Have you heard of a “Party Truck”? I had no idea such a thing existed until earlier this summer when I got an email from a company called GameTruck. They wanted to send us one to write about for Mommyish. The idea is pretty simple. You rent the truck for two hours and they show up at your door with games, entertainment and music. Basically, it’s a self-contained party that drives up to your door.
GameTruck offers trucks with two different party options: laser tag and video games. I live in New York City, so the whole idea of laser tag/kids running around in traffic with guns thing didn’t appeal to me. However, I know a lot of 8-15 year olds who LOVE video games, so that seemed like an easy route to go. And yes, they LOVED it.
At the end of the day, if you are anti-video game (or live somewhere that cannot fit a semi-truck), the GameTruck we got will not be your bag. But there are a lot of great things we found out about having a huge truck full of video games drive up to your house.
1. It’s An Instant Party
As soon as the truck drove up the street we had kids jumping up and down with excitement. If you want to get kids excited for a party, driving a semi covered in graphics and large faces is a pretty surefire way to do it.
2. You Don’t Have To Do Anything
The party begins when the truck shows up. It ends when it rolls away. As the day went on, I felt like a rockstar for answering a series of emails to schedule the truck. Other than that, all I did was show up.
3. Everyone Will Be SOOOO Quiet
Have you ever seen 10+ kids sitting quietly for nearly two hours? Everyone in attendance was so awestruck by the number of games on offer — and then excited about playing — that this was by far the calmest group of kids I have seen to date.
4. It Won’t Just Be Kids Sitting Around
The truck we received had two TVs outside and a number of active games – including Dance Dance Revolution – which kept people entertained who weren’t inside the truck.
5. Adults Can Have Fun Too
6. Little Kids Love It Too
The video games on offer were firmly outside the age range of a few of the little kids we had hanging around. But they were unphased because there were cool graphics, fun music and general excitement for them to get excited about. My son in particular was obsessed with this huge face on the side of the truck. (He is admittedly easy to entertain.)
7. Air Conditioning
Oh man. It was so hot on this particular August Friday. If we had planned a strictly outdoor party, it would have been pretty brutal. But no one noticed, because there were lots of seats inside whenever it got too hot.
8. If It Rains, You Don’t Have To Cancel Anything
…And just when we got used to the heat and humidity of NYC summer, it started raining. Conveniently, everyone was able to go into the truck or under the porch until it stopped. If we had planned any sort of strictly outdoor activity, it would have totally rained on our party.
9. Instant Block Party
It’s pretty hard to miss a semi-truck driving down your block covered in graphics. Between that, everyone’s excitement at all the games and the music coming out of the truck, it didn’t take long for people in the neighborhood to swing by to see what was going on. A lot of them stuck around to chat and play a game or two, which was really nice.
10. NO CLEAN UP
I don’t know if I can reiterate this one enough. Is it obvious that planning and deconstructing parties is not something I like to do?
