I guess it’s finally time, isn’t it?
I mentioned this place last time when I accidentally stumbled upon its new location on the far east side of town. This place is my DDR location of choice. When I first moved to Minneapolis, this was a regular haunt. This is the first time I’ve come out here in ages. It’s on the west side of town, so there’s a very narrow window when buses run in that area. I wish it were closer.
This is Big Thrill Factory. If the name doesn’t make it obvious, this place has a factory theme. We’ll see how far they take this theme once we get inside, but first, I’ve wanted to bring up something for a long time. In Omaha, there’s a place similar to this called “Amazing Pizza Machine” that also has a factory motif. Around the midwest, although I’ve only been to the now-closed Des Moines location, there’s a chain of places called Incredible Pizza Company that, too, has a factory motif and looks suspiciously similar to Amazing Pizza Machine. While Big Thrill Factory isn’t nearly as similar as those two are, it’s still weird that three pizza arcades in the midwest all ended up with factory themes. This can’t be a coincidence, can it?
Big Thrill Factory has an odd feeling that I’m not sure I can put into words, but I’ll try. It’s a lot fancier than it looks at first glance. When we start going through the venue, you’ll see how bloody expansive it is, but no matter how many features it has, it just can’t shake the “miniature golf place” feel it has. The word “CAFE” awkwardly painted on the side of the food court is an excellent example of what I’m talking about. There’s nothing sterile or corporate about this place.
Do take a good look at the above photo before continuing. Arcades are strangely lit, so most of the other pictures in this post make the building look much darker. This is one of the few shots that capture how the place looks.
Space Invaders Frenzy – This is the most obvious thing that greets you when you enter the building, so we might as well start here. This is a giant re-imagining of Space Invaders where you man a turret and shoot them yourself instead of telling your little ship to do it. I think I got an e-mail from Dave and Busters advertising this game, so it’s probably at most of their locations. This place doesn’t have many tall machines, so this one stands out. I tried to play it, but it ate my credits, and I had to get a refund. I’m sure I’ll be able actually to play this one someday.
Raw Thrills Stuff – All of the standard Raw Thrills racing and shooting games are in a row, so I don’t need to post more than one photo of them. Let’s take a peek at that bowling alley in the background, shall we?
Laser Bowling Alley – This part was constructed pretty recently. It’s a laser bowling alley that somehow looks three times as fancy as any other part of the building. What you see in the picture is pretty much the whole ten lanes. It’s pretty cozy.
Those TVs above the lanes aren’t playing anything bowling-related. They mostly show Disney Channel music videos and Big Thrill Factory commercials. A few of them are hanging up in the dining area, too.
Jurassic Park and that Big Bass – These are here. These are always here.
Sports-themed Arcade Machines – Here are the last few games on the left side of the path. I wanted to get them out of the way quickly, but they’re all pretty generic. This is the first time I’ve seen a football passing game in a while. Wouldn’t you think they’d be more popular?
We’ll get back to the arcade in a bit, but first, let’s look at some of the other stuff they have here. The bowling alley is only the tip of the iceberg regarding Big Thrill Factory. Even I didn’t realize just how many attractions this place had until today.
Play Area – The photo doesn’t do its size justice. Since there’s a factory theme here, the whole play place is modeled after a three-story malfunctioning candy factory. Like a real candy factory, the area above the ball pit has turrets for people on higher floors to man and shoot balls at the innocent kids who are just trying to enjoy their ball pit. You can see a girl taking advantage of this feature on the top and a kid in orange at the bottom wondering why balls keep falling on his head. Unfortunately for him, the fallout shelter in the middle of the ball pit is occupied, so he has no choice but to sit there as balls rain down from above.
I wish I were ten years old.
Back Wall Attractions – For the longest time, I just assumed this was the entrance to laser tag and ignored it. As it turns out, laser tag is against a different wall (that I neglected to take a photo of), and these rooms are completely different. The door on the right takes you to a minigame where two teams have to race to hit buttons on a wall as they light up. Think “Tron meets Whack a Mole.” I’m confident I’ve seen this game somewhere before, but I can’t recall where. Brunswick Zone, maybe?
As for the door on the left… Where DOESN’T it go?
Ropes Course – The ropes course is one of the many destinations behind the Left Door. You may remember it being sprawled out through the entire building at the other location. Here it’s mainly in the back room, with only one section poking out in the corner. I saw a kid standing up here in an argument with his parents standing below. That kid probably felt like he was the king of the world.
X-Rider 4D Ride – The other attractions that are supposedly hidden behind the mysterious door are these two. X Rider is one of the Universal Studio rides where you sit in a tiny theater that moves around in time with whatever’s being shown. Supposedly, it also has wind effects and bubbles. The wind is a reasonable thing when you’re trying to simulate riding in a spaceship or something. Still, I imagine that all of the movies have to awkwardly include a bubble sequence so they can justify the bubble effect.
