My husband and I recently did a date night here and had a ton of fun. $ 40 on our card went a long way… great Laser Tag room and variety of games! Go-Karts seemed a bit expensive for what they were, so we skipped them.
MJ T.
Place rating: 4 Overland Park, KS
Had to hunt down several employees to man the rides & even to work the concession stand(on a weekend when busy). There were plenty of employees, they were just more interested in visiting together. I like this place to take the kiddos, but a hassle sometimes to find employees to man their posts.
Megan G.
Place rating: 3 Independence, MO
The arcade area is nice. It has many, many games and they are a reasonable price. There is even a island bar for adults to drink, which I found a little disturbing, but it seems to be under control. My boys enjoyed the laser tag and my daughter enjoyed all the different children’s rides(5 and under). Believe it or not they were all working. The employees are a different story. The front desk associates were rude and had no sense of urgency. I stood waiting for almost five minutes to purchase a card and load points. The employee working on one of the children’s rides was not feeling his job, my five year old daughter noticed saying«he looks like he doesn’t like his job». Then at the place where you redeem your tickets the associate took my sons card just because it was empty. That’s not cool first of all he is only 9 so he didn’t know and the associate knows that we paid for the card. The buffet is horrible. That was what I went there for. The food was old and was obvious that it had been sitting out for quite some time. While refilling the buffet, the employees just slop it out in the pans that are already there they don’t replace the pan with a new one. The deserts were inedible. The cakes were extremely hard like if was from a food pantry. The ice cream was gross and doesn’t look like it has any natural components. The tables do not get bused. I am not saying that I will be returning, no who am I kidding, I will NOT be returning to this location. I will see what the buffet and the customer service is like in Shawnee.
Rembrant X.
Place rating: 1 Kansas City, KS
The low score here is for the employees we dealt with there. The first female employee we met at the front desk ignored us as I tried to purchase more points in my card. There was a line of people behind me and she just kept talking to her co worker. I guess we as customers didn’t get the memo we had to wait for her to finish her conversation first. The other horrible employee was a female who works at the go cart check in. My goodness this person lacks total customer service skills and communication skills period. I approach the area and ask where do I sign up at and she just points to the screen I continue to ask her questions about the go cart and she just walks away and ignores me. My friend and I were surprised. After we were done with the tablet registration we asked her can we pay here and she said yes but she made us walk to the next lane when she could of just taken our cards when she was in front of us. A polite explanation would of suffice and I would have been ok but the girl just stood there like a mute until we walked over to her and stood in front of her. Overall your kids will enjoy the rides and games but you will be aggravated by the lack of help and customer service here. The only redeeming quality is the they have good fluffy shaved ice.
N S.
Place rating: 5 Kansas City, MO
My 9 year old rode the go-carts for the first time and she was nervous in the beginning. Nichole and the crew helped her and she ended up having a blast! I compliment the Barry Road team members.
John L.
Place rating: 3 Kansas City, MO
Overall pretty fun for kids. just avoid Nicole in the go cart area. Its a little complicated figuring it out the first time and this little girl will NOT help you at all. My wife and I asked her a few questions on how the process works. She acted like we were putting her out!
Tyler A.
Place rating: 5 Smithville, MO
Having never been to the Shawnee location that everyone says Is better, I liked my trip to this place a lot! They got a nice looking buffet(from afar. Did not eat or even look at any food). Had a race track, a roller coaster, a kiddy roller coaster, just to name a couple of things. There selection of arcade games Is great. Loved the temple run. A tad pricey but it is what it is. Staff was very nice
Muck S.
Place rating: 2 Kansas City, MO
Tried to take advantage of the $ 25(3)hours of play deal today from 11am-2pm. So, here is what we experienced: 1. Laser tag room was shut down the entire time 2. The laser maze did not work — no lasers? 3. They were understaffed and had to «rotate» workers around the different attractions and we had to wait multiple times for a staff to come over and start the roller coaster, bumper cars, etc 4. tilt a whirl was closed for the first hour we were there. 5. Their buffet is horrid. Brown lettuce, cold pasta, flat soda, dirty tables(had been wiped as you could see the dirty swipes but crumbs still existed), and salty pizza. My son did have fun, but I will do everything to keep him from wanting to go back.
