Big Top Blast

This experience is NOT for me. I’m glad I did it, but I can’t say that I really enjoyed it much. I gave it a thumbs up because it does exactly what it sets out to do. This experience is a 4 room, progressive set of mini games. Basically follow the instructions and do the thing. Rinse and repeat through 4 rooms. It felt to me that kids would likely love this. Certain adults are going to love it too, just not me. It’s not an escape room. It’s not an arcade. It’s not video game or board game. But it feels adjacent to all of them. Just not enough so to keep me engaged. Dopeameme at Area 15 is similar, and in my opinion, does it better. At least for an older audience.

A point earning experience with a pipeline layout where you spend a predetermined amount of time playing arcade-style games (physical, skill, memory, and communication based tasks) in each space before moving on to the next. Most of the games and tasks were enjoyable to learn and play, though some felt a bit tedious after a long time doing them. We weren’t quite sure what our point totals really meant after each space, but we still enjoyed playing through the games and didn’t focus all of our energy on a high score. There was a storyline throughout the experience as well, and the environment of the last space in particular helped bring that story to life, but we were left wanting more from the decor in the other spaces. While we aren’t sure it was used by any means, it at least felt like or seemed like AI may have been used to assist the animation and voiceover during the cutscenes, which took us out of the experience just a bit. If it wasn’t used, a bit more attention to detail in both of those aspects would have made those cutscenes more engaging to us. They are onto something with the unique concept of this new type of experience, with a fun collection of games and tasks that progressively get more difficult, and with a little more detail put into the environment and story, this game could stand out even more.

I knew going into it that this wasn’t an escape room but a series of mini games/challenges that can get progressively harder as you go. But It’s a Blast’s execution of this concept leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest issue is that several components were broken—and we did this experience in late February when they’ve only been open for 3 months. If your game is already so worn and you know about the issues but haven’t fixed them, that’s a huge negative and makes it so I cannot recommend this experience to anyone. Another major issue is that some of the games just aren’t much fun but felt tedious. Also, the point system makes very little sense and seemed arbitrary. There’s no real way to tell how well you did or what you could’ve done differently. I definitely wouldn’t go back, and if we hadn’t gotten 50% off to go in the first place, I’d be pretty upset about how much this experience cost.

This isn’t an escape room. It is a timed and guided experience through several mini games. They tend to be simpler games of matching or timing, not puzzles to solve or figure out. I think this could be a great experience for a family to do with their kids. But I can’t say I’d recommend it to other escape room enthusiasts if you’re looking for an experience with puzzles to solve.

Writing a review since no one has yet, was really on the fence on how to rate this experience. Definitely not an escape, more like a bunch of mini games with a story and you're trying to get a high score. Escape enthusiasts won't like this at all but it is a really good options for kids