Level99
Commit an art heist, train to be a ninja, and walk the plank - all in 10 minutes.
notice
This is also not a normal review. We're really straying far from the norm lately, aren't we?
Level99, in the Natick Mall, has a completely different game format that we'll be going over in the next section. Out of their whopping 43 rooms, we only played 21, and we will be sorting them by the good ones, mediocre, and bad, along with giving each a rating. Also in those good, mediocre, and bad rooms will be the Arenas, which we will go over in the next section as well. Then we'll list our favorites down a line from best to worst, so you know what to focus on if you go to Level99.
In short: this is gonna be one hell of a review.
what is Level99?
short answer: it's weird, but fun.
long answer:
Level99 consists of 3 different activities: Rooms, Arenas, and Hunts. Personally, we found the Rooms and Arenas most engaging.
When arriving at Level99, you sign a waiver and get this thing called a Veloband. This band is what controls all the tech in the venue, and allows you to play Rooms, Arenas, and Hunts. They keep track of your name, which is two random words (at the beginning, I was "Topaz Tuna"). However, you can change the name as you level up, and soon you can also change your icon, color, and shape. They also keep track of your coins and gems, which we will discuss soon. Rooms consist of one themed room where you have to complete a challenge in anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. The challenge can be mental, physical, or skill. If you have to figure out what you have to do, it's also categorized as a mystery. Basically, it's Boda Borg with one room. You try to earn up to 3 stars in each room. You can enter rooms by unlocking them with gems. You start with 50 gems but can earn more through other Rooms, Arenas or Hunts. When you beat a room, you get a chest, which has either coins, gems, or puzzle pieces. The more stars you get, the better the loot you get from the chests. If you get coins from the chest, they can give you a hint for the room. To enter a room, the people playing tap their Velobands against a cool looking logo, and spend 2-4 gems each on unlocking the room. The screen tells you what kind of room it is (physical, mental, mystery, skill). It also tells you how long until you get to play. Once it's your turn, a play button will light up. When you click it, the door unlocks and you can begin the challenge.
Arenas are not their own separate room, and are more competitive than Rooms are. In the middle of the massive space that is Level99, you compete in challenges against your team members, such as rock wall pong or the infamous Axe Run. Arenas can also earn you prizes, which are usually gems so that you can play more rooms. However, the competitivity will soon begin, as the winner gets the better prize.
Hunts are immersive art installations that have scavenger hunts hidden inside them. Made by Boston artists, they are both really beautiful and quite a mystery to find all the items. We didn't really focus on these, but they seem really cool.
quick stats
gameplay time: either 2 hours, 4 hours, or all day
games: 40+
recommended team size: 2-6 (in general, more team members on the mental ones, and less team members on the physical ones)
difficulty: overall venue = 4/5. 1 star - 2/5. 2 stars - 3/5. 3 stars - 5/5. but it usually really depends on the room.
scare level: 1/5 (although some rooms may be scarier than others, none are horror themed)
location: Natick, MA (in the Natick Mall)
website: www.level99.com
considerations: -many rooms involve physical activity like crawling, jumping, balancing, or climbing -low lighting conditions in some rooms
good
rooms
Rainforest Catch
Rainforest Catch had a simple task. Stand at either end of some dock-like floor, and throw playground balls through a hoop and have the other catch the ball. If you miss, the game ends.
You have to throw the ball back and forth about 90 times to get three stars. We got one star, as it's not easy to throw a ball perfectly 90 times in a row.
The scenery looked ok, but the real fun was the catching of the balls. However, compared to Level99's other offerings, it didn't really stand out.
rating: 6/10
Pirate's Plank
Pirate's Plank held a deeper challenge than met the eye. A simple plank protrudes from the hull of one pirate ship to another. Simple, right? Nope. The plank was held up by chains, which meant that it was incredibly unstable, and not even attached to the ships. Additionally, when you went back for more stars, it started to shake more and more vigorously, on its own.
This room had one of the best scenery in all of Level99. Although bare, it really made you feel like you were there.
I did get injured on this room, but you have to sign a waiver, and this in no way impacted my opinion on this room (although it impacted other's opinions). Also, I GOT 3 STARS ANYWAY!!! TAKE THAT, PIRATE'S PLANK!!!
rating: 8/10
Ninja Dojo
Ninja Dojo was a very fun room. In the center of the room it featured one of those spinning poles with poles attached sideways to it, at different heights. The whole pole spun around, making you jump and duck. About 10 buttons scattered the room, lighting up at certain times. The more buttons you pressed, the faster the middle pole spun and the more stars you got. Additionally, at any time the middle pole could decide to switch directions and rotate the other way. This room really keeps you on your feet.
