Follow in Mario's footsteps in a space full of arcade adventures

Arcade video games, which involve simple, fast, repetitive gameplay with high doses of action, have occupied much of the leisure time of children, teenagers, and even adults since the 1970s. They were endless distractions that went from being able to play in establishments specializing in these machines to the video consoles that came into circulation over the years. City Escape Room, in Terrassa, has added to its offer La Lanzadera – SPARK81, a gaming space where users experience the feeling of being the protagonist like the legendary characters of the sector, such as the blacksmith Mario, the most famous in the universe. Video games, or Sonic the Hedgehog.

The City Escape Room, created from the union between Elements Escape Room and Wortex Escape Room, has three escape rooms and now also offers this arcade adventure. They have a thousand square meters and occupy only 40% of their space, but the intention is to expand their offer, explains Mark Pallada, one of the creators and founders.

The idea for La Lanzadera comes from Canada and the United States. “We were interested and tried to bring it here and consulted with the company there, but they told us that they had reached the top of the job and that they had not franchised anything for Europe and we decided to develop it ourselves.” Bilad confirms.

Games are their own

He comments that although they were inspired by the idea, “all the games are owned by us and so are the development and dynamics.” Three rooms are “Mosaic”, “Boton”, and “Al-Dian”. Balada reveals that they had three other ideas for three rooms, but now they wanted to see how those first three went. “The reception is very good and we are now developing the other three players in the backroom and intend to open them in the coming months.”

The current dynamic is based on one hour, divided into twenty minutes to participate in each room. It starts with a “mosaic” game, where you have to avoid stepping on red light boxes and turn off green ones. Then you move on to “buttons”, where the goal is to press the specific colors that were previously chosen.

Finally, a game of “darts” consists of throwing some balls at some brightly colored duos. If you touch one of the team's colours, points are added while if you touch the opposing team's colours, points are deducted. In all three options there are many possible games. It is accessible for up to 18 people, but will be divided into six people per room.

One of the factors that motivated the people responsible for The City of Escape Room is that many users display a competitive nature that cannot be demonstrated in an escape room. “The escape room is a cooperative game and many people like to compete as well, which is why La Lanzadera exists. It can be repeated here. An escape room usually takes place once and at La Lanzadera you can come every week, if you want,” Balada emphasizes. “They are immersive arcade rooms and it's like stepping into a machine and being the mechanism that activates everything. That would be the definition,” Balda asserts. “A lot of people tell us this game is for kids, but they end up playing it. It's perfect for families,” he says. The price is 15 euros per person.

The City Escape Room has received global recognition and the Taverna Room was chosen as the ninth best escape room in the world, and first in Spain in the Terbeca Awards.