Crane Games Aurora — Local services in Aurora

It's really great that we have a claw arcade in the area--we need more of these fun places! On one hand, it's very clean and looks nice inside, and the employees were friendly. But overall I'm not thrilled with the "fairness" of this one.

Our family visited several claw arcades in Las Vegas this summer, where places like this are all over now. We ended up averaging about 1.5 prizes per $10 spent at the Las Vegas places, which seemed mostly fair. I say this to establish a general baseline and to show that we're not totally unskilled at these games. After each of those visits in Las Vegas, both of my kids felt that they got a good amount of prizes and were able to mostly get the ones they really wanted; they left each place happy and wanting to go back.

So we were excited to find out that a claw arcade had recently opened here at home. We spent $70 here for a total of 83 tokens (IIRC). At all of the Las Vegas places, they gave you a big bag when you bought tokens so you could carry your prizes around as you collected them. That didn't happen here, but I was about to find out why--no bag is necessary because you aren't going to win that much.

I didn't count precisely but between my two kids and me, I probably used 20 and each kid used around 31 tokens. I only won one prize. My teenage daughter only won one prize. My son won 2, for a total of 4 prizes between the three of us and the $70 we spent. I'm not bad at these machines and I had several "good grabs" where the crane had a full grasp on a prize, got it to the top, and somehow opened a bit and dropped the prize on the way back to the chute. I watched this happen a few times with my kids as well, across multiple machines. There were a few machines where it became clear after a couple of tries that the prize inside was simply too heavy for the claw to pick up at its current strength calibration, even if my placement was perfect.

A few other families with young children came and went while we were there, and more than one child left crying because they couldn't win anything. My own kids overall left pretty disappointed, feeling like they had "failed" because they won so few prizes compared to our Las Vegas experiences. They weren't happy and didn't have much fun because they felt like the machines here weren't fair. I have to agree.

I understand the economics of a business like this, and I certainly don't expect to win on every token or something. I know this place is relatively new and it's got to be tough finding a balance between making the machines difficult enough that the business is making money but generous enough that customers feel good about the ratio of wins and losses. But at the very least, one should expect that if I get a "good grab" and the toy makes it to the top of the crane, it should make it to the prize chute. It's super frustrating to think you've won and then see the cranes drop the prizes on the way back home, over and over again; that makes you feel cheated and isn't fun.

What I care most about is that my kids have a good time and feel like we got an overall good experience for the money and time we spent. We didn't really have that here; my kids left feeling bad and discouraged, and not happy. There's a lot of good stuff about this place--it's cute and well-lit, the prize selection is good and the plushies seem to be good quality, and there are a good number of machines. But ultimately that is all overshadowed and doesn't really matter much if you leave feeling bad and cheated. I spent $70 to walk out with 4 small plushies and some disappointed kids. I would love to see this place succeed and have some other claw arcades open here as well, because my kids really loved them on our vacation. But I'm not rushing back to Crane Games anytime soon. I hope the managers will keep tweaking the settings on the machines to make them more generous overall, because the experience we had on our first visit did not equal a good use of our...

UPDATE: As someone who would come in frequently, the machines definitely changed and is more challenging to play. When I first reviewed Crane Games, I'd be able to walk away with two full bags of plushies with my partner. When we went today, we found the machines to be more challenging and almost impossible to get any plushies.

For one, the machines and prizes here are not nearly as stocked as their Thorton location, which is a huge downer to those who are unable to make the commute up to Thorton. Second thing is that staff are actively on their phones A LOT. I get that the staff deserve to have breaks and all, but should all of them be taking their break at the same time? Debatable. I remember the times when they would be on the floor to interact with customers and help out when needed. What happened to that? Today, I felt like someone came up to me only because my partner was really upset from not being able to get one plushie after 10+ tries. Third thing, if the staff assists you with getting a plushie, shouldn't it be a sure thing to get it on your next try? That didn't happen here. The staff put it on the corner of the machine, and the crane flinged it away. At the end of the day, after spending a lot of money for tokens, we walked away with half a bag of plushies. Is it not a requirement to calibrate the machines anymore? Is it also not a requirement to refill the machines when it's low/empty? I don't know but I don't think we'll be coming for a long while...

ORIGINAL: I. Am. Hooked! I'm so glad I live close to this location, even though I hear my wallet crying. The trading system is such a blessing too. Crane games are a guilty pleasure, so instead of finding myself at Round 1 on the weekend, I'll perhaps come...

EDIT: Instead of asking "When did you drop by?" the owner decided to get defensive immediately and wrote a long-winded response accusing us of not being there at all. We were there on July 25th. I attached photos of the day we were there. I stand by my review even more – I am not slandering this business, especially because I am not the only reviewer who had a similar experience, even though the owner is yet again accusing us of being the only ones to have the same experience (sort the reviews by lowest to highest; I am not the only one who had this experience). Like I said, we wanted to enjoy this business, and as an Asian and also a female small business owner, I implore this business to take a step back and realize that their clientele can also be just like them.

Honestly, this place is a rip-off! We were SO excited to come here and support this business. We spent $50 and didn’t win a single plush. The claws were too weak or would open up before you win. My best friend and I play claw machines for fun all the time and these are undoubtedly the worst we’ve encountered. We’ve won many times at other places! I hope they change their business model! Otherwise, we...