GO JOE!!! A Road Trip to The Gameroom

I unexpectedly had a change of weekend plans that led me to make a spontaneous road trip to visit The Gameroom located inside the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, NJ for some laser tag in the GI Joe Battle Station.

WOW!!!

This place is amazing! The Gameroom (powered by Hasbro) has themed attractions featuring properties licensed in partnership through Hasbro that you will recognize with an affection unlike any other arcade I have been to. I was really excited by everything I saw, even prior to getting into the laser tag game.

However, since the laser tag was my reason for making the trip, let me start there. This was a very impressive experience and I want to shout out the game master, Krish. When you prepare for the session you walk into an openly visible vesting area, which is smart because it attracts the attention of customers just passing by. A couple of guys saw a group gathering for the game and joined, so it was evident that having the vests be visible (rather than hidden in another room) made a difference to the foot traffic heading into this game. Also, Krish pointed out the available color variety to choose from.

Krish divided the ten players in our game into four teams, accommodating those who wanted to play together. I was teamed up with two other women and I played as Fury on Team GI Joe, battling against Team Cobra and the other opponents. After we put on our Delta Strike Genesis packs we were taken into the briefing room.

What stood out to me the most here was the custom briefing video shown on a huge monitor.

I think getting kids (and adults) to pay attention during briefing is a challenge for most arenas, but this video was GI Joe themed and included info specific to this arena (as provided as marching orders for GI Joe) before the message was intercepted and interrupted by Cobra. This was very well done!

Each team was directed to our starting point before the game began. Upon entering the 5000 square foot arena my team headed for the blue side, identified by the lights.

Let’s talk lighting. This arena features quite a few flashing yellow lights that set a mood in the darkened space with plenty of colorful lit elements throughout. Setting the scene is important, especially when so much effort has been put into the overall theming.

This arena packs a lot of elements into the space with multiple vehicles and a center computer console prop. Now, I’m not going to pretend I know one military vehicle from the next, so I did have to watch some GI Joe to try to recognize what I think I saw represented. I won’t hazard a guess at the proper names, but will point out that the vehicles in the arena all feature smart targets.

And if you don’t want the props to fire back at you, perhaps don’t stand in front of them too long… like when you are posing for a pic, for instance. :)

The console in the center attracts attention and provides additional elements to tag.

And there is a little room off to the side (you almost have to be looking for it) housing a video base station. Two raised platforms on either side of the arena are accessible by ramps to give this single level space the feel of some height and levels.

And overall the space provides plenty of cover and lots of interesting angles for game play.

Everyone had an awesome time. All the players really got into it. And it was a victory for Team GI Joe.

If you want to commemorate the experience there are several selfie walls (love that) or you can visit the photo booth in the arcade where I took some pics using their GI Joe background.

I loaded up a game card…

…and I headed to the arcade to check out some of the other familiar properties throughout the facility.

I ordered dinner at Gameroom Eats (highly recommend the Bavarian soft pretzel sticks) off their board game-themed menu. As I waited I took note of the cool ambience.

Scrabble tiles on the ceiling! Nice details everywhere you look!

And of course, a collection of board games is available to play. :)

However, if I had to pick just one thing besides the laser tag that made this trip worthwhile, it would have to be a stop at the Candy Land Shake Bar.

Seriously, can you believe this Princess Lolli milkshake?!

My thanks to Vanessa and the entire team at The Gameroom who really made this a worthwhile experience. This place has only been open since the end of June, but I am betting it will be quite a destination location. Although I had not planned on being in NJ for another couple of weeks, hearing about The Gameroom and having this weekend open up made a road trip for some tag the perfect way to spend an evening. GO JOE!!!