You Too Can Pay $63 (Or More!) To Play Video Games In Public!
So I spent the day at Disneyland yesterday, mainly because my brother and I didn't want to do a straight drive to his dorm in Arizona. We love going there, mainly because I have a bunch of friends who still work in the park and allow us to cut in line. When we went to visit one of said acquaintances over at Innoventions, I wandered upstairs because -I'm ashamed to say- I always kind of enjoyed the Jungle Book knock-off of Dance Dance Revolution. Lo and behold, the numerous PS2 units featuring Kingdom Hearts and numerous crappy Disney games have been replaced with a bunch of Xbox 360 kiosk stations featuring a number of full-fledged games like Lego Star Wars II, Bionicle, Meet The Robinsons, Viva Pinata, and a bunch of EA sports titles that I avoided like the plague. While there were some normal gaming kiosks that one just stands at, I totally geeked out over the ones which looked like they were based on the Light Cycles in Tron and just stared in wonder at the one which had two plasma TV's attached to each game station (pictured at the beginning of the article).
According to my friend at Innoventions:
The games are [full retail versions]. I am not sure what the plan for stocking them was, but I believe that it was on the wishes of our GSM... I am not sure if there is a long term plan for the area, or if it is a fill in until the bigger construction happens down stairs.
Don't get me wrong, the air conditioned room was nice, and the kiosks (which look like they might've been taken from Microsoft's E3 2005 booth) are fun to sit in, but I don't think I could sit down and play video games in good conscience when I'd had to pay the park's absurd admission fees that day. Still, it was cool to see that Disney's trying to keep up with the times by providing kids with some recent titles that are actually a lot of fun to play. Were it up to me, I'd see about getting some Wii consoles and kiosks in there, too, especially since the gaming section is right next to the area about fitness and exercise.
Hit the jump to see more pictures of the section!
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 22 August 2007
· Comments (11)
Other stuff like this: anaheim, bionicle, disneyland, innoventions, kiosks, lego star wars, light cycles, meet the robinsons, shiny things, technology, tron, xbox 360s
Last time I was at Disneyland, in addition to the admission price I was paying 25 or 50 cents a play for stuff like Asteroids Deluxe.
Of course, last time I was at Disneyland, it was 1981.
i am pretty sure that at the heart of it, the kiosks are set up for the same reason the kidcot stations at EPCOT are for.....to give parents a chance to unload the kids for a moment and sit.
Disneyland Innoventions sure beets Disney World Innoventions, the games at WDW are mounted on the wall.....kinda like a wal-mart electronics section
Yay Arizona! The dorm isn't at NAU isn't it? If so, I can see where your friend lives from here. =P
And yeah I've never really got the innovations thing at Disneyland before.
Anybody been to DisneyQuest at Disneyworld? Is it fun at all? Worth going to? I'm going to be there in October.
I live in Orlando and have been to DisneyQuest several times. It has alot of fun games and attractions there. Some neat VR stuff, couple mini-rides. the 5-man Pirates game is a ton of fun. And there's a huge-ass arcade too. Thing is, Disney has pretty much stopped maintaining it. Alot of the games were broken last time I went, and some of the attractions are failing. On one VR sword fighting game, my left eye view was flickering very slightly while the right was not, and it nearly made me puke. Kinda frustrating when you pay $30 to get in.
Alot of the VR technology is pretty old too. I'm talking huge, heavy helmets and such, and early PS2 quality graphics. I really wish Disney would drop a few mil and do a total overhaul of that place. Shrink down the headgear, upgrade the hardware running the VR games, and actually fix up most of their arcade machines.
Sadly I recall hearing they're shutting the place down in a year or two to make way for some ESPN bar or something. blah.
@ Kit and @ your brother.
I hope he is going to the RIGHT Arizona university, U of A of course! UA alum here and I am back living in Tucson. Although I did spend 2 years at NA SPEW err NAU. I do miss Flagstaff.
NAU it is, actually :) He's not a freshman though.
Tell me about it! I remember going last October to WDW and when we were walking through Innoventions in Epcot, my boyfriend noticed the Haunted Mansion videogame and started playing it. I had to keep on telling him, "We have this game at home. I *own* it!" It took a good 10 minutes before he would stop playing. I just wandered around bored while waiting. Sigh!
Innoventions is just about my least favorite "attraction" in a Disney park. I love Disney parks and will go and do just about everything they have--no matter how lame--but, Innoventions is one I skipped back in July when I hit Disneyland.
The problem is that Disney isn't just producing a time-killer here--they enter into contracts with these companies to promote their items. The reason they feature Xbox consoles? A contract with Microsoft. So, instead of getting the "latest" high-tech in development--what you see is just what you can already buy in Circuit City. Disney is toying with replacing this with a real attraction, but they make good money off the deals--so don't expect it to go anywhere soon.
i lived in orlando for a year and never went to disneyquest, never wanted to pay even with cast discount.
yeah, as of may they were in the process of at least revamping Innoventions, if not starting to totally replace it.....they need to, it is such a waste of time.....except for the plastic robot relay. Road to tomorrow, yeah right, road to last week is more like it.
when you were there you has better have gone on Nemo.....or at least turtle talk.
Nemo had *just* opened when I visited. I did go on it, but I have to wonder now if it was working properly. To me not much at all happened on the ride....I think half the views were completely empty. I was quite underwhelmed, but since then I've heard all sorts of raves. I haven't done Turtle Talk yet--or Test Track. Those were about the only big things I didn't get to. I can't wait to go back.
Sweet, BoT, if you happen to stop by the GameStop in the Flagstaff Mall say hello. Name's Stephen and I'm a manager there... yes, I am ashamed - but it pays the bills, and I get a discount. @_@
@Kit: funnily enough, I was there today! Had to pick up a Bioshock strategy guide so I could have some art references for this week's comic. Sadly, someone else sold me the guide...