Sony’s New Suburban Gaming Restaurant Resurrects the Ghosts of DisneyQuest

With a wealth of intellectual properties in hand, like Ghostbusters and Bad Boys, Sony Pictures Entertainment has unveiled Wonderverse, a sprawling 45,000-square-foot hub of physical and VR games, themed interactive installations, and food and drink at Oakbrook Center.

Wonderverse debuted in December and will host a grand opening event on Thursday, January 11 at 100 Oakbrook Center in suburban Oak Brook.

The attractions include two Ghostbusters VR games. The Arena allows players to suit up with proton packs and capture ghosts alongside fellow trainees. Then there’s Blitz, a driving game. There hasn’t been a new Jumanji movie since 2019, but fans can take a turn at a themed VR game where players rely on escape room-style puzzle-solving to recapture a stolen jewel.

A Ghostbusters-themed VR game setup. — Sony is likely hopeful that the games will add hype to the 2024 debut of *Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.*

Post-apocalyptic comedy franchise Zombieland gets a shoutout at Pacific Playland, a section devoted to arcade games and classics like bumper cars, and Bad Boys Racing Club leans an array of high-speed driving games.

Theme parks have built up a fanbase themed menu items. Disney made waves with Marvel. Meanwhile, Nintendo celebrated the opening of a Mario-themed restaurant last year. Sony enters the fray with the Ghost Trap, a “hidden speakeasy” in a secretive alcove near the Ghostbusters games. Decked out in thematic decor and Ghostbusters Easter eggs, the bar seats 59 and features cocktails like the oozing Mood Slime (Altos Plata Blanco Tequila, Lillet Rose, strawberry champagne foam). Curiously, it’s not green. It’s not the first time a media company has opened a restaurant as DisneyQuest debuted in 1999 in River North, next to where Eataly now stands.

A low-lit speakeasy-style bar. — The Ghost Trap is a haven of references for super-fans.

Wonderverse also houses a limited-time 21 Jump Street pop-up bar, where the team is hosting cocktail classes and paint-and-sip gatherings, and the Commissary Restaurant with familiar pub fare like burgers, wraps, and fish and chips.

Sony feels Wonderverse can attract newer fans like older teens and young adults who don’t know about Ray Parker Jr. A rep says the properties “are recognized and loved by everyone whether you were alive when the original movies premiered or discovered them with the most recent additions to the franchise.”

Explore the suburban gaming palace and its menu items in the photographs below.