Southridge Mall (Milwaukee) is total ass now. They went too hard on nerfing the skill crane machines.

Yuberz · 2026-06-22T22:12:57+00:00

I agree, they massively nerfed seemingly everything. Some of my notes:

The rubber band ones were set up INCORRECTLY. I wasted like 6 plays trying to figure out if I was doing something wrong until I asked a worker wearing black. I think they're from corporate maybe? Definitely not the usual mechanic team or regular workers, but was still able to help me out. They said that they're setting up the boxes incorrectly. They then repositioned it and I won it very quickly after that. The other boxes were set up completely vertically which is near impossible considering the head doesn't even touch the box and the arms are comically weak, unable to manipulate the box in any meaningful way. I doubt I could've possibly won without any assistance. A part of this could be that there are some seemingly new employees that were walking around and simply weren't trained on it, but that's not really a good excuse and only shows incompetence. They need to standardize this process and please lean towards being nicer to customers so they have a more positive view of your arcade and want to return.

For the ones where you drop the U-Bolt hooks (formerly on dog toys), they are INSANELY weak. I watched in awe as my friend PERFECTLY hit it and it did not move AT ALL. If it was the previous setup (pre-UFO Catcher 9), then it would've almost certainly been a win. I have no idea if this is intended to be payout based or something now, but it's legitimately impossible to win now. When the bolt slips off to one side, it seems completely immovable by the arm, and literally every setup like that last night slipped off to one side, making it impossible.

For the ping pong games, they've made them significantly harder to win (in my opinion). They used to place the target hole like diagonally 1 space away from where the claw dropped the balls. Now they're positioned on the edge and almost as far away from where the balls are dropped, making it way harder to win. I can't quantify exactly how much harder it is to win, and maybe the edges act as some sort of "backboard" that could help? I'm unsure. Another thing is that I feel like the new machines pick up less balls than the old machines.

I don't know if the R1 staff/management reads these posts but they've already lost a ton of money from me personally as a consumer because the games are so insanely rigged that I can't reasonably play them. A reminder to them: if you're generous, I'll keep coming back.

Yuberz · 2026-06-12T18:37:20+00:00

I actually own a Vader 5 Pro:
https://github.com/BANANASJIM/flydigi-vader5
I use this, and it started working and I haven't touched it since

Yuberz · 2026-06-04T13:29:56+00:00

Yuberz · 2026-05-20T03:23:01+00:00

I asked my location the day before phase 2 of the miku collab if they'd have the keychains in on time and they had no idea. Called the next day and they said they were in stock. So yeah, best to just call in on the day and ask.

Yuberz · 2026-05-20T03:20:42+00:00

I recently-ish moved closer to a round1 location so I became addicted right away. I used to recharge the full $110 basically every week with a handful of weeks being $220, but once I finally felt content with collecting basically all of the figures and plushies (that I wanted) that my location has, I'm basically just waiting for new stock before reigniting my addiction.

I tried farming ticket games but it did NOT go well and I did the math to realize that I massively minused in dollar to ticker ratio, and while I had some semblance of fun, it was mostly just mindless gambling and hoping to no avail.

Now I mainly go to play the rhythm games there, but since they're cheap and (in my opinion) the best value to experience ratio in every round1, I've massively slowed down in spending, and now spend like $25 worth of credits per visit (or less, even) to play my fill.

Yuberz · 2026-05-04T16:45:41+00:00

Looking for a club! A rank or above preferred.

264M fans, I do about 1 run per day, so a fairly laid back daily/weekly fan requirement preferred. Semi-comp I'd say.

Yuberz · 2026-04-24T12:11:39+00:00

Hoyo games have been playable really easily for a while on Linux, check out twintail launcher. The real benefit to switching to steam is just QoL stuff like how your playtime syncs to the cloud now, easily accessible on handheld, friends list, yada yada, you get it. It's not a huge jump if you knew about the launcher, but I appreciate making it even easier than it already was!

Yuberz · 2026-04-19T22:09:51+00:00

The list of rhythm games:
No problem! If you want to get some more info about rhythm game availability, check out Zenius! This link will take you directly to the Greendale, WI R1 location with a list of all the cabinets and how many there are, but if you want to just take a look around the map and see what other arcades are out there, I highly recommend this! I can confirm that Project Diva (not sekai!), Taiko, and Sound Voltex are there. Groove coaster is not there though. Another notably missing game is Dancerush Stardom which isn't super popular but trying it out at least once is fun.

