Our family checked out Smitty’s GameLAB in Topsham, Maine recently on a Saturday around lunchtime. There is a large parking lot for this shopping center and the GameLAB is sandwiched between a Reny’s and Sherman’s Book Shop (so on this Saturday morning the parking was pretty full!). It would be good to note that the arcade is in a separate building than the Smitty’s Cinema, which is a popular chain of dine-in movie theaters – the cinema is in the same plaza, but its entrance is further down and around the corner.
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The Prize Wall
Right when you walk in, you are hit with the sight of the Prizes Wall – and you know what, it is very well done. This is probably the best prize wall I have seen so far. There are a lot of options for all different amounts of tickets – various toys, sweets, board games, and gadgets. There were 3 full walls of floor to ceiling prizes, so it looked very stunning, too.
The staff were very friendly at the prize counter and very helpful to get us started in the right direction to purchase our credits to play the games. So after that interaction and seeing this prize wall, I knew we had to at least try to go home with something.
The Pricing
Smitty’s GameLAB costs $1 for 8 credits. At $10 and higher, you will get an increasing percentage of bonus credits along with the purchase. We paid $10 to get 80 credits + 8 bonus credits. At $50, you would get a 35% bonus of credits (140 bonus credits).
There are some caveats with the system at Smitty’s GameLAB – after not seeing my bonus credits appear when playing my first game, I asked a staff person and found out that the bonus credits cannot be used with the crane games, so that is an interesting distinction. As an additional fee, you are also charged $1 every time you load a new card with credits. So if you plan to have multiple cards, or if you return for another visit and forget your original card, you would get charged an extra $1 upfront.
Arcade Games at Smitty’s GameLAB
Most of the games at Smitty’s GameLAB Topsham are modern arcade games. They had a mix of crane games, racing games, virtual reality, and many ticket-winning games.
The smaller ticket-based games are 8 – 10 credits per play, while the bigger prize games and cranes were 16 – 24 credits. Racing games ranged around 16 credits each. Overall, this is a little higher priced than some of the other arcades we have been to recently.
So what did we play? There was a very cool Hot Wheels racing game that gave tickets – there was a pedal, but you stood up to play the game so that was a different variation on this style. We had a lot of fun with that one. We played the arcade versions of classic games like ring toss, kicking soccer goals, and knocking down milk bottles.
We tried our hand at a couple crane games and walked away with a rubber turtle! One of the coolest arcade games we saw was one called “Snow Day”. Essentially, you stand in a tube and white/blue plastic balls (like from a ball pit) are continually dropped on your head. You must pick them up off the floor or catch them mid-air and then stuff as many balls as possible into the container opening in front of you. We watched a child take this one on, and they looked to be having a great time with it!
The Bar Area
Directly next to the arcade games, you can easily flow into the bar area, which has booths, high-top tables and a full bar, completely surrounded by big-screen TVs. Smitty’s GameLAB has a full menu of fried foods, burgers, and drinks, with staff that will take your order and serve you.
This area is also where the birthday/parties are set up. Smitty’s ropes off some tables for your group and adds some nice popcorn buckets to the table. There were 3 or 4 parties set up and going while we were there. Even with that, the facility never felt too overly crowded.
We decided to order lunch and got a high-top table in a middle area between the bar and the booths. After placing our order, we put our coats on the chairs and went back into the arcade while the food was being prepared. At this time of day, the food came pretty quickly. I think we only waited about 15 minutes and the food was there.
We ordered:
- Chicken Tenders Platter = $15.49
- Quesadilla with Chicken = $15.48
- Side of Fries = $6.49
- Large Soda = $5.99
Overall, the food was good. The fries were crispy and tasty, the quesadilla was big and had nice chunks of chicken in it. But since the quesadilla did not come with anything we ordered the side of fries – so I’m not sure I could say that $22 for a quesadilla and fries is worth it. Also, $6 for a soda seemed a little high to us (is this what soda costs now?!).
Final Thoughts
Smitty’s GameLAB is extremely clean, well set-up with different areas that flow, and friendly and attentive staff. There were plenty of modern games to occupy us, and enough space to move around and check out all of the spaces. All that said, this arcade is a little more expensive than others we have visited, but still think it is a good value because of how nice the experience is, especially the bar area and prize wall.
At the end of our visit, we had racked up about 280 tickets which was enough to earn us 4 small plastic dinosaurs, a slightly larger plastic food toy, and some candy. That along with the small duck we won from the crane was a pretty good haul to take home.
See more about Smitty’s GameLAB in our directory, or go straight to their website here.
