Open Air at Urban Air

1 hour ago
2 min read

For the last few years we’ve been seeing a lot more of the open air laser tag concept and Urban Air was an early adopter of this idea, so I take note whenever I see it in use at one of their locations. This is the first thing I noticed about the laser tag arena when I played at Urban Air in Benton, AR.

The open air arena essentially boils down to not hiding the arena behind closed off windows or walls and allowing spectators to see the game from the outside of the arena area. Kind of like an up close and personal ob deck. I’m categorizing this one as open air because of the huge open air windows on the wall facing the rest of the FEC.

Some may argue this isn’t a full open air style because there are walls on three sides, but in general I am ok with using this designation for anything that is not fully enclosed that lets people on the outside see what’s going on in the game. It’s like an ob deck, except it is right there in the open. For so long laser tag has been hidden away. It’s one of the only attractions that operators work really hard to make it look great with theming and eye catching aesthetics and then it’s only fully seen by the players. I think anything that makes the game more visible to people on the outside stands a better chance of making them want to play too, so this is definitely a good move.

My thanks to the management, particularly Addison, for helping to facilitate the game I got to play against Brendon. We put on our Delta Strike Genesis packs and got ready to enter the arena.

I absolutely love the newer theming that I’m seeing at a lot of Urban Air locations. I affectionately call these “Trapper Keeper” arenas because that’s where my mind goes whenever I get to experience one of these neon colored cyclones of shapes and geometric designs. This is a sharp looking aesthetic!

Brendon and I played a solid cat and mouse game, chasing each other around this entire space. Mid-game one of the staff members I had met earlier came over and watched the game through that open window. She chatted me up through the window (another way open air arenas allow for more engagement with the spectators) and asked me which one of us was winning. At that moment I wasn’t certain, but felt compelled to step it up a bit to have a good answer by the end of the game. ;)

This was a lot of fun. Brendon was good competition, which kept me on my toes. The arena had a good flow and plenty of bonus targets, like you see on this bright accent piece.