Excel World

Excel World is a mall with a history - quite well known for its Millenium Park glory days, and for bringing fake snow to Sri Lanka in December. It's got everything: a food court, a bowling alley, a children's play park, a pub/restaurant, a pool parlour, a gaming arena, and it even once had laser tag. And yet, for some reason, it isn't very popular anymore. 

There really isn't much in this department going on at Excel World. There's just a huge central space beneath a metal tent, with sparse furniture and an ice cream stand. On the left of this is the food court and on the right the bowling alley, the 'game zone' (more on that later) and the Arcade corridor, where you can watch a movie, play video games or a game of pool. On weekdays the place is basically dead - just two or three working folks or a group of friends skipping school. We were told it's busier on weekends, but we've been there on a Sunday and there's barely been a crowd.

Besides the Arcade, the Game Zone next to the bowling alley is something that's been here since the very inception of Millennium Park (what Excel World was called in the 90s). You can go here if you're old-school and want to get on a bike and pretend you're racing for reals, or shoot aliens - it's fun, but it doesn't feel all that fun anymore because it's Rs. 100 for only three minutes. There's some cool cartoons of Street Fighter Ryu, Bugs Bunny and Super Mario brothers on the walls here. Even on a weekday all the machines are on and making noises to nobody there.