Trapped in a Room With a Zombie – The other is an expensive hour-long game where 12 people are Trapped in a Room With a Zombie and have to solve some puzzle in the room before time runs out. The flier says, “Are you smarter than a zombie?” Maybe the zombie’s doing the puzzle too? Either way, it’s too pricey for me to bother with, but it’s an excellent example of how elaborate this place is. They manage to get a lot of mileage out of their small building.
Bumper Cars – They also have bumper cars, but they didn’t have enough space for them. The bumper cars are all cramped, so most of the kids just spin around. This ride’s speakers are so loud that the stock pop music fills the entire eating area. Well, they can’t all be winners.
Golf Ball Return – It’s the things like this that make the place stand out. When you finish a round of miniature golf, you can stick your ball in the hole at the left and turn the crank, so your ball is screwed to the top. Then it comes down like a game of Plinko. If your ball lands in the left hole, you get a free game or something. Big Thrill Factory has so damn much personality.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but my local arcade growing up was a mini-golf place called Putt Putt (and later Putter’s). It, unfortunately, closed down last year. One of these days, I’m going to make a blog post about it using whatever pictures I can still track down of the place.
Anyway, let’s take a look at the outside patio.
Outside Patio – If you go back to the first picture in this blog post, you can get a better idea of this area. It’s just attached to the side like it used to be some shipping bay. Instead of the grassy area, you usually get at miniature golf courses; this one’s all on stone. There’s a rock climbing wall, some trampolines (we’ll get to those), and an eight hole golf course out here. Here are the most exciting holes:
Gear and Bolt Courses – As I said earlier, this place is dedicated to its factory theme. Nearly all of the holes out here tie into it in some way. I love the bright colors on this particular hole. In the background, if it’s not clear, you have to hit your ball through a bunch of multi-colored bolts. These are some great looking holes.
Conveyor Belt Course – Okay, this area is seasonal, and they were still setting it up for the public. I had to awkwardly stick my camera through the fence to take pictures of it. This one was too close to the fence to get a decent shot of it without the fence in the way. For this one, the goal is to knock your golf ball onto the conveyor belt, which carries it into the colorful box, then comes back out on a second belt and gets dropped next to the hole. Getting a hole-in-one is pure RNG.
Ball Machine Course – This is a standard hole with a little gate on the left that opens and closes. It is remarkable that the thing is full of transparent windows and gears constantly turning to move the gate. At the minigolf course I played growing up, the most elaborate obstacles we had were minor slopes.
I shouldn’t be rambling so much about the golf course since there are a bunch of them in town with arcades that should be opening up again soon. Expect a lot of blog posts about mini-golf in the future.
Trampolines – Why are there so many trampolines? Are you supposed to bounce between them? Is it just set up so that 16+ separate kids can have their own at once?
Food Court – The food court isn’t nearly this dark, I swear. If not for the awful lighting in this photo, you’d be able to see big pictures of all of their products across the top. They serve precisely what you’d expect from a place like this: Pizza, Hot Dogs, Nachos, etc.
Sweets Counter – The sweets counter is at the far end of the food court. You can buy things like cupcakes, cookies, and ice cream here. The little jars are the various toppings you can put on your ice cream. Chuck E Cheese has NOTHING on Big Thrill Factory.
Cheese Bread – I usually don’t order anything here, but I noticed this on their menu today. Their pizza isn’t perfect, but mozzarella is one of the few things I can’t resist. When they said it was cheese break, I expected bread covered in melted cheese. What I got was some crazy calzone thing that was stuffed with mozzarella. It had so much cheese I couldn’t believe it. Remember to put this on my last meal list if I ever end up on death row.
Biggie-T – Big Thrill Factory wouldn’t be able to trade blows with the big boys if they didn’t have a resident animatronic. This is Biggie-T, “operator” of the Big Thrill Factory. He spends most of his time sitting at his control panel singing “Celebration.”
Unlike Chuck E, Biggie-T isn’t yet above speaking with the little people. If you buy a birthday package, you get a unique token that lets you interact with Biggie-T directly. Thankfully, I sat close enough to him while eating to see a kid do it for the first time. When you insert the unique token, Biggie-T puts his round of Celebration on hold to wish the guest a happy birthday. Then, he pulls the lever, and a fake candle rises out of each of those red pipes. Once the kid uses the giant fan to blow out every candle, they’re awarded a birthday gift from the robot. I’m not sure what the present is. I assume it’s free tickets or something. It could also be a voucher for exclusive Big Thrill Factory swag. I know one of the birthday packages includes free cheap backpacks for all guests…
Redemption Counter – Oh, right, this is an arcade blog. Look at this massive redemption wall. It has six glass cases of prizes and an entire back wall full of MORE prizes. That wall is about three times the height of the staffer working there. Imagine being a tiny kid and being presented with a massive wall of stuff like that. My favorite touch is the bar hanging above the glass cases with umbrellas and headphones hanging off them.
