Read on blog or Reader

Activate at American Dream in New Jersey (Challenge Arcade) [Review]

Lisa Spira

18 June

Tons of fun!*

*If you go to any other location besides New Jersey. Read on to understand why.

Location: East Rutherford, NJ

Date Played: April 6, 2024

Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3

Duration: 45 minutes

Price: $24.99 per player Monday-Thursday, $29.99 per player Friday-Sunday.

Ticketing: Public, but also Private. There are multiple groups accessing game rooms at the same time, but each room is private for your team while you are in it.

Accessibility Consideration: Not everything will be accessible to everyone, mostly due to physical elements. Most of the challenges at Activate require some physicality. Of note, Activate relies heavily on color will be challenging for players who are not fully color-sighted.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

I expect we would have loved Activate if we'd visited any location besides The American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, NJ.

Activate was pure, uninhibited fun. We felt like children – running, jumping, and pushing buttons in brightly colored environments. The games required teamwork and collaboration. The games were joyous. I had so much fun playing these games with David and our friend Deb (who is way more athletic than either of us!) It was high energy.

Futuristic white with light blue adornments exterior of Activate, with

Furthermore, there was a lot of gameplay in Activate. Each physical room housed multiple games, and each game had multiple levels. I was impressed by how many different types of challenges could exist within one physical room build. With the same minimal inputs, there were many different interactions. Activate created a lot with a little.

Activate didn't have a story or over-world; it was a playground. It wasn't art. I never felt that narrative or artistic vision was missing, although I can see how some players might find Activate hollow. I like games for the sake of games... especially if the games are fun, which they were! I like understanding my goal and striving to improve, to reach the next level or a higher score. I wished the points earned at Activate were more clearly tied to actions. However, overall, Activate excelled delivering the experience it intended: a playground of fast-paced, high-energy, team-oriented challenges.

I would absolutely go back to Activate if I lived near any other Activate. Unfortunately, the location at American Dream Mall only offers 45-minute time slots, and this is not enough time to fully enjoy Activate. The feeling that our minutes were too precious to waste clouded an otherwise joyful time playing and negatively impacted our game selection. We were always in a rush. At almost any other Activate location sessions are 75 minutes, as they should be. To add insult to injury, we paid the same amount for our 45-minute session as we would have paid for a 75-minute session elsewhere.

Go to Activate. It's amazingly fun. Don't go to Activate in New Jersey. It's a rip off.