Recently at GameStart Asia 2015, the arcade machine Star Wars: Battle Pod was setup by the guys over at Geek Culture Singapore which allowed visitors a chance to have an almost real life experience of what it’s like piloting some of Star Wars most iconic vehicles.
We managed to get them to hook us up into the machine and film an almost overhead view of what it’s like to go through the Death Star battle in the first movie.
If you’re wondering just what the Star Wars: Battle Pod is, in short it’s an arcade game. It isn’t just any arcade game though. As the name suggest, it is an enclosed pod and in it you get two joysticks and a wide curved screen, perfect for emulating and almost 180 degree view around you.
The game itself has five stages that you can play in, the Battle of Yavin, where you control an X-Wing to take out the first Death Star, the Battle of Hoth, where you take charge of an A-Wing to go against the Imperials, the Battle of Endor, where you’re on a speeder bike, the battle against the second Death Star where you control the ever lovable Millenium Falcon, and last of all, where you control big baddie Vader’s own Tie Fighter as you chase down the rebels.
All those stages are not created equal, ranging from easy all the way to hard (based on the order we described above), and the objective of the stages are to complete them with the highest score possible.
Although the games can be pretty short, it still doesn’t beat that awesome feeling of being an actual X-Wing, A-Wing, Millenium Falcon and TIE Fighter pilot. It isn’t just the visuals and sounds (5.1 Channel by the way) that gives you that feeling, it’s also the other added elements, the vibrating seats and controls, and even blasts of air, that’ll make you really feel like you’re piloting those iconic vehicles.
Best part is that you can even get the whole device for yourself, that is if you got the moolah to spare. How much you’re wondering? How about the tune of US$35,000. That’s for the standard Battle Pod by the way, there’s also two premium editions that are decked in Rebel Alliance of Darth Vader designs and those go for US$100,000 each.
Can’t afford it? Then too bad. Best is to hunt an arcade that actually has the machine. If you can’t, well this video we took while playing the Yavin Battle might be the closest thing you’ll have to experience it.
