Pygmy visits the Castle of Chaos!

Greetings from Branson, MO, the hotspot for tacky shows and attractions for tacky tourists, including myself. I decided to head out here to see what all the hub-bub was about, and through the midst of all these shows all over the place, I stumble upon this entertainment complex that features a castle and King Kong on the top of a tall building. Besides driving by half of a sunken ship, this thing was the coolest thing we drove by while on the way to our hotel.

 If you don't know what the Castle of Chaos is, check out their very own website. Here's what's featured on their site that drew me in to want to check it out even more:

Castle of Chaos is the first-ever 5D interactive haunted experience in the world. No kidding! This action-packed adventure merges a state-of-the-art 3D horror film with heart-pounding motion, special effects, animatronics and an all-out shooting battle against evil. Top five participants from each round are shown on the screen with their scores.

According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, "This is the first haunted ride in the world to combine so many multi-media elements and technologies in one attraction. The result is a first-class scare!"

IAAPA approved usually means Pygmy approved, so now this is a must do! So we get back in the car and drive back here and get our tickets and wait in line for the next ride experience. As we're waiting in line, they have a monitor showing you late breaking news about the Castle and how it's haunted etc etc, the preshow if you will. Anyways, it was hard to hear it since it was turned down, and the fact that the walls were pretty thin between the ride and the line that we heard the ride more than anything! This was annoying for a little bit, but really pumped me up for it because soon we'll be going in for a spin, and if it's that loud it must be good, right? Loud is good? Well, not necessarily. Miley Cyrus sings loud, doesn't mean she's good, and the same can be said about Castle of Chaos unfortunately.

We enter the show room and see this platform of 25 chairs on a turntable and we strap in, put on our glasses, grab our guns, and we're ready to go! It starts to spin, and stops in front of a screen with lackluster 3D effects. Ok, maybe it'll get better and scarier. Nope. We spin around and land on another screen, and we start shooting things. Ok, what are we shooting at now? There's 2 monsters and the screen and that's it. So we sit here for about a minute shooting at 2 monsters that barely react to your shots? I guess that's acceptable if their zombies and already dead, right? I hope so. We spin around several more times landing on other screens. What I thought was funny was how we'd spin around and land on the same screen once, or to the screen directly next to where we just left. The attraction has other special effects such as leg ticklers, air bursts, Stitch's chili breath, fog, and did I mention it spins? It was a fun but really a big let down. I usually don't have high expectations for things because I hate being disappointed, but with all the ads about this place, who wouldn't have high expectations? What really killed the ride experience for me was the way they executed the storyline in the attraction itself. It did have a nice storyline that did seem promising, but during the ride it went sour. This just goes to show you that if your story doesn't work, no matter how many groundbreaking special effects, it'll turn out to seem like a waste of money like this place was. I'm glad I've gone through it and experienced it and had fun, but this is one of those attractions where once is more than enough.