It was only a few days ago we discovered this was even a thing that was happening, but lo' and behold, two days later Bandai Namco unveiled their new
Star Wars-themed arcade machine. The company reportedly held a nearly hour-long event on the eve of New York Comic-Con to unveil their latest machine.
Star Wars: Battle Pod is a dome screen arcade machine (similar to the screen seen in Lost Land Adventure and Mach Storm) designed for single play. Players will get to drive all the single seat Star Wars vehicles in combat simulation with a curved, 180 degree domed screen, low-frequency vibrations to deliver physical impact, vibrating controllers, 5.1 surround sound, and hidden fans to mimic the feeling of acceleration and speed - Bandai Namco has turned a game into an experience of high immersion.
Players sit inside the pod, using a right-handed flight stick with a trigger and button, and a left-handed throttle lever to fly and fight their way through the Star Wars franchise, so yes, loads of very familiar backdrops and famous movie scenes (DEATH STAR!).
Each setting in the Unreal Engine 3-powered game features a unique vehicle. In Yavin, players will control an X-Wing. In Hoth players control a snowspeeder. In Endor, it's a speederbike and the Death Star 2 is the Millennium Falcon. The game will also feature a final "Vader's Revenger" stage which has the Sith Lord trying to take out the Death Star in an Advanced TIE Fighter.
The game plays out as a set of disconnected stages. Players choose which stage they want to play through after dropping in their money. Once a stage is selected, the game opens up with a short in-game tutorial which incorporates the beginning of the roughly four-minute-long game session. The object of the game is to get the highest score possible by destroying enemy crafts and getting combo bonuses through quick kill streaks.
The game will be available as of January 2015, or, it will be on display at the Midtown Dave & Busters, New York, unitl Novemebr 2nd. (UPDATE: The machine has been confirmed to be made available in the US first in January, rather than Japan).
Check out the videos below to see just how incredibly awesome this game looks:
News, images and videos via: Polygon
