, so they can dedicate all their time to keeping their machines in tip-top shape. That’s not to say I won’t play at Insert Coin(s), but they won’t be taking over as my default arcade anytime soon.

If anything, Insert Coin(s) is an ambitious idea limited mainly by the demographic it’s trying to cater to (if it can decide which one it’s going for). The drinks are too pricey for hardcore arcade-goers to make it a regular haunt, and I can’t imagine the kind of people who are willing to pay $7 per drink are going to fully appreciate the selection of games available here. It’s an interesting mix, and I’m sure it’ll be ultra-popular at Vegas’ monthly First Friday gathering downtown. As it stands, it’s a decent arcade and a decent bar — which do manage to blend well — but will blend much better if and when they lower the price of drinks, get rid of some low-traffic games to make more room and fix the games people are playing.

I look forward to seeing how Insert Coin(s) evolves in the coming months, especially since there’s talk of officially-sponsored gaming events happening there in the near future. As of right now, I’d say Gemini is still the place to go if you’re looking to play games, but Insert Coin(s) is a better spot to go hang out with a friend if you want to grab a couple drinks during happy hour, and maybe sink a few quarters into a Galaga machine. If you ever find yourself in Vegas, make sure to swing by both arcades, as they’re definitely both worth looking into. In the meantime, have a look at some photos from Insert Coin(s)’ soft opening last Thursday!