Folsom arcade brings rhythm, racing and first-person shooter games to Folsom Outlets

The Fun Zone Arcade lit up 2023 in the Folsom Premium Outlets with neon, glow-in-the-dark colors.

The arcade opened on Jan. 1 at 13000 Folsom Blvd., Suite 907, between Flip Flop Shops, which opened on Dec. 16, and Hanes Brands.

Tim Bryant, the store’s manager, said this is the first location for Fun Zone Arcade and that the company built everything from scratch, including the ticket characters customers see on the windows and carpet inside.

Bryant said he has people that come in strictly for crane machines, so the arcade has an entire crane machine aisle. He said they have three rhythm games for the customers who want to dance.

There is also a row of video-related games, including two of each motorcycle and car racers and two first-person shooters, themed separately for Jurassic Park and Halo. Bryant said every game costs approximately $1.

Bryant said the owner of Fun Zone also owns Arcade Experts Inc., which puts game machines in pizza parlors, movie theaters and bowling alleys.

“We got to a situation where we noticed a lot of those businesses (were) closing when we came back out of COVID, so it was getting really hard to maintain our income,” he said. “And we’re like, ‘We got to do something with these big games. Let’s take control. Let’s do our own thing.’”

As a result, they came up with the idea of opening the arcade.

Bryant said the arcade is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The arcade does not have a birthday room and to compensate for that, the manager said, they will rent out the event space two hours before opening and after closing.

“We do plan on expanding eventually,” Bryant said. “We didn’t know exactly how this was going to be, but now that we got the blueprint, our minds are totally open.”

He said Fun Zone plans on doing something bigger at Palladio in the next year or two.