Fantasia Amusements Arcade Southend

Fantasia Amusements is located on the Eastern Promenade at the seafront in Southend-on-Sea. A short walk from the Southend Pier, this arcade venue is nestled between the Britannia fish and chip shop and Bobby Jo’s seaside takeaway.

Arcade Entrance

Fantasia arcade is situated on the corner of Eastern Esplanade and Beach Road and has a wide frontage. Out front one can find various young kiddie rides and claw machines. There is also a boxing punch machine and an ATM machine built into the wall. 

There are three entrances on the front that open into the main arcade and also a fourth entrance next to the ATM that opens into a fruit and slot machine area. 

Coin Pushers

The arcade is large and spacious with an open plan design. There is a great range of both familiar and unusual coin pushers to play here. We enjoyed Happy Days, The Can Can, Summertime, Old MacDonald and a long row of Super Sonic coin pushers. There was also a small children’s sized coin pusher called Bionic Bunch which was interesting to see. 

Many of the coin pushers seemed to be vintage and had lovely artwork and design, though many did not pay out ticket wins. Good news is the arcade has many larger ticket arcade games to make up for this. 

Crane Claw Machines

There is a generous range of claw grabbers dotted all around this venue with many different sizes and types. There is a long row of crane claw machines along the side wall all offering a wide range of interesting plush toy prizes. 

They have some smaller sized claw machines for pint-sized players including Good Mood Game Time and some hybrid grabbers paying out sweets and lollies as prizes including the classic Sweet Land Premia and a bright pink Electrocoin Toyland. 

Classic Arcade Games 

Fantasia has a nice range of classic arcade games and these included an air hockey table, motorcycle racing game called Phantom Motorcycle and a Dance Dance Revolution dance machine. There were also two other sets of racing games at the back of the venue. 

Retro Arcade Games

For arcade enthusiasts they also have six player Whittakers Roulette and an original Whittakers Gold Cup horse racing game. These retro arcade machines used to be in every arcade back in the eighties and nineties and can rarely be found today.

Fairground Games

Fantasia arcade really shines when it comes to ticket paying fairground games, and they have a huge range of modern games and machines for all of the family to enjoy. 

With too many to list, the first ticket arcade game that caught our attention was Tiki Tumble, which has a great islander style design. The idea of this game is to catch yellow and pink balls that spin round into the Tiki cups and for every 4 balls caught tickets are paid. 

Most of the fairground style machines can be found along the rear wall of the venue and these included skee ball arcade machines, basketball shooting games, Baseball Pitching Hero and bowling machines. They also have a nice range of basketball shooting machines for smaller children to play and also Hoop-a-ball, where you have to throw a ball into the flashing hoops. 

Big Ticket Arcade Machines

The entertainment venue also had a nice range of larger sit-down style ticket arcade games including Mr Do Space Rocks, Pirate Captain shooting game and Mr Do Airballs 2.

Ticket Slot Machines

At the rear of the venue close to the ticket prize window and change kiosk is a row of interesting ticket slot machines. In the middle is a Tickets Galore triple machine, which has some lovely fairground style artwork. To the right are two standalone ticket slots including Aladdin and Pieces of Eight. To the left are three fancy arch cabinet style ticket machines including Adders & Ladders, Wizard of Ozz and Ghost Train.  

£5 Jackpot Fruit Machines

The righthand-side entrance takes players into a narrow area where there are two rows of various different £5 jackpot fruit machines. These included a Clockwork Oranges triple, Party Time triple, standalone Clockwork Oranges and similar cabinets including Thunderball and a Bling King Barcrest fruit machine.  

Casino Gaming Area

Tucked behind the ticket slots is the adult gaming area, which has a nice range of various types of fruit and slot machines. These including a Party Time Double Decker triple, Bullion Bars triple and various standalone fruit machines including chrome-cab Crazy Fruits. They also have a Skill Ball Eyes Down Bingo machine with £50 jackpot. 

Verdict Venue

Fantasia has a nice blend of machines perfect for all family members and ages. There are classic and retro machines that older family members would have enjoyed as children which can be shared with the younger generations and enjoyed by all. The shelf prizes and plush toy wins are generous and a family could spend hours in here having fun. 

Featured Machine: Mr Do Space Rocks