The scenery looks pretty good, but you're not focused on that at all. You're focused on how much fun you're having. When we got three stars, it was a bit chaotic. We had more fun in this room than we should have.
rating: 9/10
Ball Labyrinth (I think... it has something with Labyrinth anyway)
Ball Labyrinth had the clearest task of all time. A massive tilting maze made the floor of this game. You had to guide a ball through the maze to the finish line by moving around to tilt the board. There were also holes that the ball could fall into. If it fell into those holes twice, you lost. It was basically a massive version of that Labyrinth board game where you twist the dials on the end to turn the board.
I don't even remember the scenery, since I was looking down at my feet the whole time. I don't think it had much though. It doesn't matter, since the maze is the task at hand.
The maze was difficult. It was pretty fun tilting the board, but it got boring and difficult quickly. We never won.
rating: 6/10
Apocalypse Factory
This one was haaard. The entire room is a zipline. The quicker you can get everyone across, the more stars you get. However, there was one major twist that made the room difficult.
The zipline was going uphill.
You didn't have enough momentum to make it all the way across. Finally, one of our team figured out the trick to push off against the side walls. Even so, this was extremely difficult, and we barely managed to win this room before we had to move on.
rating: 6/10
Mansion Banquet
This is the first mental room we did. It's a classic logic puzzle where, based on the invitations thumbtacked to the wall, you must figure out who sits where, what they eat, and what they drink, then place the corresponding dishes there. The mansion looked very nice, with some stuffed animal heads and a sword on the wall. Plus, according to the group there was a rubber chicken on a plaque. And when you touched it... IT SQUEAKED!!!
I didn't get to see this room won, but some of our group did win it.
rating: 7/10
Museum Heist
This one revolved around you trying to steal a diamond from a museum. To win, all players must make it to the diamond in time. The faster you do it, the more points you get.
The museum is a long hallway with stereotypical wallpaper and some valuable looking paintings spanning the length of the room.
The challenge? The diamond's at the end of the hallway - and there's lasers guarding it!
This would be awesome, but it gets a little hard. The lasers are invisible. You can only see where they come out. You need to be very careful to beat this room, or you'll be caught.
Luckily Level99 makes up for this by giving you FIVE lives in this room. Thanks Level99!
rating: 6/10
Magician's Sideshow
This one involves throwing wiffle balls inside holes on the opposite wall to get points. The problem is that a black and white spinner sometimes covers the holes and sometimes lets you throw. This one is equally about timing as it is hand-eye coordination, which for me as we've already discussed is very bad. Since the task is actually pretty fun and reminds me of carnival games (especially the music!) this game is not going to be brought down based on my terrible throwing skills under pressure. It looks goofy and fun and magical. Although not the best Level99 has to offer, it's a pretty good one.
rating: 6/10
Aztec Guardians
This mental room is challenging, but we think we have the right idea. In this room, there's a bunch of tiki towers, except for the fact that they aren't tiki towers, they're Aztec towers. Well, you get what I'm trying to say anyway. The eyes light up, and you can turn them. Presumably you have to face them in the right direction. We think we have found the solution to this room, we just didn't have enough time to turn the towers in the right direction. If our solution is correct, they might have to be very specific in the exact direction they're facing. Either way, it's fun and the room looks really good.
rating: 6/10
Arenas
Axe Run
This is one of the most famous arenas in Level99. There's 20 feet of a pretty wide balance beam. It would be easy, were it not for the many axes swinging through your path. This one is 2/3 timing and 1/3 balance.
It was very fun the first couple of times, but it kind of got old in our group. I would do it again, though.
rating: 8/10
Rock Wall Pong
Ok, I don't know the actual name for this one, but I'm calling it Rock Wall Pong. Two players take their sides on a rock wall. Whatever holds you are touching with either your hands or feet act as a small circular barrier. A ball bounces between the two of you, and you have to climb up or down the wall to bounce the ball back to the other person. You play to 5 points or until a 3 minute timer runs out.
Looking at the wall I was confident this would be an easy task. I was quickly proven wrong. The wall is actually on an incline, so that you're climbing more than 90 degrees. It's much harder to hold onto the wall when this happens.
Also, I don't know if this is just on the left side or if it's on both, but the footholds were not very big and you could easily fall off them. This just made it more challenging and more fun, though.
It was a little too hard for my taste, though.
rating: 7/10
Scramble
Scramble pits two players against each other again. Each player takes a side. On their side is a set of 5 rings that the other person will try to throw balls into for points. There's a couple dozen balls in the game, so you always have some to throw.