Bridgette A.
Place rating: 1 Kansas City, MO
We booked our child’s birthday party at PowerPlay — North with Cierra. She was terribly slow to reply to our emails — if she replied at all. We were the ones who made the follow-up calls prior to the party to make sure everything was in order. The party room was the size of a closet so we had to pay an upgrade fee just to accommodate 15 guests. The party rooms are away from the games, so this made it impossible for guests(grandparents, adults, etc) who may have wanted to wait and watch the kids play from the party room. We pre-ordered over-priced latex balloon bouquets with specific balloon color requests. Minutes before the party started, the staff had not even began to blow up the balloon bouquets. They did not even attempt to include the requested colored balloons — and were very apathetic about the fact that they did not even have the requested balloon colors in stock! This did not stop them from still charging us full price for the late delivered balloon bouquets that were not even the colors we requested. There is literally a glaring time clock in the party room, counting down the minutes you have left until, undoubtedly, they will charge you more for staying there longer. Like a bomb getting ready to explode. Very tacky. We paid $ 5 extra for each guest to have extra tokens on their PowerPlay card. PowerPlay charged us twice for the add-on. When I finally got the Manager on duty to understand what was happening, he removed the double charge … which deactivated ALL of the guests’ PowerPlay cards. This took at least 20 minutes to correct as he had to fix each card one at a time. After all of the birthday guests had left, WE had to remind our party host that our child was supposed to be able to step into the«ticket vault» and be able to catch tickets flying around in the air. This experience was not nearly as fun as it should have been if the party a guests were still around to watch. Once the party was over, our host packaged up our left-over pizza and offered to store the ice cream(that we purchased) in their freezer for the remainder of the party. Less than 30 minutes later, when we were settling up our expensive party bill, we went to the front desk to ask for our pizzas and ice cream. The front desk attendant literally had NOCLUE what we were asking for. I am not even sure the front desk attendant knew PowerPlay had party rooms. It literally took 3 employees and yet another manager to even figure out what we were asking for! Our party host was long gone and this manager was very defensive of his clueless employees — and less than helpful in retrieving our ice cream and pizza. They«searched the freezer over» — but we never saw our ice cream again. They did compensate us by make one fresh pizza. This was the worst, most stressful birthday party experience ever, Between the terrible pre-party communications to the on-going fiascos of the party itself, I would NEVER recommend anyone book their child’s birthday party with PowerPlay. The irony of this entire experience was, we finally received our first unprompted phone call from Cierra a few days after the birthday party … when she called begging us to leave a favorable review for our PowerPlay birthday party experience.
Amy M.
Place rating: 5 Kansas City, MO
Only for games and tilt a whirl – no buffet or food purchased. I’ve taken my 3rd grader here a few times. We like it a lot. We have not had a problem with it being busy and the workers have been nice. We have had a few instances where the game has broken and they don’t offer you a token or any replacement«points». That’s the only thing I haven’t liked about Power Play.
Elizabeth D.
Place rating: 3 Kansas City, MO
It is nice to have this up north and not have to drive to Kansas. Smaller than Shawnee and know they are making some outdoor attractions, so we are looking forward to those! Would like more small group or family specials that are not«date based» that could be used at any time… With food, tokens and any other it adds up FAST~
Tracy I.
Place rating: 2 Kansas City, MO
Been here twice now for birthday parties. First time, school day, early dismissal, not crowded… I think we were the only group there… perfect time. Second time, weekend birthday, evening, everyone in the immediate surrounding neighborhoods within a 19-mile radius was there. Holy crud. Crowded. Picture this… a ton of people(some rather questionable appearing… just sayin), mixed with the wafting scent of fried fast food, coupled with lots of wild children, with a slew of old and sad looking video machines. I’m sure some love this place, but it’s not my idea of a where I want to be on Saturday night.
