‘Mario Kart VR GP’ Heads Up Bandai Namco’s New VR Arcade Push

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Bandai Namco today announced that the company is moving into the VR arcade space and one of the highlight VR experiences they’ll offer is one of the first VR experiences to involve official Nintendo blessing, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR.

Bandai Namco are veterans of the old fashioned arcade gaming industry, still wildly popular in the company’s home country of Japan. Now, they’re looking to freshen up the image of their out of home entertainment business by opening dedicated VR Arcades, complete with seated motion platforms and HTC Vive virtual reality powered experiences.

The news, announced today and translated for us by MoguraVR, states that Bandai Namco and their in-house VR development team known as “Project I Can” has been scouting Japan for locations in which to build these new VR venues since 2016. Director of Bandai Namco, Makoto Asanuma says he wanted to see synergies between the company’s big name IPs and virtual reality along with broadening their expertise in related technologies such as haptics.

Image courtesy | Bandai Namco / Nintendo

The company have announced 16 VR experiences which will feature in these new arcades, but by far the most notable and surprising is a VR version of Nintendo’s beloved racing franchise Mario Kart. Complete with virtual reality visuals, provided by the HTC Vive, the experience also looks to utilise a motion platform rig, complete with steering wheel. There are only brief glimpses of the experience in the promotional video above, but the thought of one of gaming’s most beloved franchises making its way to VR is heartening, especially given Nintendo’s stance on VR up to now.

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The company is dipping its toe with a small mini ‘VR Zone Portal’ venue first, opening in London this summer with 3-4 new VR IP present. The first full sized “VR Zone” venue will open in Shinjuku, Japan in March of 2019. The facility will boast 40,000 square feet of space over 2 floors and, alongside Mario Kart GP VR will feature other famous VR franchise entries including Evangelion and Dragon Ball.

We’ll keep you up to date on developments of Bandai Namco’s new VR venture once we learn more. Thanks again to MoguraVR for the translation.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Oli Norwell

    I guess it’s a little optimistic to wonder if they’ll do a PSVR or even a PC port.

  • Wolfkolf

    I sure hope they do a PC port

  • RFC_VR

    “The company is dipping its toe with a small mini ‘VR Zone Portal’ venue first, opening in London this summer with 3-4 new VR IP present”. //Any news on where in London??

  • Joe Michaels

    I know just who they can speak with about haptics :) http://axonvr.com

  • RockstarRepublic

    Even the Japanese are dropping in tokens… didn’t see that coming.

  • Alix Zerd

    Mario Kart was licensed to Bandai Namco in Japan for their arcade machines under very strict regulations, one being that it should remain an arcade machine, so until big N makes a move to VR, no hope for porting here. But depending on this machine success, it might inspire Nintendo…