Newpark arcade sucks. They have like 5 Initial D based racing games as if one or two wasn't enough. SFSU is your best bet for good games. Southland sucks too, but it's not as bad as Newpark. Golden Tee in CV is okay.
once marle gets sucked into the vortex, go to the right pod instead of the left. you'll be transported to lavos.
lavos is pretty hard by yourself, but i did it after tons of healing potions.
it was a special promotion they had with eb. if you bought some shit like a system or some games, theyd give you a voucher for the free egm subscription.