You can do anything to get the most points. Everything is legal (except for crossing the middle line). You can block balls, throw multiple, even try to hit your opponent as a distraction. This game was chaotic but always fun. This game is also the game that I learned when there is a time limit, I have no hand-eye coordination. It's much harder to throw balls when you're under pressure.
rating: 7/10
Lightning
This is another classic. There's a big lightning bolt that separates the two players. On each side is about a dozen buttons, in the same position on either side. The buttons will light up, and if one player clicks it, the other player's button will turn off, thereby preventing them from getting those points. It becomes a race for the button, but the longer you play, the more buttons will light up at once. The person who has the most points at the end of about two minutes wins.
This game was as fun as it looked. It was partially reflexes and partially the ability to hustle to the button first. Personally, I really enjoyed this game format.
rating: 7/10
mediocre or n/a (if we didn't play the room enough to have a real opinion)
Rooms
Pirate's Brig
Pirate's Brig takes place in a pirate themed prison cell. There's a window that allows you to climb to the other side, and a door that allows the same thing. It looks pretty good, but it's challenging. If you open the door, you fail, so we assume it's just for if you need to exit. However, you also sometimes fail if you crawl through the window. We haven't figured out what to do yet, but it wasn't that fun for us.
I don't think it's very fair to give Pirate's Brig a mediocre rating as we don't know how fun the task could be. However, note that rooms without a rating will still be on the list of rooms, best to worst, in our opinion.
rating: n/a
Apocalypse Checkpoint
Apocalypse Checkpoint is unclear about where it takes place. It does look like an apocalyptic world, though.
This room looks like American Ninja Warrior tilted platform jumps (you know the ones I'm talking about) except that cameras are above them. According to our group, you must figure out a way to turn off the cameras by interacting with some buttons near each one.
This room just wasn't that fun for us, even when our group figured out the secret.
There was one easter egg to 5 Wits in this room that I particularly enjoyed.
rating: 5/10
Ninja Paths
This physical room involved at least 3 people to be very effective. The room looked like a Japanese city street, and there were 3 paths to get across the non-touchable floor. One was shimmying across this thin beam on the side of the wall, another thin beam for your hands. It is much more difficult than it looks. This path was actually a common one in the TV show Floor Is Lava. The second path was a series of 3 bricks on the other side of the wall. However, they were so close to the wall it was very difficult. The final path is a rope that goes right through the middle of the room to the end. The problem is that the rope is so close to the ground, you have to swing your legs onto it and climb it upside down like a real ninja... or a squirrel. To prove you are able to conquer each path, there is a button you must press on each path, most likely you must press the button at the same time.
We found this room very difficult. It seems like one of the tougher physical challenges that Level99 has to offer. It was so difficult we didn't find it very fun and quickly moved on to others. We're just weak though. Don't mind our opinion.
rating: 5/10
Something about a nebula or space??? yeah I forgot
This room is very reminiscent of room two of Light and Dark at Boda Borg. The entire room basically looks like those cool pictures of nebulae you've seen on the internet. You must roll what feel like skee-balls into holes to secure points. The more holes you get, the more stars you get.
We didn't even manage to get one star on this room. The holes were near impossible to land in, as they were so shallow. I think we had about five out of about twenty at the end of the time limit. If the holes were easier to land in, this room would have been a calming, fun room I would have really enjoyed.
rating: 4/10
Color Splash
This mental room's puzzle doesn't have much to do with colors or splashes. The room has black walls on all sides, and bright paint thrown randomly across the room. You have to figure out how to get to the other side by looking at a map on the wall that shows you how to get across.
Although this was a cool idea, it was not executed very well. The path is so small, it's easy to make a mistake. We got into the habit of checking the map very carefully to make sure we followed the right path, but even when we did that, there was nowhere near enough time to get a single star. If this room had more time, it probably would have been pretty great.
rating: 4/10
Something about a forest? Autumn Forest, maybe?
This room is actually pretty fun for one reason.
The room has trees weirdly painted on the walls, and some red grass on the ground. In the middle of the room is a platform that has pink and blue lights on it. And surrounding the entire room... is about 8 yoga balls. Needless to say we had a lot of fun with the yoga balls. However, the reason this room is ranking in the mediocre zone is that it was incredibly hard to win. Without giving away too much, you have to try to stack them... and it gets very difficult. The most we got on this room was one star. Also, the yoga balls did not succeed on the level that Boda Borg's Bollkoll did. Suggestion: stack them and then dive into them. It's really fun.
rating: 5/10
Magician's Assistant
I feel so bad about doing this. But Level99 needs to make a major edit on this one.
Magician's Assistant takes place in a room with about 5 advertisements for magician's shows, and one menacing looking cabinet. And yes, one person has to shut themselves inside that cabinet. What they will see inside they must describe to the group, who must find which of the posters has the piece of a picture they are describing.
The one major problem puts this room a couple of points down. The piece of the picture you get to see inside the cabinet is laughably small. For example, on my turn in the cabinet, I got half of the letter "i". Yeah.
