modern game

Chuck E. Cheese is all grown-up. Sort of.

Brea Mall is now home to a Chuck’s Arcade, the first location in California and 10th in the U.S. When the company unveiled the concept earlier this year, headlines branded it as an “adult” Chuck E. Cheese. There’s some truth in that, but it’s not the full story.

Combine the word “adult” and “arcade” and recognizable spaces — say, Dave & Buster’s — instantly come to mind. Here in SoCal, we also have Two Bit Circus in Santa Monica, which marries retro and modern games with beer and cocktails. Chuck’s Arcade isn’t all that similar to either.

Chuck’s Arcade has a merchandise booth with vintage looks.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

But we were intrigued by its promise of retro gaming and its attempts to appeal to a less kid-focused audience. You won’t, for instance, encounter a pizza party full of 7-year-olds here.

So what will you find? And will it possess the vintage arcade vibes many of us are craving? With the company and its mouse mascot now a cool 48 years old, we weren’t sure what to expect. So we took a visit to Chuck’s Arcade seeking answers.

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Where an adult can be a ‘kidult’

It’s not surprising to encounter a grown-up with fond memories of Chuck E. Cheese. For me, I was hooked by the stilted-yet-charming robotic performances from their once ubiquitous animatronic bands, in which tunes were delivered amid the clickety-clack of machinery. Yet a Chuck E. Cheese today is a fully-realized kid-focused video-game-inspired rec room, one where digital floors encourage a more active form of play. David McKillips, president and chief executive of the company, says the firm’s core locations heavily target those between the ages of 3 and 8.

And thus, Chuck’s Aracade, says McKillips, will fill a void. He’s hoping it taps into the marketing segment known as the “kidult” — grown-ups, perhaps, who were raised on games and still cherish the thought of crowding around a “Ms. Pac-Man” console. The kidult sector is booming, encompassing everyone from the so-called “Disney adult” to those who carry a Labubu doll as a fashion accessory. Think anyone who believes that a childlike openness to play and silliness doesn’t have to be eradicated by maturity.

David McKillips, president and chief executive of Chuck E. Cheese, poses for a portrait with a retired Mr. Munch figure.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

So how does Chuck’s Arcade plan to reach the kidult? Its 3,600-square-foot space boasts 70 games, including a small — emphasis on small — retro section where one will find coin-op cabinets of “Tron,” “Centipede,” “Mortal Kombat” and a “Ms. Pac-Man” head-to-head arcade table. And while a modern Chuck E. Cheese is school-cafeteria bright, Chuck’s Arcade is dark, its black walls and low lighting recalling the arcades of the ’80s and ’90s.

McKillips says Chuck’s Arcade “is appealing to the collectible market,” betting large on grown-ups being drawn to its plethora of claw machines. There are also prize apparatuses dedicated largely to Funko’s plastic figurines.

It’s near the mall food court — which is part of the business strategy

The Chuck E. Cheese company has long had it eye on the Brea Mall.

In an era when malls are being refocused to cater to a more experience-based economy — see, for instance, the escape rooms of Westfield Century City, or Meow Wolf eventually taking over a portion of what is currently the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes L.A. — Chuck E. Cheese saw an opportunity in Orange County.

One game at Chuck’s Arcade may drop Chuck E. Cheese plushies.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

“We’ve been trying to get in here for a year and a half,” says McKillips. “The foot traffic is phenomenal. The anchors are strong. They have a really solid food court.”

The food court was a massive selling point.

“That’s where teens are congregating,” he says. “That’s where parents and kids are together. They’ll have a bite to eat and come over and play some games.”

There’s no booze … or even pizza

Here’s one way to think about Chuck’s Arcade: Imagine a Chuck E. Cheese, but subtract the pizza and detract the drinks. In one corner of Chuck’s Arcade rests a giant Skittles machine, and there is more candy available at the front counter. But the company decided to go without a proper food and beverage program for Chuck’s Arcade, meaning those grown-up kidults won’t be sipping on booze or mocktails.

I told McKillips I was surprised. At home, I’m more than 40 hours into “Donkey Kong Bananza,” but I wind down by playing the game and enjoying a beer — one of the core benefits, I believe, of being a certified kidult.

McKillips argues this is actually an advantage for Chuck’s Arcade, allowing it to reach a grown-up audience but still feel family-friendly. Just one Chuck’s Arcade, he says, is equipped to serve beer, wings and pizza, and it’s in Kansas City, Mo.

“This is an arcade destination,” he adds. “We’re not hosting birthday parties. We don’t do [food & beverage] here. You’re going to come here and play games.”

Where’s the nostalgia?

Chuck’s Arcade staffer Sabrina Hernadez checks out games at the new Brea location hours before it opens it doors.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

I should be the audience for Chuck’s Arcade. I have fond memories of the brand.

Chuck E. Cheese, the character and the pizza chain, was the brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, best known as the founder of Atari. The franchise launched in 1977 in San José, first branded as Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre. As Chuck E. Cheese flourished throughout the early ’80s, the original animatronic figures were a bit more bawdy (Chuck was a smoker). Bushnell envisioned the initial Chuck E. Cheese robotic characters as entertainment that appealed to the grown-ups while the kids played games in the neighboring room.

When I first heard of Chuck’s Arcade, I hoped the company was getting back a bit to its roots. And there’s a nostalgic touch here and there. Aside from the aforementioned selection of vintage games, there’s also a Mr. Munch figurine, who is displayed in a clear case and does not turn on. Munch, a friendly, purple-ish hairball of a creature, was once the anchor of Chuck E. Cheese’s Make Believe Band.

