Wednesday, March 27, the Rush Funplex off of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Pflumm opened up after months of renovations, installations, and construction.
Bella Alvarado Review:
Colored LEDS and Black Lights, this place is a kid heaven. Just walking in I felt like a kid again.
The Rush Funplex is a mix of attractions and arcade games that can be accessed through attraction passes. The overall layout is crazy spacious and the lights add a fun touch to the building.This pass gives you unlimited access to the attractions for an allotted amount of time.
I personally think the 3-hour pass is the way to go. From claw machines to bowling, to go-karts, the Funplex has a ton of things to do. Customer service was incredibly friendly and super helpful when making decisions. Walking around, the general vibe is awesome. The lights from the arcade games and all the different music really set this fun mood, not to mention the huge foam pit this place has, with ropes and a rock wall.
The interior of the building is incredibly clean and super well-kept. The bowling alley and mini golf are really well made and super fun to play. After walking around the majority of the building, a dark mysterious hole caught my eye. “Go-Karts,” oh hell yeah. Walking into the section that was completely unlit and led to the kart in the front of the line, strapping my seatbelt and waiting for the signal to hit the gas. The track is completely dark and the kart has headlights on the front. Driving around the first curve, the kart picked up its pace as the music began, and this thing was fast. Faster than I thought this kid’s go-kart could go. The drifting ability of the slick floors and the wheels was such a fun experience and had to by far be my favorite thing this place had to offer. I went on it multiple times.
Across the building in the corner is a small little attraction of spinning bumper cars, sitting still with fun glowing lights. You walk through the gate and sit on these tall spheres and buckle up. You have two joysticks on both sides of you, that you use to turn and spin into the people around you, like bumper cars. Silly music places as you spin and bounce into everything in sight, right before you stop and everyone spins due to the random controls that go off throughout the ride. Definitely make sure to close your eyes so you don’t get super dizzy, but overall a super fun ride. The attractions are definitely worth a visit.
Going into The Rush Funplex, like the name, gave me a rush of nostalgia back to being 8 years old running around Power Play, begging my dad to buy me one of those huge, dusty stuffed animals that hung from a hammock on the ceiling.
There were no stuffed animal hammocks, but the neon lights were back. It was incredibly spacious and being noon on a Saturday, we were the only customers there, adding to the eerie vacancy. However, we soon broke that awkward tension in the entire building by racing on the Go-Karts.
They definitely went faster than the old ones they used to have at the back of the building before The Rush Funplex occupied the space, going what felt like 25-35 mph. It was very dark, only lit by the occasional LED and Black Light, but it wasn’t fully dark at all. It felt like a city at night, racing away, drifting on each hard turn. We strolled around the massive building, walking through the “Around The World” themed mini golf course, passed the laser tag that was Wild West themed and to the foam pit.
It was weird to be in a foam pit that was clean. Not a single bite mark on any of the foam cubes and nothing was grimey. Give it a couple months and it will most likely get to that point, but the cleanliness added to my enjoyment. There was a ledge to jump into the pit, as well as ropes you can swing from, a rock wall you can scale adjacent to the pit and various vertical ladders to climb in the middle of the pit.
A bundle of arcade games scattered the central part of the Funplex, and we won 196 tickets by the end of just a few games. A small gift area was by the front check in, having about as many toys as a skating rink counter would have. It was a little sad, but I ended up happily purchasing a mini blue and gold glitter putty for around 30 tickets, which was fun to play with for about 10 minutes.
The bowling alley on the east end of the building was fully empty, and we had a lot of fun bowling in the neon light while “Toy Story 3” and “The Big Bang Theory” played on large projectors on the walls where the bowling pins sat. Behind the bowling alley was a food court area, but it was yet to open and still in the process of being built and staffed. At the end of our bowling adventure, I lost 61-31. It was still extremely fun, though. By that point, almost 2 p.m., people began to flood into the building, and then we decided to call it a day.
Overall, The Rush Funplex was super fun! I will definitely be turning a lot this summer when it gets too hot to be outside. It’s a great way to pass your time, and relatively inexpensive. I spent 27 dollars and was able to ride any ride or bowl and play mini golf an infinite amount of times in 3 hours. Very worth the time and money.
