text: Long after man has left this planet, remnants of its glory shall remain. Much like the end scene of Planet of the Apes, man's masterpieces cannot be fully erased.\n\nFull disclosure: Gameworks was never amazing, nor was it a consummate achievement of mankind, but my god in heaven, has it fallen far from being an enjoyable diversion.\n\nVisiting Gameworks the other night after a movie, I did not even recognize the inside. In the past year, Gameworks has transitioned from a two-story video game mecca to a trashy, shotgun-style Dave and Buster's knock-off with a few old racing and carnage games sprinkled along the wings. What was once full of racing simulation games, a multi-story pirate-cum-balloon fight (or for the old folks, it used to be a shooting tower), and new-age arcade games, has become a vacuous shell with half-corroded consoles and token-munching, brainless ticket dispensers. \n\nMuch of the interior has been gutted, leaving odd walking patterns and vast arrays of blank canvas. 10-15% of the arcade games were \"under repair\" and another 5-10% were in great need of service (Virtua Tennis now has the cinematography of a Lumiere Bros. film). The remaining games feature nothing you could not find in the lobby of a movie theatre. Instead, Gameworks' focus is on ticket-oriented games such as Deal or No Deal and some game where you jump in the air and get tickets depending on when you land in relation to an arbitrary, electronic lighting wheel.\n\nIf that level of lowest common denominator banality thrills you, change this rating to 5 stars.\n\nIf I'm scraping the bottle of the barrel for positivity, I can compliment their beer selection (San Tan and 4 Peaks) and pricing (5 bones a pint); however, that does not justify the large-scale Peter Piper Pizza whitewashing of Gameworks' product line.\n\nI'm giving it a courtesy star for the fond memories, but, like Lady Liberty on the beachhead, Gameworks is completely broken.