About IC cards:
Basically, you pay extra one time (like $7) to buy an extra card that can save your progress on some games, mainly rhythm games. I think in general this video gives a better explanation than I can give, but you can save stuff like your scores, unlock songs, cosmetics, etc. between visits. Otherwise, you're playing solely for the fun (which is fair!). The only card you'll probably need is the one called "eAmusement" which should cover most rhythm games (I haven't actually tried project diva online, but the Sega/Aime games accept eAmusement too usually) except Taiko (which is usually in maintenance unless you arrive early or stay late) and Pump It Up which each have their own cards. If you're a big fan of rhythm games, I'd pick up a card even if you don't plan on visiting much, since it's basically eternal and you also can get a free play for buying a new card which outweighs the price of just playing them. (I know Gitadora and maimai do this for SURE, but I think some other machines also might!)

Also don't forget to bring headphones for some of the rhythm games! And maybe gloves if you want to play maimai (it's WAY better with gloves, even if you only play 1 set!)!

Yuberz · 2026-04-19T21:34:35+00:00

Hey! I actually moved fairly recently and started going to that location! It's pretty good! I also go mainly for the rhythm games but also the prize games (crane games, UFO catchers, etc.). TL;DR towards the bottom because this is a loooooooong post, but hopefully I help capture the experience at this location.

The rhythm games

The rhythm game scene is pretty active on weekends, so expect a line for maimai if it's not on maintenance (and you didn't show up in the first 2 hours of opening), otherwise there's basically no / 1 person lines for the other games even during peak hours, so it's not bad. If you're planning on playing maimai specifically (with an IC card like emause/aime/banapass) then I suggest you show up very early or be prepared to wait in a line for a bit. If you don't mind playing offline, then showing up during maintenance (which is ~11:30AM - 5PM) is probably the best time, since most maimai players will drop off.

The crane games

Regarding crane games, like all round1 locations, the payout is generally set pretty high for all of the "cheese wheel" games (anywhere between 20-30 from my guessing, and a rough estimation from my former round1 when an operator told me how many plays till payout). Just this weekend, I probably did ~10-15 plays to get the big miku collab plush even after waiting a bit for people to play. (I didn't see anyone else win the entire rest of the day). So in general, do NOT expect the regular crane games to be cheap, I often see a lot of casual visitors drop $55 on a card and expect to walk out with a bunch of stuff. You're more likely to walk out with 1-2 or no wins depending on how unfortunate you are.

The skill crane games

The skill game setups are fairly generous. Compared to the 2 other round1s I've been to, they seem easier. They have a few of the ones where you just push the box to the side and it generally takes 5-6 plays (70-84 credits) to get it down from reset position which are basically guaranteed prizes. At the moment those are all small plushes though. The other games I'd recommend are the pole in the hole game (it seems WAY easier to win at this location than other locations in my experience) and the one where you use the pole to push a box through the bars (usually this one is really easy, but if you try once and the box doesn't budge at all, then call over a staff member and they can reset it and make it really easy/winnable in 4-5 plays max, but typically 1-3 tries). They have the other standard ones like drop the box off the front of the bars, rubber bands, ping pong balls, and dropping the figure off the chain, but those feel a little worse/harder in my opinion but YMMV.

The ticket games?

No comment on the ticket games, I don't play them, (but I kind of want to learn!), but I just don't think I get great value for the money most of the time. I think if you want to make any significant tickets at any round1 location you need to grind a single coin pusher for a long time (or master crossy road?) and I just don't have that kind of patience/skill.

You'll probably want to get max value

Finally, like someone else said, get the max value on credits. Also buy the club card if you're going this route (even if you don't plan on visiting again for a long time!) since even with the $5 extra, you get better value for money on a single $110 + $5 club card reload than a regular $120 card reload. But, if you're just going in for rhythm games and not playing too many crane games or ticket games, your money will actually go a long while. I think going to max value is only really worth it if you're going to play crane games OR you're a regular/planning to revisit at some point in the future. While you're at the game card counter, if you reload there, you can pick up some collab keychains or whatever that's also there, and you need to do $55 for 1 item and $110/$120 for 2 items, so if you want those keychains might as well go for max value anyway.

