Sixteen (and counting) immersive attractions? Check. Getting up close and personal with beloved characters? Check. An unforgettable experience? Double check. VR Zone Shinjuku, a project birthed by Bandai Namco, opened its doors to the public on July 14 and we had the opportunity to take a sneak peek at what this next-generation theme park has to offer. From throwing shells in Mario Kart VR to riding in the palm of a giant Gundam mech, the park offers a bunch of world-first experiences that are no doubt going to lure in both virtual reality (VR) fanatics and lovers of Japanese pop culture alike.
Walking into the lobby, you’re greeted by an intricate light show that can be interacted with by touching the walls and columns surrounding it. The first floor is littered with time-limited temporary VR experiences – including Google’s Tilt Brush and the PlayStation VR – as well as a resort-themed area home to a gourmet café. It’s interesting to note that the park also offers three non-VR activities – Giant Balloon Burst Room PANIC CUBE, Trap Climbing and Niagara Drop – as well as a virtual beach, complete with water made up of interactive light projections. A gift store can also be found conveniently by the entrance, where you can pick up themed goods like Pac-Man cookies to take home with you.
The second floor is the where the action happens, and where you can find majority of the VR attractions. Each attraction has a pretty large amount of VR headsets and contraptions available, so surprisingly you won’t have to wait too long to get your turn. This writer made a beeline to Mario Kart VR, which made headlines around the time of E3 this year, to see if it really lived up to the hype.
Mario Kart Arcade GP VR
You can play with up to four players at once, and each of you can communicate using the headset and microphone that you’re strapped into upon climbing into the life-sized kart. Along with an HTC Vive headset, you’re equipped with sensors that are placed on your hands – these are used to capture weapons that are floating around the stage as you drive. Lob a shell, banana, or hammer by swinging your arm as you speed through the stage – which is littered with Mario Kart favorites like the Piranha Plant, Thwomp, and rainbow boosters. Out of all the attractions we tried, Mario Kart VR came out on top as the most fun, so in our eyes it lives up to the hype for a one or two time try.
Close to the Mario Kart VR area were a number of other high-profile attractions, including Evangelion VR: The Soul Seat and Argyle Shift, but the next attraction we were looking to try that has had people talking was Dragon Ball VR: Master the Kamehameha.
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Dragon Ball VR: Master the Kamehameha
Dragon Ball VR: Master the KamehamehaThis attraction was one of the most immersive (and to be honest, a little complicated) in the park. With sensors strapped to your arms, abdomen, feet and head, and a panel of cameras in front of you, here you go through training with Goku to master the art of the Kamehameha – which requires you to hold a certain leg and arm stance and to shoot your arms forward at just the right time – before heading into a heated battle against a second player. Along with Mario Kart VR, Dragon Ball VR proved to be a hit, with many a journalist lining up to try it out.
Next up on our ‘to try’ list was Gundam VR: Daiba Assault, which was on the opposite end of the park. We passed by attractions like Dinosaur Survival Run: Jungle of Despair, in which you ride a Segway-like scooter through an island populated with dinosaurs, and Steep Downhill Ski Simulator: Ski Rodeo, where you ride a pair of true-to-life skis down a hill while chased by an avalanche – both of which had their fair share of curious onlookers.
Fans of Gundam are in for a treat: in this experience you’re thrown into the middle of a battle of a Gundam mech going up against the nemesis Zeon, complete with a rumbling floor that simulates the gigantic robots stomping around. At one point the mech places its hand on the ground and you can walk up to it and take a seat, wrapping your arms around its thumb as it continues the battle. A fun extra here is a heat lamp that moves close to you when the mech’s saber is in front of you, really ramping up the immersion of the experience.
After the pretty intense experiences up to this point, we decided to take a little break and try out Bandai Namco’s take on fishing with Fishing VR GIJIESTA. It was located pretty close to another mech simulation, VR-AT Simulator Armored Trooper Votoms, that allows you to go into battle against a friend (or frenemy) from the cockpit of a gun-toting iron trooper.
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Fishing VR GIJIESTA
Fishing VR GIJIESTAIf you’re not a fan of fast-paced VR, here you can relax and unwind at a mountain lake while catching fish. The experience comes with a simulated rod and reel, as well as a net that’s used to grab the fish once you’ve pulled them in. You have a time limit of around 6 minutes, and here you’re challenged to catch as many fish as you can. When you’re done you can check your stats in the virtual world, and there’s also daily park leaderboard that displays the biggest catches of the day.
