Phoenix Gaming Lounge

This place is a great environment to blow off some steam while enjoying games with others. They are reasonable with their prices on their products and in their vending machine they have 50 cent bottled waters. In this economy!?! First time in today but will definitely come back again!

A conflicted review. I wasn't a huge fan of the layout, as soon as you walk in you have a few options, to your right is a little shopping area, directly ahead of you is an open gaming area with tables/chairs, it appeared there was an event or something going on as there was a timer on one of the TVs counting down from 20 minutes. Finally to your left is a bunch of single cards from various trading card games, primarily focused on MTG and Pokémon. They had some others, but those were the primaries. The singles card selection is huge, quite a nice collection. I don't play but I do visit all the game stores in the valley, I'm a moderately detailed guy, I wasn't a huge fan of their prices on the cards themselves. I thought they had a pretty good selection of everything you'd need for cards though and storing them. I am conflicted because it looked like there was more product in the back area where everyone was playing but it seemed inconvenient to access. People seemed active in that room/area and it seemed like I would just be in the way if I decided to look over there. I did ask if I could take a couple pictures (permission granted), I only took pictures of the area on the right (from the entrance) since it was moderately busy. They do have snacks and drinks. I don't know if they charge you money to play on the tables or if it's free, the single employee it looked like was busy the entire time. It was kind of hard to tell who was who on the employee front. I read through the reviews of this establishment going back 5 years, I'd say overall people enjoy their experiences gaming here although they do seem to have some favoritism type pricing structure with who gets to purchase what at certain prices. I don't like the owner's responses to people who left him negative reviews, while detailed, they don't seem very friendly, I did not meet them in-person, just judging from their own review responses. Overall it looked like a great place to play MTG/Pokémon or other trading card games, that seemed to be their jam. There didn't appear to be much D&D or Warhammer going on.

I have been a regular at this establishment for years. Card prices are fair and trades can be hit or miss on what you can get out of them. They offer free commander nights on Saturdays which has been a favorite for me to take my brother since this is the closest location to him. I am good friends with the YuGiOh employees and have known them for years. I have had a good opinion of this store until last night. One of Game Lounges regulars was openly celebrating that a recent political activist was callously murdered and I told him it was unacceptable to celebrate murder of political opponents no matter how much you disagree with them. He started yelling at me and called me racist. He then escalates to a violent outburst and threatens me. The store owner knowing all this not only does not ban him but sides with him which is unacceptable. The store owner admits he has done this numerous times in the past and they still have not banned him. They are making this store an unsafe environment to allow someone like that around. He openly admits it is not only perfectly acceptable to be violent to people you disagree with but it is moral to do so. He said to me "Violence is the only answer you people understand". He is a ticking time bomb that is waiting for someone to give him an excuse to hurt.