Paco FunWorld (Bugis+)

Paco FunWorld at Bugis+ is the arcade rhythm players travel for. The line-up runs maimai, CHUNITHM and Taiko, and a play costs noticeably less here than at the mall chains — the way regulars work it is to top up a large amount during one of the promotional periods and draw it down over weeks.

Buy a card at the counter and ask what it gets you: the staff will run through it properly, and points build towards gifts rather than evaporating at the end of a session. Around the cabinets sit claw machines, driving and drumming games, and enough ticket-counting machines that you are not queueing to find out what you won. The floor is laid out with room to stand and wait, which is rarer than it sounds in a city-centre arcade.

Try the machine you want before you load up a card. Several of the maimai cabinets have developed faults lately — audio jacks, touchscreens, buttons — and a big top-up is worth less on a cabinet that eats your inputs. Ask at the counter exactly what your points buy before you start collecting towards a particular prize, too. The arcade is on level three of the mall, directly above Bugis station and reachable under cover the whole way from the platform.