The coolest thing about having a three-year-old son is that you get to hang out with three-year-olds and do things with them without being too guilty, whether it’s going to the movies to see a kiddie movie, feeding ducks stale bread and popcorn at the duck pond, or spending a couple of hours guilt-free at the local Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. One of my sons’ friends had her four-year-old birthday party Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese, so I got to spend a couple of hours there and thought I’d type up this quick review.

Those of you lucky enough to remember the original Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza restaurants probably have the same sentimental feelings attached to the restaurants as I do. While I don’t think I ever had a birthday party there, I attended several other kids’ parties and have great memories of the place. There were small rides, there were lots of arcade games, but most importantly there was that huge animatronic band that took the stage several times an hour, singing classic hits and interacting with one another.

My sad review of Chuck E. Cheese is that most of that is gone. Upon entering the restaurant, I went right to the stage area and found that it had basically been removed. In its place were several large flat panel television screens. To the left of the screens were several smaller televisions sunk into the wall. To the right I noticed one small stage, which housed the one remaining animatronic figure, Chuck himself. As the screens announced “It’s SHOWTIME!” the figures I remembered from my youth appeared only on the television screens. The curtains around Chuck pulled back and he performed and sang along, but it just wasn’t the same. The band has left the building.

And speaking of leaving the building, so have most of the games. Our Chuck E. Cheese restaurant now has four arcade games: Star Wars Pod Racer, Cruisin’ USA, Arctic Thunder and a Neo Geo cabinet. Everything else in the restaurant was either a ticket redemption machine posing as an arcade game, a ride, or some other game (such as skee-ball and air hockey). Trust me, I looked — there were no games to be found.

I have to say, I felt a little disappointed when we left. Not for me as much as for the kids. Now I know how my father feels when he tells me about the good ol’ days of hot rods and stuff. I’ve seen the movies, I’ve been to car shows, but when it boils right down to it, it was simply an era that I will never experience and can never truly relate to. I had that same feeling walking out of Chuck E. Cheese, looking at all the kids dancing in front of big plasma screens and trying to trade in thousands of tickets for a small stuffed idol. Someday, when my kids are playing in my home arcade, I’ll try to explain to them what it was like “in the good ol’ days,” but I’m not sure that they’ll every truly understand.