The best new game and entertainment centres London has to offer

Chaos Karts

Housed inside a warehouse in Bethnal Green, Chaos Karts is a first-of-its-kind experience that fuses go-karting with augmented reality to immerse players in their own live-action video game experience. The latest venture from immersive entertainment specialist Tom Lionetti-Maguire (also the brains behind the Crystal Maze experience), Chaos Karts sees up to eight players manoeuvre their way around a track at up to 20mph, hurling digital Mario Kart-style weapons (laser guns, speed boosts, hammers and bombs) at one another in order to win the race.

No need for headsets: the virtual worlds are projected digitally onto the high-tech walls and tracks around you. Teams choose from several different courses including replicas of the streets of London, the Nevada desert and Florida’s sunny beaches.

No need for helmets either, apparently, as karts come fitted with built-in sensors and collision-reduction mechanisms.

Price: £35 - £55

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Toca Social

Pitched as the UK’s first football-based social entertainment and dining experience, Toca Social at the O2 in Greenwich sees groups of up to 12 book into a booth for a session of eating, drinking and playing against the machine. The experience uses interactive technology to immerse players in a series of football games, bridging the physical and digital worlds.

The food and drink here is as much a focus as the sport. Guests can tuck into a menu curated by chef Ross Clarke, who trained under Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen. The menu is brimming with creative and unexpected dishes inspired by modern Americana with twists from around the world, including a Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich and an Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl. The venue also boasts a dedicated dessert room filled with Willy Wonka-inspired creations, including a soft-serve ice cream bar. There’s also a DJ booth and three bars serving beers, wines and cocktails.

Price: £35 (off peak) - £65 (peak)

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Monopoly Lifesized

Whether regular Monopoly is a little too flat for your liking or you’re a serious enthusiast looking for an opportunity to get under the skin of the game, this one is for you: Gamepath production house has created a four-dimensional version of the classic board game, through which teams of up to six can immerse themselves in the game. A 'token' will guide you through the experience before you start, and a total of four teams can play on each board at any one time.

Step onto the life-sized board and roll the dice. If the property you’ve landed on is not already owned, members of your team will be invited to enter it and complete an escape room-style challenge in order to buy it. Challenges include staging a heist, building models of the city’s most famous buildings, solving a murder mystery and code-cracking your way through puzzles. Games last up to 80 minutes and there are four 15m-square Monopoly boards to choose from: Classic, Vault, City and Junior.

Once you’ve finished playing, continue the theme at The Top Hat, the venue’s 70-cover restaurant and accompanying cocktail bar that serves a menu fashioned around the board game’s property hotspots. Tuck into the likes of miniature fish & chips, pork belly with apple sauce, lamb skewers with mint sauce or a miniature rump steak roast dinner, while sipping on cocktails with names designed to test your London trivia.

Price: £53 per adult / £25 per child (meal not included)

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Tejo

At South Bank’s new beer garden Between the Bridges, Columbia’s national throwing game Tejo has made its UK debut. The game comes to London from the team behind Whistle Punks Urban Axe Throwing, who are dab hands at taking potentially risky activities and making them safe and social. Like boules but on dynamite, Tejo (pronounced 'tey-ho') involves throwing balls at exploding targets containing gunpowder. Each lane can accommodate teams of up to six players, with 50-minute sessions beginning with some warm-up throws before moving onto a friendly tournament. The aim of the game is to explode the Mechas and sink bullseyes to score as many points as possible, with the highest scoring player crowned the winner.

Price: £7.50