The Mario Kart Arcade GP VR has had a successful launch in Japan and the United Kingdom. It has now been confirmed that Mario Kart VR is headed to the United States. This has been made possible by Bandai Namco and HTC. The former has officially licensed the game for virtual reality and it confirms that the experience will be made available in the United States next month, albeit not widely.
The catch here is that this immersive Mario Kart game will only be available at the VR ZONE Portal arcade in Washington DC, at least initially. VR ZONE Portal is a part of the arcade division of Bandai Namco. The idea behind it is to make virtual reality more accessible to the general public.
In Mario Kart VR, four players hop into specially designed karts and then race through the Mushroom Kingdom as Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi. The virtual reality experience is powered by HTC’s Vive VR platform. The press release mentions that players will get to experience “industry-leading graphics” in addition to the usual items that they would expect to find in a Mario Kart game.
The Mario Kart VR experience will be offered at this location in Washington for six months before moving on to an as yet unannounced location.
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