From the long entrance hallway you enter into a room buzzing with nostalgia. Vintage pinball machines, Sega and Nintendo emulators on large screen TVs, arcade games, and even good ole’ skee ball. Downtown Toronto’s Tilt is unlike other arcades – they are not pay-per-play, but rather you pay a $5 cover at the door and all the games are at your disposal. You can spend hours here, trust me – I’ve done it. Not only does Tilt have a fully-licensed bar with a wide selection of craft beers, but they also have a decent menu with options like corn dogs, funnel cake, nachos, poutine, hot dogs, hamburgers and even deep-fried mars bars. I tried their chicken fingers and was pleasantly surprised at the portion size and their very fair pricing.

Back to the games, my favourite is the old school Ice Cold Beer in which you have to balance a ball on a metal bar and avoid getting it in the unmarked holes. After many rounds we managed to get to level seven, a personal best!

Tilt is the perfect place to go with friends to kill a few hours and feel like a kid again, and maybe even break a few high scores! If you’re visiting with minors (under 19), they are welcome to play until 20:00. Knowing that most of their customers just can’t get enough, many of the pinball games are on rotation so you can be guaranteed to try a new one next time you drop in.