The service was pretty standard. We had a briefing prior to entering the room, and they were chatty on the side. I docked a point off because they didn’t necessarily go above and beyond, and a score of a 10 is reserved for those that do.

The Locked Room tends to have great service, and this location (32 Ave & 19 St NE) is no exception. Clear instructions given and very friendly too!

This room had a good balance of what I call searching puzzles (look around the room until you filter out what things you need) and logic puzzles (put together things you found around the room in a certain order until you get the right combination). The puzzles were standard in terms of the execution and types, but they were well-executed.

There was a good mix of puzzles here – you were still opening locks, but you found the combinations by doing some pretty unique (and thematically relevant!) tasks. The puzzles kept us busy up until the last minute (literally!).

Most escape rooms tend to be dark, which is an easy route to choose to give the room a tense atmosphere. This is one of the very few that’s brightly lit. The props were cute and nostalgic. However, some of it also looked too simple, maybe cheap (specifically, the overuse of dollar-bin stuffed toys). It looked video-gamey for sure, but didn’t feel video-gamey.

The room was playful and colourful, as expected from a video-game based room. Lots of fun things to look at, and I liked how it wasn’t a dark room!

The soundtrack to this room was fantastic, and coincided with the theme perfectly. In that way, the immersion was great. It wasn’t just music played on a loop either; at certain points, the music changed to flow with the time you’ve spent in the room. Other than that, it still felt like you were in an escape room solving puzzles, not taken to a different world.

I really enjoyed the music in this room – it was lots of fun to whistle along to familiar tunes as we were solving the puzzles! It was also the major source of tension near the end. If you’ve played a Mario game, I think you’ll have a good idea of what to expect from the music in the last couple of minutes (unless you rock it and get out before then!).

Nostalgic. There’s really no other word more perfect to describe the theme. If you are in your 20s-30s and grew up playing Super Nintendo every afternoon after school, then you’ll enjoy the theme of this room. The puzzles, props, and music all remained loyal to the theme.

What a nostalgic room! I thought that the background story, the decor, and the puzzles all worked together to give a great video-gamey experience.

This gets a #platinum. I know the numbers don’t reflect it, but this is one of those cases where the overall experience is greater than the sum of the individual components. It was just so much fun. It kept us busy throughout the entire hour and didn’t feel like we were truly stuck or frustrated on certain puzzles. Whether you’re someone who grew up with video games or have younger kids you want to bring, everyone will enjoy this room for sure!

I’m giving this a #platinum. This is an especially nice room for those of you who grew up playing games like Pokemon, Zelda, and Mario, but it’s a room that can be done by anyone!