Beach Amusements Arcade Blackpool

Beach Amusements Arcade is the most southernly public amusement arcade on the Blackpool Promenade and is located at the entrance to the Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Whilst there is another arcade within the Pleasure Beach called Playdium, this is subject to the wider park’s entrance fees. 

The arcade itself is free to enter and is located on the outside of the Pleasure Beach complex with many entrances and exits. This little gem circumvents the entrance fee of the wider park though indirectly benefits from being part of the Pleasure Beach (just without the entrance fee). This means that it has some great machines and generous prizes on offer.

Arcade Entrance

The amusement arcade has four entrances on the promenade and also a couple that open into the entrance area of the Pleasure Beach. The arcade is rectangular shaped with its length sprawling down the promenade with nice sea views.

From the main entrance there is a small lower ground foyer area with a couple of steps that lead up to the main arcade. Here, players are immediately greeted by some Namco Pac-Man Ball Machines and a Lucky Ducks Derby Racer.

From the foyer, the arcade splits into two separate areas. A smaller rear lower ground area where players can find some big arcade machines and also then the main arcade, which is all one level, facing the beach  (past the foyer area). 

Coin Pushers

As visitors step up into the main arcade, there is a mixture of different types of arcade machines, though the bulk of the coin pushers are in the first section of the arcade. Here players can enjoy a great range of modern coin pushers with ticket prizes and even a new looking coin pusher called Dracula Pots of Tickets that has an upper feature board. 

There are fan favourite coin pushers with three reels including the lovely looking Butterfly, Sweet Falls and Rainbow Riches. There is also a circular Scooby Doo machine that also pays out ticket wins. The one thing that we noticed at this amusement arcade was that the coin pushers were stocked full of shelf prizes including lots of different sweets and lollies and keychain toys. The attendants were friendly and assisted us with stuck prizes that we had won.

Crane Claw Machines

Opposite the coin pushers is a long row of claw machines and these are the classic EX-1 machines with a great range of quality prizes. Beach amusements also had many other types of interesting claw grabbers, and these included some Skill Cut machines where players can win giant bears and also the ever popular Win Fall Revolution, where players have to stop the rotating disc on the prize they want. 

There were also some other crane machines that caught our eye, and these included a freestanding full-sized four-player machine called ‘Trend Invaders Catcher’ by Colour Mix. This was a standard claw game, though in a very colourful machine cabinet with modern LED lighting and see-through compartments. 

They also had another Colour Mix array of machines in the middle section against the wall and here there were four claw machines of the same style with an upper advertisement banner stating ‘Play the Latest Cranes’. It appears that this is the way the technology is heading with colour changing LEDs and programmable advertising banners. 

Classic Arcade Games 

There are some classic style arcade games in the Beach Amusements, and these are mostly in the form of arcade racing games. At the main entrance is a two-player Moto Blitz DX motorbike racing game perfect for friends to race one another. Further in the middle section of the arcade is also an air hockey table and another single motorbike racing game with the screen mounted on the bike. This is called Moto X and this looks like it is more suited to younger children / smaller riders. 

In the rear lower ground area classic fans will be happy to find the Mission Impossible arcade game shoot-em-up and also a Transformers Shadows Rising shooter game. 

Fairground Arcade Machines

There is no shortage of exciting fairground style arcade games in this arcade, and these are mainly located in the middle section opposite the prize shop. The prize shop has a great range of prizes that can be redeemed for tickets. There is a huge range of sweets and lollies, gadgets and handheld gizmos and keychains and souvenirs to be had.  

For younger children there are two smaller fairground games called Shark Park and Funny Monkey, which are both aiming games that payout tickets for high scores. There is also a World Football Pro machine which is a large football game where you have to shoot past an electronic goalkeeper – a very popular equivalent of the boxing punch machine games, except for die hard football fans.

Next door to the prize shop is a great fairground game called Balloon Buster, where players have to hit the exact target on the balloon to pop it and win a high-quality prize. They also have a Mega Blaster by Touchmagix, where payers have to blow up a virtual stack of TNT, just like in the classic cartoons. Time the press of the plunger just right to hit the bonus and win a huge reem of redemption tickets. Along a similar wild west theme is the addictive Fast Gunman game, where players have to be quick on the draw and aim at bottle targets to win ticket prizes. 

Further along the arcade are also Down the Clown and Shark Park for adults to enjoy and these two machines really embody the fun fair stalls and pier games of the past. Perfect to be playing this close to the beach. Another interesting fairground style machine in the beach arcade is the Coco Bowl game where players have to catch falling coconuts into the joystick-controlled bowl to score big and win ticket prizes. 

Wheel Spinners

There are two fantastic wheel spinner arcade machines in this arcade, which allow the players to spin-a-win in the form of a tickets. There is a Wile E Coyote's Rocket Wheel spinner and also a Big Bass Reel Pro. An easy way to gain more tickets, why not give them a spin to see how many tickets you can win?

Big Arcade Machines

Beach Amusements has no shortage of big, chunky arcade machines and here players can enjoy a large two-player Space Invaders Frenzy machine, which pays out ticket wins for scoring well or beating high scores.  There is also a Fireball ticket redemption game here with 1000 ticket bonus. 

Two players can also enjoy the Dream Ball redemption game from Ace Amusements. The idea here is to roll the ball in the right direction along the track on the display without falling off. Players are rewarded with ticket wins if they are able to complete levels and beat the time.

Another great find at this Arcade is the Mr Do Space Rocks arcade machine. This is named after the classic eighties arcade hit, though provides a modern ball pusher hybrid game that is exciting to play and easy to score ticket wins. With hugely addictive gameplay players will want to keep playing this legendary arcade game. 

Ticket Slot Machines

Near the coin pushers are two standalone ticket slot machines both with jackpots of up to 500 tickets! These are Puffy Billy and Tickety Boo and they both have upper feature boards. In this area there are also several change machines for notes and a wide range of coin denominations. 

£5 Jackpot Fruit Machines

At the far end of the arcade in the southernmost corner is a large section dedicated to five-pound jackpot fruit machines. These range right from the eighties up to the modern day and there is a huge selection, perfect for any enthusiasts. 

There is a modern triple Bullion Bars machine with upper feature board from Astra Gaming that has a £5 jackpot with repeat chance. Players can also find two Skill Ball Zingy machines in this section both with £50 jackpots. 

On the end wall up to four players can sit-down and enjoy the large Adders and Ladders game board, where players who make it onto the feature board can play a real-life game of snakes and ladders with the chance to win a great cash prize. 

With so many standalone fruit machines in this area there really are too many to list, though here are some of the ones that we spotted. Players can find Open the Box, Treble Top, Cop the Lot, Tomb Raiders, Korma Chameleon, four Deal or No Deal variants, Temple of Treasure, Most Daunting and many more fantastic £5 jackpot fruit machines. 

Casino Gaming Area

Sadly there is not adult casino gaming section in this arcade and we think that is appropriate given that the Pleasure Beach is a family entertainment venue, though with the amount of £5 fruit machines available to play, there really is something for everyone here. 

Venue Verdict

Visitors will be pleasantly surprised by this arcade as it does not look like much from the outside and after becoming familiar with its unusual layout, players will realise that it has a fantastic range of modern coin pushers and ticket redemption machines, great prizes and fruit machines spanning generations. 

A perfect pit-stop before or after entering the pleasure beach (and never seems to be busy). Highly recommended to visit when in the south end of Blackpool. 

Featured Machine: Coco Bowl