The rules you already know
If you play video games, you already understand Cube Challenges. It is a real-life gaming venue in Mississauga built on the same loop: thirty levels, a score, a leaderboard, a difficulty select, and unlimited retries. The difference is that the controller is you. A team of two to six wears RFID wristbands, shares one score, and moves between thirty rooms in any order.
- Difficulty select. Every room has three levels, chosen at the door each time you scan in. Harder levels score more.
- Respawn. Miss a room, step out, scan back in, go again. There is no lives counter on the session, only the clock.
- Co-op, then PvP. Inside the team it is co-op on one score. Between teams it is a race on the live leaderboard.
- Open world, not a corridor. All thirty rooms are open from the first minute. You pick the route.
Rooms by genre
Platformer
Hangry Monkey: a jump pad in front of a screen, barrels rolling at you, a basket to fill with the fruit the monkey asks for. The closest thing here to a classic jump-and-dodge level, played with your legs.
Puzzle
7 Blocks: build the block shown on the screen out of real cubes before the one on the screen falls. Crystal Maze: a tilting playfield you steer a ball through by hand, with more than one hole to find. Bomb Squad: one calculation under a timer, and a wrong one blows up the building.
Shooter and aim
Shooting Farm: crank the well to power the guns, then shoot the targets before time runs out. Slingshot Madness: a slingshot each and a wall of archery targets. Target 8: balls into rotating targets.
Rhythm and reaction
Clef De Sol: press play, and then you will need to play some music. Lights On: hit the lights as they come on. Rainbow Mind: a colour station each, the correct button combinations, fast and without a mistake.
Sports
Buzzer Beater: as many baskets as you can before the buzzer. Subbuteo: beat the goalkeeper. Hitball: roll the balls into the scoring holes.
Stealth and survival
Laser Maze: the laser grid from every heist level, except you are the one crawling through it. Lava Land and Restricted Area: the floor is lava, for real. Crazy Circuit: carry the ring along the wire without touching it, with lives to lose.
Trivia and speed
Worlderland: photos matched to countries on a world map. Speed Barrels: a flat-out run against the clock.
That is nineteen of the thirty rooms. The rest are climbing, crossing and balancing rooms in the Physical category, and more Brain and Skills rooms.
What there is not
No consoles, no cabinets, no controllers, no VR. Some rooms use a screen to show the task, and nothing is played on it. There are no tickets and no prizes either: the reward is the number next to your team's name on the leaderboard, and the right to say you cleared Bomb Squad on level three.
How to run a session like a gamer
First pass on level one across as many genres as you can reach, to find the rooms your team is good at. Second pass on those rooms at level two and three, because a harder level cleared is worth more than a new room cleared. Split the roles: the player with fast hands takes Lights On, the one who can do mental maths takes Genius, and whoever is calm under a timer calls the moves in Bomb Squad. Ninety minutes gives a team enough time for both passes; sixty is one.
Sessions, prices and hours
$32.99 per person for 60 minutes or $38.99 for 90, the same price every day of the week, covering all thirty rooms. Monday to Thursday 4pm to 10pm, Friday 4pm to midnight, Saturday 10am to midnight, Sunday 10am to 10pm. Players must be 7 or older; under-13s play with an adult on the team; anyone under 18 needs a waiver signed by a parent or guardian. Wear comfortable clothes and running shoes.
Book a session by choosing a date and a time. 3185 Unity Dr, Unit 1, Mississauga, ON L5L 4L5.