Bowling a strike at Namco Station

Lucy Markillie says...

The Namco Station is a great way to spend a few hours with your family. The main attraction is the bowling alley, although I would recommend booking a lane as it can get quite busy. They have lighter bowling balls and ramps for younger children, and a good choice of heavier ones for the adults. There’s also dodgems, which are a good laugh and you get quite a long ride for your money. In addition to this the surrounding arcade offers something for everyone, from slot machines, air hockey, simulators and crane grabbers.

Tina Bailey says...

An amusement arcade in its traditional form! There is also a bar, bowling alley, Dodgems and many, many machines. We spent half an hour in here on the machines, we spent a total of £5 and I won a Disney Teddy on the grabbers (Cost: 30p) – I won it on my first go!

There are many types of games. Including arcade driver simulators, penny pushers, teddy grabbers, bingo, fruit machines and more. The family area pays out prizes in tokens, not money – which you can then trade in for prizes. We got 155 tokens from our £5, which bought us a quacking duck soft toy. On the whole, it was a fun half hour, and the machines were not difficult to win on. We didn’t try bowling as I’m pregnant so not really up to it at the moment, but the lanes looked great, and the food hall looked good too. The Dodgems looked like fun too, but again – we were unable to try these. I think anyone with older children would enjoy an afternoon in here. Bowling, followed by a couple of turns on the machines would have been a perfect School Holiday day out for me when I was 10+. We will be back when the kids are old enough to enjoy it.

Tina Bailey is The Mother Geek, a mum-of-one blogger from Manchester. You can read the full versions of her Trafford Centre reviews over on her brilliant blog – click here to pay her a visit!

Hayley Edginton says...

We visited at 5pm on Saturday and were a little anxious that it would be overflowing with teens; but we were pleasantly surprised. The bowling area was generally home to families celebrating birthdays or couples enjoying an early evening bowl. The bowling area was clean and tidy with staff constantly clearing glasses and rubbish. The kids loved playing the 10p game with the moving shelves but when their pound was gone it was time to go! Great fun had by all.

Gemma Valentine says...

This was a great experience for the kids! They both ran off in different directions, one to the motorbike games and the other to the teddy-bear grabbing machine. My little boy was obsessed with the cars, motorbikes and even the dancing machine. It was great to see them having such an amazing day.

We have never taken the kids bowling before and only realised this as we got to the Namco Station. He loved finding his own bowling ball and rolling it down the lanes, his eye would not leave it until it had hit the pins, then he would jump up with excitement even if it only knocked a couple over. I think his arms were tired in the end as he started to use the stand his little sister was using. She also loved pushing the ball down the stand and even tried to follow the ball a few times!

We also experienced the dodgems (not my little girl) and this was a struggle to attempt to get my little boy off, and he loved people crashing into him as he squeezed his Dad's arm laughing and smiling.

There were a lot of games and rides in the Namco station for the kids to enjoy and they had a fab time.