Earlier this year we headed to Banana’s Fun Park in Grand Junction, CO to upgrade their Battle for Pandora laser tag attraction. In addition to their upgrade to a new 20-player CyberBlast Pro system, they added a wide variety of interactive options to their arena that create an extraordinary laser tag experience. Let’s take a closer look at this truly unique laser tag attraction.
Lighting Sets the Scene
Specialty lighting is an easy way to bring a laser tag arena to life. LaserBlast President, Mike Ewald, explains, “…as part of the upgrade, we added a bunch of really cool special effects lighting and sound around the arena. So, first of all, we’ve got our tree of life here.”
The magic starts with a target placed on the tree. When tagged, there are a number of different light colors and patterns that can be triggered to give the illusion of various reactions. “We can do like a yellow streak like a lightning strike. We can do green to give it more of a living forest vibe. And then we can do a faster blue up and down run to make it look like a waterfall or rain.”, outlines Mike, “So, we can do all kinds of cool things to kind of bring the arena to life and bring people a little more of an interesting experience verses the old plain airbrush murals.”
The tree of life was just one of many lighting additions made to this arena. Lighting can be used to create the illusion of weather, fire, explosions and more. These components can take a laser tag arena from average to amazing without having to redo the arena.
Bringing Props to Life
Props are an important part of any laser tag arena. Themed props help to set the scene for the environment that you are trying to curate for your guests. In discussing props, Mike emphasized, “we like to focus on brining those props to life with big, bold, interactive effects that are easy to use and understand.”
There were many impressive props we worked with at this FEC. Mike provides an overview of the various interactive details added to an existing drone prop.
“We kind of saw this drone prop and thought it would be pretty cool to make this crashed drone play a crashing sound effect so we added one of our mines and a couple of special effects, which you are about to see. So, you get that fog jet right in your face, it zaps all of the players in the area and then it does a red fire projection from above onto the crashed drone. We also tied in a crashing drone sound effect and some cracking fire to really make this kind of like a walk-through theme park or a shooting gallery to add something really unique to the experience.”
The combination of lights, sounds, and fog showcases the prop and allows players to be transported into the unique world you work to create in your arena. The drone was just one of the various props we brought to life at Banana’s Fun Park. We also worked with a tiki mask, hanging pterodactyl’s and more.
Virtual Opponents
For enhanced gameplay, they also added an AI Projector Target to their arena. This virtual opponent actually fires back at players, adding an element of player verses arena to the game. “In a few seconds here, our friend is going to make his appearance on that wall and jump out and attack us. So, we have to tag him pretty quick or he’s going to fire back and shut me down. Here’s the gorilla, he’s going to get up and start beating his chest.”, Mike describes as the giant gorilla project emerges.
There are over a dozen different virtual opponents to choose from. You can utilize just one of them or cycle through several for more variety. There is also a power up mode that displays a treasure chest and once tagged awards a power up to the first player to tag it.
Between the different backgrounds and opponents, there is a lot of opportunity to customize an AI target experience to your arena theme. Mike elaborates, “You’ve got different difficulty modes, so anywhere from an easy one where just one hit takes it out, to a difficult one that requires multiple hits.”
Adding player verses arena elements create more opportunity for varied game play, creating a new, unique experience each time a player enters your arena and encouraging repeat play. These types of interactive components also allow smaller groups to enjoy the full laser tag experience even if only a few people are participating in a round.
Banana’s Fun Park offers a variety of attraction in addition to their epic laser tag arena including karting, mini golf, arcade, laser maze, bumper boards, and even a water park attraction.
The recently celebrated their 20th year of offering family fun to their community. If you find yourself in the Grand Junction area, we highly recommend paying them a visit to check out their newly upgraded laser tag attraction and the other great offerings they have.
If you have been thinking about upgrading your laser tag attraction, it may be easier than you’d expect. The addition of special effects and interactive arena options can create an entirely new attraction without having to redo your arena. We’d love to help bring your arena to life! To learn more please give us a call at +1 734-259-5300, or visit www.laserblast.com.
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