Ghost Squad Evolution – This one was next to the Raw Thrills games. The Ghost Squad series is possibly one of the best arcade rail shooters ever. A LOT is going on for a genre that consists entirely of “shoot the thing.” Levels are constantly throwing branching paths and sub-missions at you, so you must keep on your toes. The Japanese version even had a save card system with customization options. If you’re ever in the mood for a rail shooter, check out the Wii port of the first game.
Key Prize Tower – To make their crane games more enticing, they now include keys mixed in with their stuffed animals. Pulling a key can open one of these doors to get a much more valuable prize. The only problem is that none of the claw machines had any keys, even the ones with big “Keys available in this machine!” stickers on the front.
Batman Whack-A-Mole – In this game, you play as Batman (?) and use the Hammer of Justice to whack your most iconic foes as they pop out of the holes. Enemies include Gotham’s most notorious villains: Joker, Harley Quinn, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, and Darkseid. One of those things is not like the others.
Wizard of Oz Coin Pusher – The Great Devourer of Tokens. I played this machine so much, trying to earn a pair of Pac-man headphones. In the end, I could never get Toto. “But what about those other two, Toto?” you ask. Well, bigger chains like Dave and Busters mark their Wizard of Oz cards to stop people from winning them at other arcades and taking them there. My Totos have the D&B serial number on them…
Some Game – Why did this photo turn out so awful? I can’t even read the title. Whatever. It’s a simulation of those carnival games where you have to throw balls to knock down targets. The targets appear on screen, shooting gallery style, and you throw the ball pit balls directly at the screen—alright game, awful photo.
Circus-themed Games – Remember when Water Park of America did this? This place does it much better. On their own, nobody would care about the elephant game. Putting it between two other big top games suddenly makes all three machines look much more appealing.
Party Room C – I initially took this shot to emphasize the point about circus (carnival) games, but then I noticed the party room. Big Thrill Factory has five private party rooms placed so discreetly that it’s easy to overlook them. For the longest time, I assumed this was a staff break room or something because it was in the middle of the arcade. I never bothered to read the “PARTY ROOM C” above it.
Beer Pong Game – This is Sink-it. It’s beer pong, no matter how you look at it. I’ll talk about this one more someday.
Beebee Boppin – What kind of a name is Beebee Boppin? In this Spider Stomp clone, you step on a bunch of lights representing bees who seem to be minding their own business to steal their “hunny” (for Pooh?). This is made by LAI games, which have their website plastered on the front of the machine. I decided to check it out to see who the hell they were. They’re behind the Stacker game you see at every movie theater. You know, the one where the lights go back and forth, so you have to stop them above the other light? That one. It turns out they’ve always made a ton of different games. I’ve never seen ANY of those other games before, and I’ve been to many arcades. Talk about one-hit wonders.
Routine Photo Dump – Huh, only five this time? I figured there’d be a lot more.
Dance Dance Revolution Supernova – Finally. Here it is in all its glory—the 50-cent Supernova machine (formerly 25 cents on Mondays). I’ve had some good times on this machine. While I’m not the biggest fan of Supernova, I’m so sick of Extreme that this game is fresh air. Have I talked about Supernova before? I can’t remember.
SN is the ninth main game in the series, while the other typical game, Extreme, was the eighth (coincidentally, that was also where they stopped putting the number in the title). After Extreme’s release in 2002, there was no word of another game in the series for years. It was thought to be the last Dance Dance Revolution game. However, come 2006, Konami finally realized that there was still a demand for arcade dance games and released Supernova.
DDR Supernova brought a lot of very significant changes to the series. The most obvious being that it was the first game to run on a new arcade board since 3rd mix, so it required a complete hardware upgrade instead of just a software upgrade. That’s why there are still so many Extreme machines floating around. This was also the first game in the series to have a proper international release (although they messed it up since it’s impossible to unlock the boss songs for regular play in the international version). Because of the international release, the previous “strike a deal with a Japanese record company to use all of their songs” strategy wasn’t going to work, so the song list has significantly more in-house music. That’s not even getting into how poor most of the actual stepcharts are…
I’m fond of this particular machine because Big Thrill Factory gets a lot of foot traffic. It’s almost impossible to play without getting an audience. Even the bored staff will sometimes come up afterward and compliment you. Between games, you can help young kids navigate the menus and sometimes even meet other players. There’s no point in playing DDR if you can’t do it at the arcade.
…and now, I believe I’ve said everything about Big Thrill Factory there is to say. I really love this place. It’s the kind of arcade you can go to and just soak up the sheer amount of effort that was put into it. It didn’t NEED a singing robot or ball return machine, but it wanted to be the best damn entertainment center it could be. I was so happy when I saw their second location last month, because it showed just how much their dedication to details had paid off.
I do kind of wish their game selection was a bit better, though.