Although we were busting to try out all the attractions, we were running low on time and had to make one last quick pick, which ended up being Winged Bicycle – it was neck and neck between this and the Hospital Escape Omega horror attraction, which has you controlling a wheelchair as you escape a dilapidated hospital alongside other players.
Winged Bicycle
After climbing onto an exercise bike, here you’re tasked with pedaling to control a flying bicycle as you make your way across a mountainous landscape littered with caves and waterfalls. You control the brakes and direction with the handlebars in front of you in order to navigate, and specially placed fans on all sides of the bike react to the wind to really immerse you in the experience. You can really feel your body reacting to this as if it were really happening – I found myself drenched in sweat and heart pounding after reaching the goal point and taking off the headset, and even feeling a little disoriented.
As our time was coming to a close, we were reminded that another big-ticket attraction, ‘Arise: Ghost in the Shell Stealth Hounds,’ is still yet to come, being released sometime in August. With the strength of such well-known and loved game and anime VR experiences behind them, Bandai Namco have made some smart moves with their first official foray into the realm of VR – with this, hopefully the mainstream appeal of VR will continue to burn bigger and brighter going into the future.
The application of arena-scale VR has been charted beyond the cinema landscape, with already 
The commercial entertainment industry has proven an uncomfortable enigma to many that had previously invested in a promised consumer approach to VR. To educate and promote, the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) sector has invested in a unique conference in September, partly supported by my consultancy (KWP) and a major exhibition organizer. Based in Las Vegas, the 
Other Japanese arcade operators such as TAITO and Capcom revealed that they would be installing the VR Game Stage, powered by HTC hardware. HTC supporting the use of consumer content able to be legally used in commercial entertainment venues through the Viveport Arcade commercial subscription platform for China, and currently on test in Europe and the USA. A similar solution is planned from Valve for SteamVR – while Oculus VR stays opposed to any commercial usage (not prepared at this point to pivot).
But the big development, missed by many in the media was the announcement and reveal of Koei Tecmo, launching their ‘VR Sense’, an experience capsule using a Sony PSVR headset and Move controller (powered by an internal Playstation 4 Pro system). This system was the advance guard on the major announcement that Sony Interactive Entertainment would be creating a specific division to roll out their PSVR platform into the location-based (out-of-home entertainment) sector in several territories. The ultimate example of the pivoting of the consumer approach to VR into the commercial entertainment arena.
Also on the ASI booth was the WePlayVR system from developers AiSolve, running the VR Backpack experience called ‘The Mayan Adventure’. Also shown was the Yotto Group “VR Game Platform” EXOPLANE an immersive paraglider experience. At the Dubai exhibition, another major distributor in the territory supporting family entertainment center businesses is Warehouse of Games (WOG), the company had on their booth the local developer NUAT’s ‘The VR Cube’ another “VR Enclosures” approach. DEAL exhibitor FUNCO – Fun Entertainment Company, a prominent developer of turn-key solutions for operators wanting to open entertainment centers, partnered with Chinese VR Park developer LEKE VR, showing their full selection of “VR Game Platform” units that were seen foot-foot from the Chinese trade show premier.
Away from the major distributors, several standalone exhibitors showed VR aspirations. These included a “VR Ride Attraction” from Turkish developer AMEGA Entertainment – Cinecoaster 360 VR. This multi-directional motion XD cinema system using mobileVR headsets. Or exhibitor DOF Robotics who showed their HURRICANE 360 VR – a extreme motion platform system using mobileVR systems to represent the virtual experience, (the system a Bronze Virtual Reality Game BOSA award 2017).
Reflecting the interest in the territory to embrace VR in all its facets in the DOE sector, the local developer ImSim, demonstrated a 3DOF racing cockpit with force feedback and a power VR component. Many companies in the West have invested in motor sports network simulator (“Race Room”) ventures – and VR technology seen as a possible replacement to conventional flat screen visualization. American manufacturer CXC Simulations, is another name in this scene, having recently installed a “Race Room” at the Andretti Indoor Karking location in Marrietta. The venue running their latest CXC Motion Pro II VR system, the only VR simulator of its kind in commercial operation in the United States