Next Level Named Best Arcade In America; The HUGE Evo 2025 Pop-Up Arcade Opens Today; The History of Mortal Kombat
By knapparcade
Good morning everyone. I was up bright and early this morning working with my son to upgrade the behind-the-scenes database that runs the new Knapp Arcade website. Apparently you folks like the site so much that our DB software was having trouble handling so many concurrent logins, Sooooo we moved the site over to the more robust Supabase for another $25/month. We need five more subscribers at the $5 level to break even lol. If you want to help out with the cost of running the arcade and pinball industry's only daily source of news, game pictures and more, please consider signing up for a Premium membership: Knapp Arcade Membership Plans Enough housekeeping info, let's get to the arcade and pinball stuff. First off, congratulations to the Next Level Pinball Shop and Museum for recently winning Newsweek Magazine's "Best Arcade" in America. It is currently officially the second largest arcade in the World, clocking in at 675 games over a whopping 27,000 square feet. As an added bonus, Next Level has a huge collection of collectables and toys and the World's largest lunch box collection. Next Level is at the very top of my list of arcades that I need to visit. I think that it will happen in 2026. I have two more Arcade Road Trips to document everyone already booked for this year, NYC this weekend and the incredible Ann Arbor VFW Pinball Museum this fall, likely with more to come. Next Level Pinball Shop and Museum.
Speaking of giant arcades, I have another look at the huge EVO 2025 Voodoo Ranger Pop-Up Arcade which is happening this weekend in Las Vegas. When it is set up, the EVO arcade is the second largest arcade in the World. Some people lamented the lack of pinball machines in my previous pictures of it. Never fear, it has pinball too (see below). For more information on how to go to the event and watch the streams, make sure to check out my article from earlier this week: HUGE Pop-Up Arcade Coming to Las Vegas This Weekend at EVO 2025
Speaking of EVO, they recently uploaded an awesome video on the history of Mortal Kombat to their YouTube page. We sit down with Ed Boon and Tyler Lansdown to talk about the legacy of Mortal Kombat and the evolution of its design over its 30 year history. Edited by @KombatCup Produced by Esteban Martinez (@Holdbacktoblock)