Room Escape Artist

Tourist Trap

Cheesie’s Pizza Party is one of the best games in the Chicago area. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms around Chicago.

Location:  Schaumburg, IL

Date Played: October 24, 2024

Team size: 2-8; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: from $90 per team for a group of 2 to $320 per team for a group of 8

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration:  There is one step

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

I walked out of Cheesie’s Pizza Party feeling like it was the most interesting game on offer at 60 to Escape Schaumburg. It had some of the highest highs as well as some of the lowest lows on display in the building, but I left feeling a lot of love for this crazy creation.

The highs were all centered around the ruined Chuck E Cheese parody. While I grew up in the era of Chuck E Cheese, I never set foot in one… so I can’t admit to being wrapped up in nostalgia. In spite of that, I found the story that 60 to Escape told with this ratty rat deeply compelling. I was also quite taken with the world that they built and how effectively it triggered an emotional response. This was especially true during the finale. 60 to Escape stuck the landing.

The lows, on the other hand, were centered on the gameplay that felt like it was constantly bouncing between scavenger hunt and somewhat dysfunctional use of old arcade tech.

Every time Cheesie’s Pizza Party started annoying me, it found another way to win me over. In the end, I walked out of 60 to Escape owning a Cheesie plushie, because I really did enjoy this game, even if it occasionally drove me up the damn wall.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Devotees of Charles Entertainment Cheese
• Any experience level
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• Chuck E Cheese vibes
• A fantastic animatronic
• The ending was great

Story

Filled with fond feelings of nostalgia, we’d decided to break into the abandoned and very defunct Cheesie’s Pizza family amusement center. With some luck, maybe someone left behind some games, costumes, or those incredibly 90s animatronics.

Setting

Cheesie’s Pizza Party began in the rundown alleyway behind the long closed family entertainment center. Everything was in disarray. Once we made our way inside, we found ourselves in a similarly dilapidated facility, filled with nods to the heyday of arcade birthday parties.

While this was not a horror game, the space was surprisingly ominous. The set was fairly consistently high quality, with the exception of one late-game space that felt under-developed relative to the rest of the game.

Gameplay

60 to Escape Schaumburg’s Cheesie’s Pizza Party was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay heavily revolved around searching, observation, and making connections… and secondarily around deduction and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ Cheesie’s Pizza Party was very Chuck E Cheese. From set, to interactions, to characters, it nailed the look and feel in a legally distinct way.

➕ The grim, “broken” world of Cheesie’s did some incredibly cool things from an environmental storytelling standpoint. This was clearly not a horror game and never even came close to veering into horror territory… however, it managed to be surprisingly unnerving on the back of the set design.

➕ My favorite puzzle of the game was a sweet one.

➖ There were some weak puzzles. A lot of these problems seemed like they stemmed from building around old arcade cabinets that are very difficult to make do anything other than their pre-programmed functions. Significant portions of the game felt very finicky.

➖ A color vision puzzle felt like it needed some refinement.

❓ Cheesie’s Pizza Party was extremely search heavy,

➖ There was no payoff for an iconic game output.

➕ I usually dislike animatronics in escape rooms because we usually spend too much time around them for the animatronics to have any magic. That statement doesn’t apply to Cheesie’s. I’ve never liked an animatronic in an escape room more than I liked Cheesie.

➕ 60 to Escape sold Cheesie plushies in the lobby, and they are awesome. I happily bought one. He hangs out in the Reality Escape Pod studio. The escape room world needs more plushes of fun characters.

➕ Cheesie’s Pizza Party had some strong voice acting.

➖ There was a surprising amount of unnecessary writing and story details that never paid off. The story allusions left me feeling like there was some grander narrative ambition that was partially cut, abandoned, or forgotten.

➕ I loved the ending of Cheesie’s Pizza Party.

Tips For Visiting

• 60 to Escape Schaumburg is located near the center of the Woodfield Mall. Park wherever you desire.
• Arrive with enough time to navigate the mall. This mall’s layout is a little strange.
• 60 to Escape also has its own bathroom, separate from the rest of the mall.
• The Woodfield Mall and surrounding area are filled with food options.

Book your hour with 60 to Escape Schaumburg’s Cheesie’s Pizza Party, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: 60 to Escape Schaumburg provided media discounted tickets for this game.