Arcade Mania

"Arcade Mania" is the 11th episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the 11th overall episode of the series.

Synopsis
Steven takes the Crystal Gems to Funland Arcade where Garnet learns the allure of video games.

Plot
The Gems are in a cave looking for a tentacled beast that Garnet easily destroys. She collects its core and declares the threat over even though several cone-shaped parasites escape into the ground.

To celebrate their victory Steven takes them to the Funland Arcade. Pearl plays a driving game but is bad at it because she's such a cautious driver. Amethyst plays skee ball and starts to cheat when she finds out you can win prizes. Garnet breaks several machines when she misunderstands Steven's instructions. She becomes entranced with a rhythm game called Meat Beat Mania, and doesn't hear Steven when he collects the others to leave when Mr. Smiley finds out someone's been breaking the games.

In the morning Steven's out looking for coins with a metal detector when the parasites from the day before show up and attack him. He finds Amethyst and Pearl but they don't know what to do without Garnet's leadership and she hasn't been seen since yesterday. Steven runs back to the arcade and finds Garnet still playing Meat Beat Mania. She doesn't listen when he tries to tell her about the danger outside, and he takes off her sunglasses revealing she has a third eye that allows her to easily keep up with the rhythm.

Steven tries to beat Garnet at the game so she'll snap out of it, but he loses multiple times. Even unplugging the game is useless as Garnet uses her gem energy to restart it. He finally brings Garnet back to normal by smashing the screen. She goes to help the Gems fight, but Steven's caught by an infuriated Mr. Smiley after he discovered that Garnet was the one who damaged one of his games and forced to work off the cost of the damaged games while the gems fight the monsters.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Garnet
 * Pearl
 * Amethyst
 * Sour Cream (cameo)
 * Onion
 * Mr. Smiley (antagonist in the end)
 * Gem Cave Creature
 * Drill Parasites

Songs

 * Funland Arcade (song)
 * Road Killer (song)
 * Teens of Rage (song)
 * Meat Beat Mania: Over Easy
 * Meat Beat Mania: FLAMBÉE!

Trivia

 * It is revealed that Pearl knows how to drive, despite not owning a vehicle or needing one.
 * In the episode, Garnet's shades are taken off by Steven for the first time which reveals that she has a third eye, giving her amazing hand-eye coordination and good reflexes.
 * In the episode it reveals Garnet has heterochromia, which means all three of her eyes are a different color.
 * Onion appears to be the ticket master. He wins a moped from the arcade ticket counter.
 * However, he only seems to get many tickets by opening the machines to get it as seen in the episode ""So Many Birthdays"", and "Onion Trade"

Cultural References

 * Meat Beat Mania is a parody of the classic SEGA arcade game Samba de Amigo


 * Teens of Rage is a tribute to a video game called Sega Genesis Streets of Rage. Note: have a slight reference to character Skate (Fighting on skates) as a head with a cap on a skateboard.
 * The game was made by a company called Carpcom, which is a parody of the real game company called Capcom.

Errors

 * When the numbers of Meat Beat Mania get closer to zero, the change of scene they begin again for ten.
 * When Steven unplugged Meat Beat Mania, it was shown to be plugged in after that.

Transcript
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