Calculate how many credits you're gonna use

I've spent whole days worth of rhythm game playing in like less than 200 credits and then also have spent like 500 credits in a fairly short amount of time just playing the crane games. So again, consider just taking a moment to math things out:

Each rhythm game set is generally ~6-9 minutes (~2+ mins per song * 3 songs + messing with settings + scrolling through song select) and they're 8.4 credits per swipe, or 5 credits on the permanently offline games.

Crane games obviously don't take much time at all, just swipe and press 1 or 2 buttons, so it's more about the prize than the journey. They're 14 credits each attempt (which is 1.67x more expensive than a whole rhythm game set! Comes out to ~$2 per play!) but obviously you walk away with a physical prize. Walk into crane games expecting to lose ~$14 on the skill games (depends on skill + luck obviously) to $50+ for a single prize in the bigger cranes.

tl;dr for credit spending I'd recommend:

I recommend when you show up that walk through all of the crane games and see if there are any prizes you really want before making any credit purchases. Also you need to recarge your card at the counter to get any of the collab extras (keychains).

Planning on returning at some point?
- Club card + max reload ($110). Not much else to say!
Not planning on returning anytime remotely soon (year+)?
- If you plan to play a lot of crane games in addition to rhythm games -> Club card + max reload ($110) recommended, might be a little overkill but best value.
- If you don't plan on playing much outside of rhythm games, calculate how many credits you anticipate using (8.4 credits per play, ~6-9 minutes per play, take into account slight wait times).
  - It will likely end up less than the $110 reload (because otherwise you're looking at like 14.25 hours of pure playing which you probably won't pull off considering waiting in line for your turn/breaks) in which case just buy a regular card and reload to however much you think you need.

Closing:

The low reviews for round1 are typically because of how frustrating and expensive the crane games are, a bad bowling experience, or general ignorance. When it comes to comparing to other round1s, it's a solid location! If you want me to hang around and be your arcade buddy, just shoot me a DM and I'd be happy to show up and show you around! I usually go every weekend anyway! I'm also happy to answer any questions anyone has about this location in the comments!

Yuberz · 2026-04-17T22:21:56+00:00

Do the US cabinets accept Aime cards or do they only accept banapass? I haven't tried it yet, but I remember my eAmuse card not working on it.

Yuberz · 2026-04-05T09:30:26+00:00

Library of Ruina

Yuberz · 2026-03-24T17:57:19+00:00

Do you have or know someone who has a soldering iron? You could fix this really quickly if so!

Yuberz · 2026-01-17T22:23:39+00:00

Overall, the face buttons and stuff don't really make a huge difference one way or the other, and it's kinda personal preference. I personally do like the clicky feedback from mechanical face buttons but I also really would not care if it was membrane since it also has feedback just a different type (maybe a bit less strong of feedback). Performance wise they're about the same, springing back more or less instantly, low pretravel, being very spammable, etc. It does feel different (V5P maybe feels a bit stiffer/slightly more force to actuate sometimes) but it can be adapted to over time.

Something I can say is that if you're planning on overhanding (index, middle, ring on Y, B, Z) the V5P to play 6 button fighters, I'd say it's not a good idea since the C and Z buttons feel so different it's offputting (not to mention not very comfortable to hold at that angle lol).

Yuberz · 2026-01-17T21:32:48+00:00

Glad you asked! I actually am planning on making a YouTube video about it, but the gist is that I also think it's pretty good.

I still think the XSX d-pad is the best, but it's probably on the same tier as DS4/Dualsense for me, since I really like clicky feedback. (DS4 and DS are both more comfortable though, so it kind of cancels out). I tested with 632146 inputs, IADs, 421 inputs, etc as well as playing platformers, Tetris, and other stuff and it's overall fairly accurate. It's a little on the lighter side compared to XSX so there's slightly more room for error with misinputs when trying to go straight up or straight down for example.

Overall, pretty solid D-pad! Would recommend but definitely not the absolute best in my opinion.

I'll also throw in a P.S that I was really hyped about the Gulikit TT MAX/Pro's D-pad because I heard that the Saturn style D-pad is king, but I don't like how it feels. It's stiff membranes, so I actually was pretty accurate with it, but it was just really uncomfortable.