Miranda P.
Place rating: 3 Kansas City, MO
I am giving this place 3 stars in was considering 4 but it is lacking in a few areas. I like the facet it’s clean and very open. The eatting area is cool they show a movie in the big room. The buffet was a 3 instead of a 4 because the food seemed like it had been out a while and we went for lunch around 1:00. I will say they offer options on the buffet as well as salad although the lettuce was turning brown which for a salad lover is off putting and the fixings for the salad bar were all low. The rolls were hard too. Overall the value of the buffet was more then reasonable I’m thinking they just need to refresh it more often. There are also other snack bar options if the pizza/chicken buffet isn’t for you The rides are certainly geared more towards little folks ie 4th grade or less. The lazer tag and lazer maze was cool though. We will likely go back we went on a Friday the kids were off school so no clue what it would be like on a busy weekend or at night. Also it’s worth mentioning that I felt like the games lasted longer then most places most games let you play several rounds which is good. The air hockey, lazer maze and game all seemed plenty long for the credits used. The downside is some games a like 4.2 credits which is lame just make it 4 or 5 it seems shady to milk credits this way. Also a reason for a 3 in stead of 4 stars.
Alicia S.
Place rating: 5 Kansas City, MO
Went with my husband and daughter & we all had a blast! It brand-new for more fun things are coming soon to this spot! Can’t wait
Shelley Y.
Place rating: 3 Kansas City, MO
Finally got to go to the finally opened up powerplay! This place took forever to open, but I’m happy something is using the space. It’s smaller than powerplay on the KS, which isn’t exactly a bad thing. No go carts. We were at a birthday party and the 2 young guys helping to keep the party rolling were super friendly and helpful. The party room is partitioned so you might hear noise from a neighbouring party. There’s a movie screen on the wall they play cartoons on. The pizza was ok according to my kids. I tried the chicken nuggets and surprisingly they tasted close to Chick-fil-A! We’re talking REAL chicken. We were pleasantly surprised. The kids had a blast. There’s a tiny kid area with an attendant(who only runs the train, not to watch the kids) and a gate. The big kids loved laser tag. We will definitely go again. There’s just one small problem. There’s virtually no security. This is not the place to let 12 and under wander around. We suggested they alter the entrance somewhat to prevent people walking in unnoticed. We’ll see if they do anything about it. Until then just keep an eye on the kids.
Kim S.
Place rating: 3 Kansas City, KS
Gosh, I really wanted to like this PowerPlay. Really I did. I mean I love the Shawnee location and maybe if I had been here first, I would have rated this one better but alas I did not so… This one does(or will have one day) a few different options. It looks like it will have sand volleyball and zip lining but those options aren’t available yet. It does have a little roller coaster that the Shawnee location does not have. That gets bonus points. Let’s get to what I do like. It runs the same or similar specials that the other location does so there are various options to take advantage of such as we went for the Tuesday $ 10 special in December that allowed for an hr or play and the buffet. This one has an snack bar of sorts which allows you to buy some items(like funnel cakes and pretzels) without investing in the buffet. That may work for the parent who is just hanging out and waiting for a kid to get finished. My experiences with the workers were all good. They are young but they seemed genuinely pleasant. I liked that there are some old school arcade games there like BurgerTime and Pac Man Jr or Donkey Kong Jr and Mario Bros. I also liked how they had the Tilt A Whirl enclosed off to itself instead of out in the middle of the floor like the Shawnee location. Okay so what I didn’t like is it reminds me of a shadow of the Shawnee location. It seems noticeably smaller which still could be okay but it doesn’t differentiate itself enough from the other location to make you forgive the size. Part of the space is taken up by the snack bar area and as much as I love funnel cakes, I don’t think that is reason enough for the lack of entertainment. The bowling was a blah area, not real bowling but like a Skee Ballish version of bowling. A lady even mentioned in passing that it looked much different online. There aren’t as many arcade games per se. The games are kind of stacked in the same terminal. For example, BurgerTime and Pac Man Jr are in the same console so if you’re a selfish jerk like I can be and you want to play the same games, you’ll isolate a terminal(like I did with this one and the one that carried Donkey Kong, DK Jr and Mario) without concerns about fellow people that may want to play. If the games were separated out into different terminals, more people could enjoy them at the same time. As for the buffet, yeah I know it’s a buffet so you don’t expect greatness but I do expect approximately the same amount of food offered at both locations. This location lacked the variety that the other did. My son had the sads when he went through the line here. Overall, even when they get the additional options, I don’t think we’ll be back. We’ll stick with the parent location. This is cool if you live up north but nothing to write home about.
