SF’s sweatiest new party is this Stonestown game room

The lasers were coming for us, and we had to dash across the room without touching them. Sweat gathered at our temples, and an electronic voice from above commanded us to dodge the beams. It was like being at a tech-fueled rave or in a video game from the future. 

In reality, we were at the mall. Stonestown Galleria just opened up Activate, the first California outpost of a 40-location chain, and the newest interactive game venue in San Francisco’s most thriving retail center. Joining Round 1 Arcade, Immersive Gamebox, and the escape room Escapology, Activate takes up 8,000 square feet on the top floor of the mall right next Regal Cinema. While the former Westfield mall downtown has emptied of most tenants to become little more than a glorified ghost kitchen, Stonestown is living its best life — in large part due to diversification. It’s as much a gaming and dining destination as a shopping one these days.

When The Standard visited Activate Thursday night, its second day of business, the venue was running a promo event that let people game for an hour free of charge. Kids as young as 6 and adults in their 70s were outfitted with electronic wristbands that unlock the doors to each game room.

Activate’s nine rooms each contain several games, both cooperative and competitive. Its fluorescent foyer — as harsh and no-nonsense as an airport check-in kiosk — betrays little evidence of the casino-like frenzy within.

Some games, like the basketball classic Hoops, are analog. Others, like a version of Asteroids, are physical versions of classic arcade games. (Instead of firing joystick lasers, players blow up space rocks by lobbing squishy balls at the screen.) The most exciting games, though, often combine physical speed with problem-solving skills. Take Mega Grid, a big room tricked out like the light-up disco floor from “Saturday Night Fever.” Players have one minute to push blue wall-mounted buttons and step on blue tiles without touching any red lights — giving new meaning to the idea of stayin’ alive. 

The trippiest game might be Laser, in which players have to cross the room without stepping into the beams — harder than it sounds. Unlike the giant boulder that threatens to steamroll Indiana Jones, we were crushed by nothing more than the shame of our clumsiness.

At 60 minutes for $35 or 90 minutes for $45, gameplay proceeds at a blistering pace. Nearly everything is over in a minute — two at the most, if you manage to pass the first level. The action commences within seconds of entering a room, and when the games end, that computerized voice insists players vacate within 10 seconds. (The floor doesn’t give way to reveal a fiery chasm beneath any stragglers’ feet, but the next group will probably be pawing at the door.) 

There’s a fair amount of hurry-up-and-wait, but within 20 minutes, this reporter was perspiring heavily from the gleeful chaos. A child yelled at me for inadvertently exiting through one room’s entrance. Noise pollution rendered a few instructions inaudible. And my six-foot, eight-inch fiancé unsurprisingly crushed me at Hoops. But otherwise, it was an enjoyable hour of high-intensity zaniness. 

Activate seems to have won some hardcore fans after two days in business. Stating that some challenges “fit your brain more than others,” Sharon Wong said she and a friend planned to return. “We already got tickets for next time.”