NQ64 Birmingham, Semi Private Space

This place had it all, very good atmosphere, great staff, cool quirky look and great value for money. My only gripe and the reason this review doesn't get a 5* is that half the arcade joysticks and buttons didn't work correctly preventing the best experience playing old games from our youth. Was the same with some of the control pads on the consoles buttons in effective hard to complete in game moves. If they can sort those issues out with controls this place would be perfect, will be returning but hopefully with fixed machines.

The thing is, this place is a lot better on weekdays than weekends. On weekends the music is so loud it hardly feels like a social establishment, because the music is so loud it makes any attempt at conversation awkward. Plus there's nowhere to dance (except technically the DDR machines, but come on) so the loudness of the music feels kind of pointless in practice. The weekday playlist is way better than the weekend playlist - the weekend one is full of hip hop bangers while the weekend one is more pop-centric generally. The volume is more manageable as well, compared to the weekends where it's almost unbearably loud. Don't even get me started on the time they brought in that crappy reggaeton DJ, on a Saturday football match day. The consoles are the main reason I come here personally - they have these signs against console hogging and all, but personally because I mostly show up on weekends, in practice this has never been enforced on me. I have completed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 twice and Resident Evil 4 once, and I have never once been asked to move from a console or even approached for staying on one too long. Besides that I love the general atmosphere of the location - it's kind of grimy in a stylish way with all the graffiti and writing (feel free to bring your own marker and leave your mark here) and the lighting is just right for this place's dirty but stylish feel. Drink prices kind of suck though, as is the standard with Digbeth places. At this point on the occasion I do order drinks, it's because I feel I owe the place for all the times I've hogged the consoles on Wednesdays and Thursdays without buying anything. So yeah, as I said at the start, this place is a lot more enjoyable on weekdays than weekends. I'm biased because I'm autistic and am a little more sound-sensitive than most - take that as you will. I LOVE this place, as an autistic nerd. But it really could be better here, if it just didn't conform as much to the club atmosphere of Digbeth and embraced its own identity as an oddity around here.