So I went and checked the place out. I don't think I'll go play there often.
Number one, it's a dollar per play. Not four tokens, not four quarters. A dollar bill is required to pay for one credit. A tad silly. I'm willing to call the price fair though since it is the newest PIU version, you still get four songs as long as you aren't really really terrible, and I'm partially just spoiled on great .50-.75 cent prices or better on arcade machines.
Number two, the volume. The bass on the machine is about where it should be, but the treble is way down low. You can't hear most of the songs aside from the bass beat. I couldn't even tell that Canon in D was Canon in D for most of the song for crying out loud. I suppose the workers there didn't want music to drown out all the screaming kids. Which brings me to...
Number three, location of the machine, and I mean this in two ways. First, the machine is in a hardcore little kids establishment (amusing since games like Judge Dredd and Lethal Enforcers are in the actual arcade room). The environment is a little hard to get comfortable with, especially since the machine itself is located in the midst of the playground area totally seperate from the arcade area. Another factor in the location is that it's way out towards Ellettsville. This isn't relatively far for myself since I live a mile or so away from the 37-45/46 junction. It's probably not a lot different in driving time from my apartment to Lazerlite, honestly. However, it really is a ways to go for a machine set up like this. If it were in the middle of town, I might be more inclined to stop in and play again, but that's a bit too out of the way for me.
Now this isn't to say it's all bad. I mean, the people working seemed friendly enough. Also, the machine was in superb shape and the pads were absolutely pristine. If it were anywhere else closer with better volume and a quarter lower price, I'd be all over this machine. However, as it stands, I just can't get excited about this location. I'd be happy to go with a group if other folks went, but I don't foresee myself going back by myself like I would with Lazerlite.
It is kinda funny though. There were these little girls watching me play. When I'd pick something and put it on Crazy, I'd hear one of them say "Alright. He's doing Crazy." kind of like a golf announcer, and when I played the full version of Dignity in the remix mode there was a whole fun assortment of comments like "He's a really good dancer" and afterwards a round of applause. With that said... playing in front of kids is a silly but nice ego booster.
I'm not sure whose brilliant idea that was...
But Sam's right, the pizza isn't nearly as good as Lazerlite. And the target audience is a lot younger than Lazerlite, so there's lots of little kids running around. Definitely not as cool of an atmosphere as Lazerlite...
). But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't move the machine....
