Dave and Buster's: REVIEW'D

So the other day I and a few friends made a trip to this place called Dave n' Buster's. Its a restraunt. Maybe you've seen a commercial for it. Maybe you don't watch television. Maybe, you're a jerk and are just like every one of those other lying bastards who tell everyone they don't watch television. I imagine most people who are into games would know a thing or two about it, as it is essentially Chuckie Cheese for adults, only, it doesn't have a famous American video game pioneer as it's former CEO.

Anyway, I went there with a few preconceived notions about what exactly this place would be like. Essentially I imagined a really crappy restraunt with an ultra fancy state of the art arcade attached. What it ACTUALLY turned out to be was nearly the polar opposite. You walk in to the place and the arcade portion of it is near completely obscured from view. If you were to stop by, not knowing what it was, you'd probably assume its a halfway decent restraunt, which, strangely, it is. The food was good and came within a reasonable amount of time, and (though I prefer not to drink) there was a huge selection of various beers and liquors. I imagine the sound proofing detail on the place must be massive as barely any sound from the arcade leaked through into the dining area.

Where this place stumbled, and I'm actually pretty sad for it, was it's gaming room. It is difficult to say who is to fault on this, the gaming industry, or the restraunt chain, but the arcade was lacking to a pretty huge degree. I haven't been to any other arcades lately so maybe I'm a little too optimistic in my expectations, but the entire experience seemed to be just a huge flashback to my youth. Not because I was having a load of childish fun, but because all of the same arcade games that I have already played a thousand times were there, with only a few more modern titles to check out. I couldn't help but feel like I was getting ripped off most of the time. Well...nevermind, I was fully aware that I was consistently getting ripped off from the second I walked in the room. Why should I pay the DnB chip equivalent to about a dollar to play Star Wars: Starfighter for three minutes when I can easily walk into a used game shop and pay three dollars to own the game outright. Sure, as an added bonus I get to sit inside of a nausea inducing hydraulic driven bubble, but I can't quite decide how much that experience is really worth.

Another complaint that I have about the experience is that the restraunt/arcade seems to be in constant conflict between its target and actual demographic. The arcade is packed with children. I suppose that thats predictable, but I would hope a restaurant marketed as such would offer an escape in some way from the chaos that comes along with the presence of youngsters. I'm sure that the corporate execs of DnB would want to claim not to be as such, but it seems that whole place really is just a Chuck-E-Cheese that serves less pizza and more alcohol.

Ultimately I'm not angry at my experience, but I'm disappointed. I like the idea of enjoying games in a more social environment, but I'd rather do so in the presence of people my own age.

People who are mature and don't spend forty minutes pretending to play Time Crisis 4 when, clearly, they are watching the in-game demo.

I hate children.