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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Two Bit Circus Comes To Town

Can you hear it? The sounds of a circus? And luckily, you don't have to smell it. Because it's not a real circus. Talk about Dumbo Drop. And though, technically, you really can't even have a circus in LA with the laws in place with animals and Barnum and Baily being dead we're still getting one. Two Bit Circus Micro Amusement Center is about to open in downtown LA and it's gonna be a new wonder to look at and play in.

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! We have VR! We have new arcade games we've come up ourselves. We've got the classics. We've got a robot bartender that'll wow ya! Get away from me kid! After 9pm it's 21 and older, see. We've got lounges to get liquor. We've got a room for wine tasting and trivia where you, yes you, the audience, can vote via console and we don't mean your iPhone. We've got a circus in town that's staying!

That might be what someone will yell at when it opens.

Two Bit Circus
Sneak Preview Aug 27-29
Open to Public September 7, 4pm 634 Mateo St
Hours
Monday – Thursday: 4PM – Close
Friday: 4pm – 1AM
Saturday: 10AM to 1AM
Sunday: 10AM – Close

As the bartender looked longingly into my eyes with the one massive eye it had, it thought it was in love....with me. I was not. It's eye turned into a heart emoticon. I blushed and worried if it could get up. I'm writing about my experience with the robot bartender, Guillermo Del Poro. This robot bartender is one of many sights to behold at Two Bit Circus. It'll be mixing drinks and putting on the spectacle for those wanting to get a tasty alcoholic beverage. By the way, it'll be getting it's own Twitter and profile on Tinder.

We wandered around and tried many of the games at Two Bit Circus at a special preview event a few weeks ago. We were blown away as there's so much to do and see. It's hard where to start or what to pick out as everything grabs your attention. The theme is that of a circus and thank God we didn't see any creepy clown stuff, but more of a general theme based on the big top.

They have an arcade area, the whole place, but really, they have an updated arcade area with their own games they make in house. Super Thunder Bloxx has you posing to hit green blocks as your entire body becomes part of the game. There's a third party section too and if you've been to IndieCade in the past you might see some old favorite like the multiplayer arcade cabinet Killer Queen. And they even have old classics like Street Fighter II, no joke. You"ll want to try each one to see their gimmick.

You have "The Midway' for some bigger games to try. We really liked Demolition Zone which has you becoming a wrecking ball. You'll be tossing a ball attached by a wire to smash a building down. Can you beat your friend next to you at destroying a whole building?

Our favorites on our tour would have to be the VR and Story Rooms segments. Starting with Story Rooms, let's just say they're gonna blow away Escape Rooms you've been to so far.

We had a chance to pilot a space ship similar to 60's Start Trek in Space Squad in Space. This experience let's you work with a team to complete mission on what looks like someone's idea of a spaceship who likes 60's futurism. I piloted the ship during our mission, while my colleague from the site tried to put out fires on the ship when we were attacked. We switched roles and also took on different tasks with our crew of random people who were visiting Two Bit.

There is a story and a mission and you can lose it. You"ll be given twenty-five minutes to play through. Though it came close for us to dying we did finish our mission in 15 minutes and that's with learning completely new controls and working with strangers. $15 per person. We were told if the game does well, they"ll update it with new missions.

One room we wish we had photos of but weren't allowed was The Lost City. This Story Room straight up looks like it was taken from the set of Legends of the Hidden Temple. We were so impressed by it and it wasn't even playable. It looks like your walking onto a game show. We can't wait until it opens.

We sort of had a blend of VR and Story Room with The Raft which has us battling aliens as we headed down river. It's a strange game where you blast away aliens.

All of these rooms are meant to be played with multiple people, so you"ll be playing with a group no matter what.

Right nearby the Story Rooms is a VR maze, Asterion Modulemaze. And you won't be standing in place. You can walk around this maze as thought you're going around it for real. It's so strange, yet fun to find yourself walking around un-tethered, except for a helmet and controller. You're wearing a backpack too, but really you"ll feel transported to the different mazes they have at Two-Bit.

VR is abundant. You can rent your own VR cabana, think of it as a Karoake Room, but for VR. You"ll be able to try the latest and most popular VR games. They also have The Arena, the open area for VR to try different VR games. We got to try a new version of Battle Zone that had us battling evil tanks in VR while being rocked by vibrating seats.

One of our favorite areas was Club 01, inside we played a live trivia game with the console on our table. Set to have hourly shows, you"ll be able to pop in for a trivia match and see you score on screen in real time as well as a number of fun features as all the data coming from the console you're answering on. They're touch screens, of course.

Wine tastings are planned in the Club too. They"ll see how well you do with trivia at the start and when you've had 8 big sips.

For kids, they might do a cereal tasting. Frankly, I'd rather get to try that one.

Food wise they told us they had the saying of 'Farm to Circus'...wah-wah. If you care about that kind of thing it's gonna be locally sourced up the ying-yang. Nothing on the menu striked us as being that crazy or fun for the circus vibe. We heard burger sliders and wanted cotton candy burritos.

There will be over-the-top drinks with fire and nitro and you can have them under a carousel.

Though during the day kids are welcome, once 9pm rolls around it's 21 and over only. So, it'll be fine for a group of adults to come to and party or at least get out for a night.

Yes, it's free to enter. No entry fee, but the games each have their own costs. All of it is reasonably
priced.

Parking is the street and pay lots, so be prepared when you're heading out for the place.

You didn't hear it from me, but there's suppose to be hidden stories in the place. A real meta, sort of underground idea about what's going on. So be on the lookout for hidden clues and mysteries under foot.

The place is set to open to the public September 7th, 2018 at 4pm PT.
‘Sneak Peek Sale’ on playing cards right now where you can get $50 worth of play for only $25. Each can be used at the park M-F throughout September. The number of these cards is limited. More details can be found here: https://twobitcircus.centeredgeonline.com/movie/movies