You'd have to practically memorize these posters to know what you are seeing, and maybe that's what Level99 expects. Either way, I'm not a fan.
But it is fun shutting yourself in a cabinet.
rating: 4/10
80's Room (I forgot this one too)
This one puts you in a room full of neon cubes, some of which have buttons. This room is basically a complicated version of the old Simon game every person has in their attic somewhere.
We ran out of time to actually get into the swing of things, so we can't really give it a fair rating.
rating: n/a
Aztec Temple
In Aztec Temple, you are in a.. well... Aztec temple. There's some walls to hide behind and jump over, sort of like a mini laser tag course. There's also big temple faces on the wall with red eyes that light up, presumably you would have to avoid them.
One thing that confused us is that once we failed, we couldn't find a scanner for your Veloband. Maybe you have to survive without being seen as long as you can? We're not sure.
Again, we can't give this one a fair rating as we don't know how fun the actual gameplay is.
rating: n/a
Mansion something or other (well it's another Mansion one ok?!)
This is another mental room. In this one, the room is quite dimly lit. There are about a hundred black and white pictures covering the walls. Each one has a name associated with it. There's a table with those same names that you can press. There's also a mirror that has cryptic clues appear on it.
The idea of this game is to find the picture that best matches the clue given by the mirror and press the name associated with that picture. The more you get right, the more stars you get.
This one was not very fun as searching for pictures just wasn't our thing. Also, multiple pictures could have matched the clue and you have no way of distinguishing which one it is.
rating: 5/10
Maze Blueprint
This one has a main chamber with a bunch of shapes connected by lines. Outside of the chamber is a sweeping, vast crawling maze with buttons that have those same shapes on them. We think we know what to do on this one, but we haven't inputted them yet. As such, we can't give a fair rating. It is fun to crawl through a maze though.
rating: n/a
Sugar Twist
This is a very plain room with just a turning column in the middle of the room with footholds on it. We thought it would turn and try to knock you off, but it didn't. We don't know how to play this game so we can't give it a rating, but it did not seem very fun at all.
rating: n/a
Arenas
Countdown
In this Arena, two players stand with their hands on one of those handles that you press down to explode dynamite. A clock will tick down from some random number at some random speed, but a couple of seconds before it reaches zero, it will disappear. Your goal is to count in your head and detonate your bomb when you think the timer has reached zero. The person closer to the actual time the clock reached zero wins a point. The game is played best of three.
This game was not as fun as it was made out to be. It was fun to press down the dynamite handle thing, but the overall format of the game felt more like a math lesson than a game.
rating: 5/10
bad
Rooms
Reactor Refuel
This room involved pulling strings to move a rod of radioactive substance into holes. The room's theme was pretty good, but the gameplay was just not fun. So many people were pulling strings at once that we didn't know what each one did. We tried again with less people, but it was still not fun. It was difficult and eventually we just wanted to leave. This is one of the rare cases where Level99 did not present a good room.
rating: 3/10
Arenas
No arenas were bad! yaaay
list of best to worst rooms (in our opinion)
Ninja Dojo
Pirate's Plank
Mansion Banquet
Rainforest Catch
Aztec Guardians
Magician's Sideshow
Museum Heist
Apocalypse Factory
Ball Labyrinth (I think)
Ninja Paths
Aztec Temple
Autumn Forest (or something like that)
Mansion something or other
Apocalypse Checkpoint
Nebula something or other
80's Room
Magician's Assistant
Pirate's Brig
Color Splash
Sugar Twist
Reactor Refuel
list of best to worst arenas (in our opinion)
Axe Run
Lightning
Rock Wall Pong
Scramble
Countdown
pros and cons
pro: 40+ games to choose from!
con: some games are much better than others.
pro: arenas so you can face your friends!
con: the more stars you get, the more you level up. The more you level up, the more gems you have to spend to unlock a room. It is near impossible to experience every room on one visit. Perfect example: I got through half of the rooms on my first visit.
pro: unique game format and amazing art installations!
pro: there's a Night Shift brewery and a restaurant there too!
pro: very high tech!
pro: you get a funny avatar name, which you can change the more rooms you complete! Mine was "Menacing Fly".
pro: you can replay rooms you've already unlocked!
conclusion
This was the longest review I've ever done.
It was also the most fun I've had writing a review. I can't wait until I do this again with Boda Borg.
Level99 is amazing. Those rooms are just my opinion, and they're really all worth it. I'm just comparing them to each other. Overall, Level99 as a venue is incredible, despite some rooms that need a couple edits. It's a really amazing place and you need to go check it out. One thing, though. Make sure you get the four hour pass. Two hours was nowhere near long enough, and look where it got us - 21 rooms out of 40+ available ones. Trust me, it's worth it.
Go check out Level99 at the Natick Mall.
rating (for the overall venue)
8.5/10