Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 29, 2020

Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena Coming to PlayStation VR for Free

South Korean virtual reality (VR) developer SKonec Entertainment tends to focus mainly on the location-based entertainment (LBE) market in its home region. But it does occasionally dabble in the home market, most notably with arcade shooter Mortal Blitz a few years ago. Recently, it has been revealed the studio plans on releasing a multiplayer shooter called Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena for free on PlayStation VR in the coming months.

PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida made the announcement as part of the BitSummit Gaiden 2020 event which is all about indie developers. Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will be a free to play experience coming to PlayStation VR in September with a beta released in August. What wasn’t clear was whether this info is purely for the Asian market or if it’s a global release.

Supporting a single-player mission-based mode as well as the core multiplayer which can have up to four players, Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena will include customizable weapons and items to pick up as well as Aim controller support.

In the multiplayer mode players have to teleport between platforms of varying heights to allow you an advantage over a lower positioned opponent. Light walls appear upon arrival to aid in defense but these can be destroyed with enough firepower.

In fact, VRFocus has played a previous incarnation of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena during Gamescom 2019. SKonec Entertainment originally announced Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz as an LBE only experience back in 2018 before taking it to the Cologne-based event the following year.

While there are some graphical differences – this was running on a PC originally – the gameplay looks virtually identical. Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz was an enjoyable arena shooter and that was only with 2 players; with four VRFocus would imagine Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena is going to get seriously fast and frantic.

VRFocus has contacted SKonec Entertainment for further information regarding the launch of Mortal Blitz: Combat Arena and whether it’ll be global. When’s there’s further info to update you, we’ll let you know.

December 6, 2019

South Korea’s SKonec Entertainment Open First Western Location in LA

South Korea has a dedicated virtual reality (VR) community of creators but it’s not often the content makes it out of the country and onto western shores. SKonec Entertainment has featured on VRFocus before thanks to its Mortal Blitz franchise but the company mostly specialises in location-based entertainment (LBE) on its home turf. Recently it made the transition into America, opening VR Square Los Angeles.

SKonec VR Square LA

SKonec Entertainment teamed up with local bowling alley space Xlanes to make VR Square LA a reality, using over 10,000 sqft to create the arcade. With that much space on offer, VR Square LA features several of SKonec’s LBE titles, ranging from free-roaming experiences to PvP shooters and VR escape rooms. On the free-roaming side, there’s Operation Black Wolf: Battle of the Desert, a modern military-themed multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) designed for three to six players.

Then there’s Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz offering the PvP element. VRFocus demoed the experience at Gamescom 2019, stating: “Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz was just great fun to play. With an awesome looking sci-fi, neon theme, matches were brutal, exciting and leave you with a big smile.” It was noted that one downside was the need to go to South Korea to play it. Now that’s no longer the case.

For those after a greater puzzle element then there’s always the VR Escape Room. Another first for western audiences, the title offers two-player co-op gameplay optimised for LBE gaming. And to keep you coming back for more there are multiple endings.

SKonec VR Square LA

One addition that’s surely going to attract a few players is the Beat Saber Arcade Machine. A collaborative effort between SKonec Entertainment and Beat Games, the arcade machine was revealed last year with several sites in South Korea and China selected for testing – YouTuber Nathie went to China’s VR Star Theme Park to see test it out. Like many home VR videogames brought to arcades, the machine features customised content for a more ‘arcade flow’.

So if you happen to be in the Downtown LA area looking for something VR related to do, Xlanes has VR gaming starting from $5. For further LBE updates, keep reading VRFocus.

September 6, 2019

SKonec’s LBVR Shooter Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz Offers Thrilling PvP Combat

Korean developer SKonec Entertainment has a long and varied history in virtual reality (VR) development, having released first-person shooter (FPS) Mortal Blitz VR for Samsung Gear VR back in 2015. The studio has developed other titles since then but the Mortal Blitz franchise remains a core IP, especially when it comes to location-based entertainment (LBE). The latest instalment is a player versus player (PvP) title called Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz showcasing how well SKonec knows VR technology.

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz

Currently, all of SKonec Entertainment’s VR LBE offerings are only available in its home territories. However, the recent Gamescom 2019 event in Cologne, Germany proved to be the perfect opportunity to demo arcade content to Europeans. Whilst not being able to offer the same lavish space-consuming attraction found in Korean arcades, the setup was ample enough to test Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz.

The videogame can normally accommodate up to four players but in this instance, there was only space for two. Honestly, this may have worked in Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz’ favour, providing a deadly game of cat and mouse across the single arena. Offering a pure deathmatch mode that was exceptionally fast and energetic, the rounds only lasted a couple of minutes. Once complete the desire to jump right back in was unmistakable.

Just like any good VR arcade experience which involves multiplayer Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz’ controls were easy to pick up for newbies, yet the gameplay was dynamic enough so that VR veterans could always enjoy a few matches.

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz

For comfort Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz offers fixed point-to-point teleportation locations, set atop hexagonal pillars which were at various heights. This gave the arena a very tight, undulating topography which could mean at any given second you could either gain or lose the high ground making getting those kills a whole lot trickier.

When the match starts you automatically came equipped with pistols for both hands. While quite effective when getting a few headshots in, every time you teleport to a new spot a defensive light barrier appeared to hide behind. While destructible, without a decent line of sight the pistols were less than effective against the barriers, which is where all the other weapons came into play.

This being a competitive arcade multiplayer, SKonec has placed shotguns, miniguns and other weapons towards the map extremities. They couldn’t be picked up instantly though, locked via a timer. As such you weren’t simply able to ‘tool up’ and find your opponent, having to carefully dart around the arena to grab a gun at the opportune moment. For those lucky enough, at the very centre of the arena was the most destructive weapon, a huge plasma gun which fired a massive ball of purple energy. Relatively slow, when used correctly it offered a one-hit kill, instantly disintegrating the light barrier and enemy cowering behind it (very satisfying).

Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz

More importantly Battle Arena: Mortal Blitz was just great fun to play. With an awesome looking sci-fi, neon theme, matches were brutal, exciting and leave you with a big smile (winning does help). What’s a real shame at the moment is you need to go to South Korea to play it. There are lots of good VR arcade experiences in Europe and the US, one more definitely won’t hurt. When that will happen is a question SKonec Entertainment has yet to answer.