You climb into a POD (Pilot Operating Device) and control a giant robot, along with any of your friends who are in other pods. You communicate through head sets and fight people in other game centres in far off places.
This is the inside of the pods. It's impossible to take a decent picture of it without a fisheye lense, since it is literally a 180 degree sphere. There are better pictures of it here at the official site.
Every week there is a different map. This one was in the Himalayas. For those who don't know, Gundam is a very popular series in Japan. It is about giant robots, space ships, a civil war, and has some cool animation.
Outside of the pods there is a game screen where others can watch the battle. It is also where you upgrade your mech and get new ranks.
This is a bad shot of the battle. There are two sides. The the rebels, who fight in transformer-looking bots, and the 'principality of Zeon', who are kind of the bad guys.
My robot is one of the bad guys. The type is called a Domu and it fights with a giant laser katana.It truly is an immersive experience...and kind of addictive.
4 comments:
Ma, that is so cool. I'd love to try that out, but I imagine it would become really addictive. Still, that would be awesome to try out.
Whatever happened to arcades in north america? It's so boring here....
They died because YOU didnt go to them anymore.
Are you talking to Gavin, or North Americans on the whole?
I know I never spend too much money at the arcades because there was always some Chinese kid beating me at Street Fighter. And by the time I got older all the arcade games were crap because we were like 10 years behind on the technology.
If they had some of the devilish games they have here in Canada, I would have been all over that.
On the other hand, the Xmen arcade game was pretty amazing. You know the 8 player one. Damn cool!
haha. Jordan and Sam found that 8 player game in niagara falls and spent like 50 bucks beating it.
I was accusing Gavin of killing arcades, but I guess it could be stretched to envelope everyone.
I think technology simply allowed for the same or BETTER experience to occur at home. Also, arcades began charging 50¢-$2 for a game and I think it was incorrect philosophy. They started to charge more as audiences declined, hoping to make up the margin of loss, but it had a converse effect, embittering players and it made home consoles much more attractive.
There was a strong change though in terms of what the populous appreciates... specifically home based entertainments really attracted people. You can karaoke at home, video games, work out... all of these things and their convenience contributes to a very strong decline in public participation leisure activities. Go karting? pretty much dead. Bowling? On its way out. Even going to the movies now competes with big screen tv home theaters, home consoles, even internet surfing is having a HUGE impact on doing things in the "Real World" anymore.
When I am in Japan I hit the arcades in an almost unhealthy fashion. They're almost all dead there too though. Its not just a north american phenomenon. Sega just closed like 2000 of their arcades.
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