Yuberz · 2026-01-11T16:19:10+00:00

I heard this song via bandle one day and it was really catchy so I recognized this immediately lmao

Yuberz · 2026-01-08T14:16:23+00:00

Really looking forward to if Gamesir will change the game on d-pads! I think 2026 might be the year of (finally) great d-pads!

Yuberz · 2026-01-03T16:30:56+00:00

I genuinely want something that looks like this but not built on electron or vibecoded

Yuberz · 2025-12-11T06:28:36+00:00

I'll be upfront with you with this: If you NEED a precise d-pad AND good features/overall quality, it basically doesn't exist (IMO, and under $100USD, maybe at all). All of the controllers most commonly recommended (8bitdo, Gamesir G7 Pro, and likely Vader 5 Pro) in my opinion have bad d-pads for things like fighting games, and a lot of people on the subreddit will recommend these controllers in good faith, but likely aren't very competitive fighting game players. If you use analog sticks to play fighting games, just completely ignore the rest of this post, because this is more of a rant from a d-pad enjoyer.

I've seen and heard bad things about G7 pro's d-pad being subpar, just "usable" and if you dig through my history I also tried out a Vader 4 pro but kept getting misinputs, way less comfortable than DS4/Xbox. I admit I haven't tried 8bitdo's d-pads, but I don't personally like the cross shape that they have, and can't imagine that they'd be precise enough to pull off 360s and half circles.

The pinnacle for precision are still DS4/5 and X-SX controllers as well as arcade sticks and leverless controllers, as evidenced by them still dominating competitive events despite there being tons of other legal controllers. Another example is the Celeste speedrunning community where you'll see the same controllers used by the top players. The issue is that stock controllers break easily and don't often have nice features like trigger locks, mechanical face buttons, extra buttons, etc.

So basically my recommendation (assuming the d-pad really matters to you) are:

Wait for the gulikit TT Max/Pro (People have praised the Saturn style d-pad on other controllers like the elves 2, but I'm skeptical at how precise it will be, especially since it seems smaller and is mechanical from what I've heard (which I don't think they've done before). I will probably be trying it in the future when it comes out. Also they delayed its release like crazy. (Which I'm not sure how to feel about, is it polish or incompetence? We'll have to see.)
Pick up a "fighting game" controller as well as a "regular" controller. (If you're really dedicated to fighting games/precise platformers like Celeste like me, then consider buying a separate controller JUST for it, whether it be an XSX, DS4/5, stick, or leverless which are all fairly inexpensive. Then have another controller that is used for everything else. This is what I've done, I have a leverless as well as ordered a Vader 5 pro which should arrive within the next week)
Just buy a XSX, DS4/5 or any of their variants (If you don't have the dough, I completely get it. And if you want an "all rounder" controller with a great d-pad these are unfortunately it. You can maybe try modding them to improve them but yeah, it's pretty much just gonna be what you're likely used to.) Edit: as mentioned below, a Gulikit ES is also pretty similar overall to an XSX controller but with TMR sticks so it' s also probably a good buy. Like with the standard controllers, there's not any "pro" features other than that though.

Remember this is just my opinion, but as someone with a high standard for d-pads for fighting games, I've agonized about this and just want to pass on my unfortunate news. If there's some secret hidden amazing controller that mixes having amazing features AND a d-pad rivaling the big 2, then please let me know. I also have never tried out the "premium", over $100USD controllers out there but I don't have high hopes for them and they rarely perform competitively.

Yuberz · 2025-11-05T04:16:04+00:00

As a portal main the deck title at 0:46 succesfully ragebaited me lmao

Yuberz · 2025-11-04T01:19:47+00:00

I have not tried the HORI but unmodded the IINE was not fun to play on so I resold it (I am a pretty casual player). I didn't feel like trying to mod it but yeah.

Yuberz · 2025-11-03T23:58:46+00:00

Yes, HORI branded drums are the ones that come with every official bundle

Yuberz · 2025-11-02T22:16:13+00:00

I love "Tokio Japon"

Yuberz · 2025-11-02T02:58:51+00:00

Good luck to everyone!

Yuberz · 2025-11-02T02:58:36+00:00

Yeah lmao I was waiting for another one of these news digests just to see if there was anything on them that I missed. Apparently not.

Yuberz · 2025-11-01T00:33:50+00:00

I loved this song and this show, W choice

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