Step inside Minecraft: New immersive experience opens at American Dream

It's a world made out of blocks where monsters lurk, resources need collecting, and an entire village is counting on you to save the day. This is the Minecraft experience, Villager Rescue, inside American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, bringing one of the world's most popular video games to life. It is an interactive experience where guests get to come in and play our version of Minecraft in a real life setting, where they can gather resources, fight some mobs, and hopefully rescue a village in the end. For anyone unfamiliar, Minecraft is a video game where players explore, build, and survive in a virtual world made out of blocks. But here at American Dream, You get to step right into it. So I've never played Minecraft before. What can I anticipate when I go in? Lots of running around. But here at the adventure, we have a few activities we need to get through. I think we can do it. So time to go save the village? Let's go. Let's do it. And this orb of interaction is my ticket to getting through this adventure. As I make my way through different environments, I'm mining for resources, taking on creatures and working to complete challenges. Spawn into the forest, and that's really our training room. Once we get trained, we know our skills. We're going to head to Tobin's secret base. Craft together some tools and items, use those to build up the village, and then help the village even further by gathering more resources, fighting some mobs, and hopefully saving the day. And this is definitely more involved than sitting on the couch playing a video game. The adventure takes about an hour, and you don't need to be a Minecraft expert to join the mission. We see parents who play the game bringing their kids who are just learning about the game. We see kids bringing their parents to the game who have no idea what they're doing, and we're here for that. All with the goal of bringing people together, whether they're longtime fans of the game or just looking to try something new. In East Rutherford, Amanda Eustace, News 12, New Jersey.