Seeing that one figure treated as a museum piece felt like a half-hearted wave to fans who grew up with Chuck. And while claw gizmos and plastic figurines aren’t my thing, I understand their popularity and wouldn’t mind their presence if there was a greater supply of old-school games, and perhaps some pinball machines.

With a digital key card for Chuck’s Arcade starting at $10, the buy-in to try out the space isn’t large, but this felt like a tentative step into adulthood. After all, Chuck is well beyond drinking age. The mouse deserves a cocktail.

SAN FRANCISCO — This year’s NBA All-Star Game was an end, the final All-Star Game aired on TNT before the league switches television partners. The NBA All-Star Game was a beginning, the league actively changing the format to a four-team mini-tournament aimed to shrink bloated scores and increase competition.

And the NBA All-Star Game was a showcase, a reminder that Stephen Curry and the Bay Area are definitive fabrics in the story of the modern game.

What the NBA All-Star Game wasn’t, again, was a game — at least not one that anyone would’ve recognized in a traditional sense. And maybe it doesn’t need to be one.

LeBron James didn’t play because of foot and ankle soreness, with the aim of being back on the floor Wednesday when the Lakers resume their season. Anthony Edwards suited up for his team but never entered the game, lingering groin soreness keeping him from participating. He, too, said he thought he’d be fine once the regular season resumed.

Neither player was replaced.

The decision for James and Edwards to sit, despite the 17-year-age difference, underscored the cost-benefit analysis players are making while the NBA and fans push for the game to be played with the kind of intensity and energy that makes 48 minutes on any given night an occurrence worth celebrating.

For a young player such as Cleveland’s Darius Garland, his first All-Star Game appearance was special. It wasn’t, however, worth risking the rest of his season for the first-place Cavaliers.

“I definitely don’t want to risk that. I don’t, I really don’t know. I wish I had an answer for that because I know that’s been buzzing around all weekend,” Garland said of the conflict. “But we get like a hundred games of great basketball, great competition during the season. All-Star weekend should be about interacting with our fans and giving them something to watch and have some fun to watch.”

The format shift — games played to a target score of 40 among teams composed entirely of either veteran stars, international players, younger All-Stars or rising stars — led to moments of increased competition, particularly in the semifinals.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama and the international stars beat a team with Jaren Jackson Jr., Jalen Brunson and Garland in the first game. Curry, who won All-Star MVP honors, led a team that included James Harden and Kevin Durant past Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht and the Rising Stars despite eight points from Knecht.

“It was fun. A lot of fun,” Knecht said. “We all watched the All-Star Game. And, now we got to play in it. So it was a lot of fun just to go out there and ultimately compete.”

The inclusion of the Rising Stars appeared to ruffle some feathers. They received a more muted introduction than the theatrical intros the All-Stars got. Draymond Green, working the game for TNT, compared it to an under-19 team playing Team USA.

“Obviously a lot of conversation around the fourth team and the rising stars,” Curry said. “And the All-Star experience on Sunday is very sacred. And you have to work your way into that.”

The purity of All-Star Sunday has become a tougher sell in recent years. Harden said the game has taken a noticeable dip in competitiveness and he “really didn’t like” the new format. And while the league is pressuring players to play harder, it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Curry, who had a hand in discussions for the new look All-Star Game, laid out his priorities.

“Where we were last year, we needed to change,” Curry said. “Needed some new life, new juice in the game, something unexpected. What that answer was a collaborative effort to, I think, one, condense the amount of time you’re actually playing so that it gives us more clarity on [when] we can raise our level of competition and keep it fun for everybody. I think that was a big part of it.”

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving scores past San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama during the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday.

(Jed Jacobsohn / Associated Press)

While the format itself produced some extra juice — “Yeah, I actually sweat. I didn’t think I was going to sweat,” Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams said — the process was slowed down by extended breaks in between games and, bizarrely, a nearly 20-minute tribute to TNT and “Inside the NBA” during the tournament finals.

Sunday was the final All-Star broadcast for the network, which will lose its games to NBC and Amazon next season. ESPN will license and air “Inside the NBA” and its broadcast team next season.

“I would say that’s not ideal to stop like that if you want guys to play, be physical and kind of play harder,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said. “But I think guys are still out there having fun. All the OG’s, team old knees and old backs…we came out on top, so I don’t think anybody else should have had any excuses. But it’s definitely not ideal.”

There’s a growing understanding, at least among All-Stars, that there’s probably no real solution to any of this, the kind of thing that can lead to the game being tinkered with as it inevitably becomes stale.

“I think it was competitive, a little,” Jackson said. “But it just depends. It just depends. It’s like if somebody were to make this game super-competitive and somebody were to go out there and get hurt, then we would just be saying that we need to figure out something else. You know what I mean? If too many people were getting hurt in an All-Star Game, which thank God hasn’t happened, and if that was happening, the whole narrative would be, we need to figure something else out so we don’t wreck the product.”

“And the main thing is our teams. That’s why we’re here. Our teams are the reason why we’re here. It’s not just an individual accolade. It’s who they send out here. So that’s the main thing.”

Curry said he thought Sunday’s game, while imperfect, was progress.

“It was a good step in the right direction to reinvigorate the game in some way. And then you tinker with it again next year and see what changes you can make,” he said. “I don’t want to compare it to any other era because the world has changed. Life is different. The way people consume basketball is different. So it’s not going to look like it used to, but it can still be fun for everybody. And I think this was, I had fun. Our team had fun. That’s kinda all that matters.”

Or maybe, fixing the All-Star Game doesn’t even really matter much at all.

“I think it’s not a question for me,” Nikola Jokic said. “I don’t know. I think maybe we should focus on some other things and then All-Star. I think it’s always going to be like this, so we should accept it.”