Chuck E. Cheese opens adult-focused Chuck's Arcades, including one in Buford

For almost half a century Chuck E. Cheese has been a place “where a kid can be a kid.” But what happens when kids grow up?

Enter Chuck’s Arcade: a new concept branding itself as a place where an adult to be a kid.

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One might think this concept would include beer and Chuck E. Cheese’s signature pizza alongside games. Several media outlets have even misreported that it does.

Alas, it does not.

With the exception of one location in Kansas City, Missouri, that does serve food and drinks, the 10 new Chuck’s Arcades in eight states across the country are simply as the name implies: arcades. A handful of the Chuck’s Arcades were previously Fun Spot arcades (also owned by CEC Entertainment) that have been redecorated and rebranded.

Georgia’s only location in Buford, which opened June 27, is on the first floor of the Mall of Georgia on the corridor closest to Dillard’s department store.

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

Mark Kupferman, executive vice president and chief marketing and insights officer for Chuck E. Cheese, said there were three main factors that guided the company’s decision to create the adult-centric Chuck’s Arcade. The first was that the brand, now 48 years old, has an intergenerational following.

The second was that Chuck E. Cheese is, self-reportedly, the largest owner of arcade games in the world. The company was founded by Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari who originally built the Pizza Time Theater as a place to showcase Atari games.

As more than 400 locations across the country have modernized their game floors, renovating the spaces with large screens, virtual-reality games and other high-tech offerings for Gen Alphas and Z’ers, the older classics have needed new homes.

“We also have the largest technical staff than anybody else,” Kupferman added. “So if you put those two together, it made a really interesting proposition … to take some of these games, take some of the memorabilia, take some of the old animatronics that we have, and in some cases, some of the artwork that people grew up with … we would have an experience that might be really fun for people.”

Chuck’s Arcades still feature many modern games and VR, but are also sprinkled with retro gems like Skee-Ball, Centipede, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug and Mortal Kombat. Some old games have been reimagined, such as the modernized Space Invaders game.

Credit: Courtesy of CEC Entertainment

The last reason Kupferman said the company keyed in on the Chuck’s Arcade concept was that “nostalgia is in.” The brand can transport hearts and minds to bygone times.

Spencer Brose, 24, from Athens, fits that target. Brose, who was visiting the Buford Chuck’s Arcade on Saturday, reminisced about how he grew up playing games at the Chuck E. Cheese in Santa Cruz, California. He held his fifth birthday party there. As he’s entered his 20s, he said he still longed to play arcade games from his youth.

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

“I still always wanted to play, but I didn’t feel comfortable going into a (Chuck E. Cheese) because there’s so many children,” he said. “I’m a grown man. To go by myself, people are going to look at me a little weird. … Being able to have a spot that’s more catered back to us, it’s a nice change of pace.”

While the company does not have any restrictions on adults dining or playing at Chuck E. Cheese locations without children (as has frequently been rumored), public perception has kept adults away.

The games in traditional Chuck E. Cheese locations also have been programmed for young children. For example, the game “Halo” in Chuck E. Cheese locations has violence settings turned down for the average player age of 5. The blood is not red; instead it is colorful and cartoonish.

“In Chuck’s Arcade, it is a full-blown ‘Halo’ experience like you might find in other arcades,” Kupferman said.

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

One other distinction at Chuck’s Arcade is the presence of the brand’s retro logo on some merchandise and prizes, and, more notably, the presence of display cases showcasing the animatronic characters from Chuck E. Cheese’s Munch’s Make Believe Band, which was a fixture at the restaurant until the 2020s, when locations began phasing them out.

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

At the Buford Chuck’s Arcade, an animatronic Chuck, the brand’s mainstay mouse (who, fun fact, was a rat until the company changed it in 1993), is entombed in a tall, glass case by the entrance.

“I feel like with how crazy the world’s been right now, people are really starting to go back to the things that made them happy as kids,” Brose said. “We’re trying to relive that magic.”