Andrea N.
Place rating: 1 Independence, MO
We went here last minute for my 4 year olds birthday and told friends to just meet us there. They(the staff) hounded not only us but our guests as well that they could not bring in gifts because«we» did not purchase a birthday package. So every single guest that showed up for us they proclaimed to them that we didn’t purchase a bday package. Rude and inappropriate. My 4 year old witnessed this each and every time. No sign anywhere and on website it says nothing about gifts not allowed and you didn’t have any room for bday package reservations just totally non compromising for people dropping hard earned money at your facility. Let’s also keep in mind to the right of the front desk at the bistro tables there was a table of people who had gifts and opened them. When I ran to inform the clerk she was suddenly visually impaired. The whole visit I watched as people floated through the front door all over the facility delivering and opening gifts, not purchasing a thing! Guess it was just me Let’s also keep in mind though that we spent over $ 300 in adult and children buffets and attractions for 12+ people. The food was okay but I’m comparing to Shawnee. They do need to add more items to the buffet it’s obvious the empty spaces where food could be. One horrifically unsanitary thing… at the dessert bar there were no tongs nothing! People were digging in the dessert and who knows where else. Also they weren’t many people eating but dirty dishes lingered longer than 30 minutes after guests had gone. Also the food didn’t come out in a timely fashion it’s like they waited until a pan was totally empty to begin cooking some more. The staff did seem like they would rather be elsewhere as well. The points are silly like instead of 13 points its 12.5, c’mon marketing desperation! Some of the games were not working either. Hope the kids don’t ask — because I won’t be back if I have anything to do with it. I’d rather drive way to Shawnee and I live in the Northland than patronize mediocrity, discrimination, and rudeness.
Mitzi L.
Place rating: 4 Kansas City, MO
This place is the perfect balance between chuck e cheese and Dave and Busters. It has an arcade but has so much more and is great for the elementary through middle school age range. It is perfect for a family day of entertainment. While a lot of entertainment focused facilities offer food it is usually not that great in quality as if the food is just an after thought. But Powerplay offers a buffet that is better than you would expect. You don’t get a huge selection of items but what they serve is very good quality and flavor. It is also very reasonably priced. All in all I encourage everyone to check this place out!
Cassandra H.
Place rating: 3 Kansas City, MO
We had a good time. My positive observations were the place was clean, it just opened it better be clean. The staff were friendly. Although we did not eat there, the food seemed reasonably priced. It is really cool for kids to have fun indoor rides like a mini roller coaster, tilt-a-whirl, carousel, kiddie train, bumper cars and ferris wheel. My negative observations were that there were no signs for the bathrooms which is important when you have a three year old. The go-karts were not ready. At lest one game did not function properly and when we informed someone they did not offer us a credit. At Chuck E Cheese they just hand you a few tokens and don’t even ask. We were not offered the VIP option when we bought our card. Lastly they were going to charge us to stand next to our three year old on the carousel. Really? Anywhere else we go, ie. the ZOO, does not charge extra if your kid needs adult assistance on a ride they can ride. The points system is a little wonky. For example they might charge 12.4 points instead of just 12 or 13 points for a game or attraction. We will probably go back but we are not in a hurry.