Escape The Arcade — Local services in Riverside

If you want a challenging escape experience and you love the 80’s, this is your place. Although brand new, Escape the Arcade has a promising future. It’s an immersive experience full of puzzles to figure out and objects to collect on your journey to defeat R.O.N.I.N. For the purpose of this review I won’t go too into detail so as to not ruin the experience with spoilers. What I will say is if you’re like me and grew up playing the original Nintendo and other 2D arcade games, you’re going to love the premise of the story. The location itself is a hidden gem in downtown Riverside and, from what I was told, is going to be expanding and adding two additional rooms. The escape room itself is simple and yet has complex puzzles that will challenge you. We ended up escaping but not before a lot of head scratching. I will admit that I am biased towards the service because the gamemaster was my little sister, but she is very helpful and extremely sassy. She’s always watching and will call you out when you do silly things like try to open doors prematurely or hold onto props for way too long. When my better half and I went, we brought along my brother in law as an early birthday party which he thoroughly enjoyed. This place is great for groups and parties but just be forewarned, teamwork is key. Overall it was a great experience and I would encourage anyone and everyone to check it out because although they’re a single room right now, they’ve developed relationships with other escape rooms and can refer you to some other interesting and even terrifying escape experiences. Check them out, ask for Ivette -  you won’t be...

I booked my escape room appointment for August 22, 2025 at 11:00am. I payed 120 bucks to reserve the room, taken in full from my account. On the day of, I arrived early. There was no signage on the building at all and nobody answered when I knocked at the door repeatedly. Calling the number on the website sent me to voicemail. Nobody has ever responded to me or returned my voicemail. Nobody called me back. The website was also down at the time, it's back up now, but nobody has responded to me there either. I genuinely do not know what happened here but this is massively unprofessional. I had it booked and paid up front. I came down with my kid and he was really excited about it, and having nobody respond made him sad and angered me a lot. Also, there were a bunch of homeless people wandering around and camping out right in front of the door, and it felt really unsafe and dangerous. I don't recommend them if this kind of thing is possible. Very...

We had a great experience at this escape room. It brought back all the nostalgia of an 80s and early 90s arcade. The game play is smooth, the story is interesting, and the puzzles are a lot more dynamic than just the same locks and codes you have seen before. This has a more interactive feel and really forces a team to work together.

We also got to meet the owner and he is fantastic. A natural DM (Dungeon Master) who guides the game with humor. He is hoping to expand this year and I can't wait to see what story he comes up with next.

If you are looking for a fun escape room, something a little outside the average keys and locks, check...