Timing it in line with the build-up of hype towards a new King Kong movie, which launches on March 31st of this year, Raw Thrills has released their first full-on arcade game since launching Nitro Trucks last summer.
Covered on the blog here a few times, King Kong of Skull Island VR is Raw Thrill’s first foray into the world of Virtual Reality. It’s also their first motion ride piece, albeit it is not the first time they’ve used motion seat technology. Here’s the most recent trailer
Interestingly enough, the news arrived today from Bandai Namco Amusements Europe, who sent out the press release below this morning. BNAE serves as the distributor for Raw Thrills product in Europe, EMEA and India (a bit of a confusing relationship for those new to the arcade scene), which is why they’re the ones touting it, but as it says in the release, the first production run that they had access to has already sold out.
A cabinet assembly video is also available here, for anyone who has grabbed one for their location:
Here’s the press release:
For Immediate Release
The King of VR has arrived!
It’s Raw Thrills’ first VR unit to market and it accommodates an iconic instantaneously recognisable IP – it’s King Kong of Skull Island™ – and it’s finally here.
The first production, which was sold out almost as quickly as was put forward, is officially on its way to its first destinations. Already pipped as a dominant player in the VR sector, this title did not let a global pandemic stop it from flaunting impressively high revenue during its stays at chosen US development test locations and performed with the highest income amongst comparative experiences.
The first time the industry gained confirmation of rumours behind King Kong of Skull Island™ was IAPPA 2019, with looped in-game footage shown on a screen on the BANDAI NAMCO booth. The footage – which has since been refined further – was so compelling that its potential was heeded in spite of the thousands of live playable physical machines amongst it.
Mr. Nabil Kassim, CEO of Warehouse of Games (WoG) says “From the moment we saw the preview of the product at IAAPA 2019, we knew we were looking at what is soon to be a top-selling pivotal title in the global market due to its strong license and the gold-standard of its developer and manufacturer Raw Thrills. We went on to show the video product to key customers, in response to which Magic Planet had the foresight to order the product immediately for a number of their locations across the region. It’s gratifying to see the first units have come off the production line and are now on the water soon to be installed and in action.”
Whilst this is tremendously exciting news for WoG and Magic Planet who managed to grab dibs of a large quantity of units from this first batch, there will be some wishing they were a little quicker off the mark. It’s a good thing then that there’s still some availability on the next production that’s due to ship mid-February – as momentum gathers for this production, we’d advise quick responses.
From the array of its many stand-out features, it employs the latest VR technology from HP – the HP Reverb G2. To explain the premise of the game for those in the dark it follows an alterable story from a choice of three chapters, which rely on the success of your reactions during focal slo-mo events to determine your progression throughout the game. Players can compete for the highest scores from previous users and/or simply beat their opponent.
The longevity of King Kong is again enforced with new film Godzilla vs. Kong expected for release this year. Considering he’ll be making a mighty contribution to entertainment venues with this latest Raw Thrills title, you can bet that we’ll be rooting for Kong in that particular showdown.
For more information, contact sales@bandainamco.co.uk
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About the author: arcadehero View all posts by arcadehero
I’m a lifelong fan of video games and I have been operating my own arcade, The Game Grid Arcade in West Valley City, Utah since 2008.