RATING: 5 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 19:32

Escape games have forced us to become masters of many trades we never thought ourselves qualified to tackle – and now, we’re about to become the next big rap sensation. As the kids say, “Wiki-wiki-what have I gotten myself into, yo?“

A mysterious artist known as “The Mad Rapper” has taken the music industry by storm. The masked musician has become the biggest sensation in the game and is holding auditions to join his squad. You and your crew arrive at his studio to audition and soon discover the dire consequences of dealing with The Mad Rapper. You have 60 minutes to pass your audition and uncover the mystery behind the man in the mask. Good luck, and remember, there’s a price to pay for fortune and fame.

No one knows the identity of The Mad Rapper, nor do they need to. He’s taken the music world by storm, and has an over-the-top mystique and mysterious intentions that almost give him the flare of a classic Batman villain. Is The Mad Rapper hero, or villain? Does it matter? He’s promised to turn us into rap’s next greatest act – and with it, come enough gold chains and gold teeth to realize our wildest diggity-dog-dreams. (We’re practicing.)

And just like in real life – fame and fortune comes easily; All we need to do is pass his audition – something many others have tried and failed to achieve. Sure – we have no discernible musical talents. We can’t sing. We can’t dance. We can’t play a musical instrument. But that’s precisely the beauty of The Mad Rapper’s audition process; none of those skills are required to succeed. All we need to do to finally make it big is outwit his outside the box challenges. Do we think we can do it? Fo’ shizzle.

Was the entire prior paragraph nothing but a premeditated build up for us to use the phrase “fo’ shizzle” in a review for the first time? Fo’ shizzle.

Do we even actually know what “fo’ shizzle” means? No. No we do not. But we heard it on the television one time. We do know this though – from start to finish, The Mad Rapper immerses his wanna-be squad into a storyworld the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Scenario Escape Room has crafted an incredibly unique, engaging and most importantly fun experience that will appeal to all. Fo’. Shizzle.

Auditions for The Mad Rapper begin, appropriately enough, in his private recording studio. Guitars, mics and speakers are scattered about, giving the clear sense that he’s made use of this space more than once to record some of his hip and/or jive tunes. (Do the kids still say “hip” and “jive?” Probably.)

The following spaces are a bit less thematically defined, but that should by no means give the impression they feel out of place. From an abstract, graffiti’d space rich in an urbanesque big-city type flair, to a loud, foggy club scene, the energy and personality of The Mad Rapper is everywhere, always spinning his tunes as the soundtrack to our quest.

Scenario Escape Room makes solid use of their space – and there’s a lot of it. Each of The Mad Rapper’s three rooms are large and spacious – a luxury in the escape game genre far greater than even our titular character’s solid gold chains and championship belt. Although abstract and stylistic at times, every inch of the space feels like an appropriate compliment to The Mad Rapper’s theme.

Perhaps the one word that best describes The Mad Rapper’s puzzles is “refreshing.” Not only is every step logical, but the flow is so inherently intuitive that prospective squad-mates are not likely to ever lose momentum along the way.

Scenario Escape Room begins with a completely unique theme, yet still finds a way to connect each of The Mad Rapper’s challenges organically to it. Each task makes sense, both from a narrative and action perspective. Simply put, this audition feels less like solving puzzles in an escape game and much more like the very real challenges that would have been left behind by the actual Mad Rapper himself.

The puzzles climax in the ultimate rapid fire chorus, resolving the mystery in an action packed manner, proving our worth to squad. Fo’ shizzle.

We genuinely weren’t sure what to expect prior to challenging The Mad Rapper. Joking aside, everything we said in the Story section of this review really is true. We can’t sing, dance, or play any sort of musical instrument. In fact, we aren’t really “music” people at all – and certainly last of which, rap aficionados. We walked in with unspoken concerns that Scenario Escape Room might drop us into a scenario that was out of our comfort zone – expecting us to have some understanding of the theme at hand, or worse, an actual ability to perform it. Admittedly, we were even a small bit nervous that we wouldn’t even be able to relate to the game’s storyworld, given how far away from our personal “real life” interests it lies.

None of those concerns apply here. Scenario Escape Room has crafted such an objectively fun, narrative-driven game from start to finish that even a couple of rhythmless nerds like us felt comfortable diving right into The Mad Rapper’s storyworld. If you, like us, see “a rap game” and immediately wonder if that theme is the right fit for your group, stop second guessing immediately.

Scenario Escape Room dared to do something different and it paid off even bigger than The Mad Rapper’s last platinum record. There’s just nothing similar to this theme on the market – which makes it immediately stand out. And best of all, from both a narrative and puzzle flow perspective, The Mad Rapper is the kind of game that teams of all ages, backgrounds and skill sets are going to enjoy – say it with me now – fo’ shizzle!

If any of our readers know what “fo’ shizzle” actually means, or the proper way to use it in a sentence, email Chris@EscapeAuthority.com. Please help.

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Venue: Scenario Escape Room

Location: Brea, CA

Number of Games: 1

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 8 people

Group Type: Private  / You will not be paired with strangers.

Cost: $35 per person

We thank Scenario Escape Room for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.