Lake Life Review

Hello, my name is Susan and I can't get enough of VR.

Okay the title of this isn't 100% true...until now. I had never done any games in the Virtual Reality world. I am in my 40s. I grew up with Atari, then Nintendo, then SUPER Nintendo and by the time Nintendo 64 came out there were way too many buttons to push. Just get me back in the land with Yoshi! But on this day in August, 2022, I was introduced to Virtual Realty games and my world has changed forever!

Any time driving into Milford from the north, I'm sure you have seen this huge bouncy world. What would you call it? Bouncy World. Yes, with the name Bouncelandia it is definitely an air filled bouncy world! It is every kid's dream. BUT did you know. They also have other activities. They have a giant bouncy obstacle course. They also have Gelly Blasters, which is a version of paintball wars. But these gellys are low impact and they don't stain. Perfect for kids 6 and up. What fun!

When we contacted Ankit from Bouncelandia about doing an activity for our Lake Life Review for this issue, we had our hearts set on Gelly Blasters. We would invite a crowd and do one of the games of Elimination or Capture the Flag. But instead Ankit talked us into doing the Virtual Reality (VR) games instead, and I am so glad he did.

I didn't know what to expect. On the day of our review, Tara, Max, Joy, #along Charlotte, #along Lauren and myself made our way to the VR room on the Bouncelandia grounds. It is in the far southeast corner. We walked into a dark room with four VR headsets ready to roll. With six people, we rotated in and out between games. Both #alongs, Max and I started. We were going to play the Zombie game. SIDE NOTE: For those of you who know Tara, I didn't think she was scared of anything. She is game for everything and has no fear of trying anything new. Well folks...did you know...she doesn't like Zombies. When Ankit said the first game is zombies, she made sure everyone else was putting on the headsets and not her. Little did we know, she just can't do Zombies. MIND BLOWN!

So when you put on these headsets, you enter another world. As each one of us was hooked up to our headset, we entered an arcade room wich is called a waiting room. There you could practice grabbing things and moving around the room. There was pizza, fries, waffles and "root beer" around the room. I tried picking up a bottle and giving to #along Lauren but when I let go, it dropped and she didn't catch it fast enough and splat the bottle busts on the floor. SO COOL!

When the four of us finally got suited with our VR headset, we were off. Ankit turned on the zombie game for us. At that point, we all looked like Max running around. T-shirt, jeans and a bald head. There were outfits for us to put on, virtually. Max put on a cowboy outfit, I was a punkster and our #alongs were a girl with a pink backpack and a nun. All of these were a little rough looking, to fit in with the Zombies, I guess.

GAME ON! We are placed in this hospital lobby and there were two sides of the doorway, so essentially two rooms where zombies will come to attack. This is worth mentioning here, if you have younger kids that want to do this, there is an option to make it without any blood. Personally I didn't feel like it was too gory, but you are shooting zombies.

So back to it. The four of us are in this room protecting ourselves from zombies. Around the room there were different types of weapons: a hammer, a staple gun or a slew of different gun options. I started with a hammer in one hand and a revolver in the other. The Zombies would come in waves. At one point, #along Charlotte had a baby zombie on her face, and they were all getting into our area. I yell, "MAX, are you even helping?" He comes around the corner and says. "Yeah, you know there is another room over here." Tara was watching this chaos ensue and was taking some video. On the video, I hear Tara say to Joy, "I think Max is shooting all of them. I don't know what those other three are doing." WHAT FUN! After that game, we played another shooting game but we were shooting ogres with bows and arrows. We were trying to protect a tree. Again on this game, we got to pick our outfits. I loved this. Once you got your outfit on, you were in front of a mirror. I just started dancing. It was so funny to watch. Then to my right there was #along Lauren. She had a jester suit on and was dancing like a monkey. I loved this part of it. Watch out—I don't know what I might do if I thought no one was watching! Obviously do a little dance.

This game was full of more fun, protecting ourselves and the tree. I thought I was killing it with my shots. Come to find out in both the zombie game and the arrow game, I had the worst score of kills. Guess who was the best. Max! Meh. I had a great time thinking I was kicking butt.

The four of us finally let Tara and Joy have a turn. Joy and Tara played laser tag. It was fun watching them squat down trying to hide, coming around corners just enough to see if they could see the other one.

Then we had our #alongs hop back in and joined Joy and Tara in the last game, which was to kill the "viruses." They all stood on a moving platform shooting things out of the sky but at the same time they would have to maneuver around over or under oncoming obstacles. As a viewer from the outside, it was just fun to see them moving around in their imaginary world.

After that and because we loved the zombies so much, we got Tara to go in and fight them. Ankit put it on "Hard." They were in a different room than what we were in. Watching from the outside and on the screen where you could see what they see, it was fun to see how they were working together as a team to protect themselves. And I believe Tara managed without any nightmares the following night. Seriously, I didn't think that lady was scared of anything!

After that our time was over. We spent a good hour inside the VR world. Ankit was attempting to get the VRs off of these last four. Meanwhile, I look over and #along Charlotte has her head tipped up and #along Lauren looks like she is pouring something in her mouth. They were back in the waiting room and she was pouring the root beer. What goofs.

So back to the title, I loved this experience. I went home and told my husband, Brad, and oldest daughter, Fran, all about it. It would be a great small group team bonding experience or just to go play with friends. Ankit says he usually gets kids with a parent experiencing it. Personally, I think it would be fun for all ages. I am already thinking of all the people I can take there with me, because like I said, I can't get enough of it!

Bouncelandia is an attraction that has been open now for a few summers. Ankit is looking to keeping his VR room open through the winter. What an amazing activity to be available to our area during the cold months! Visit www.bouncelandia.com for all the information about the bounce houses, obstacle courses, gelly blaster, and of course, the Virtual Realty room. Just try it, it won't disappoint! I will be back soon!