[Thanks to Kevin Williams for the heads-up]
If you aren’t familiar with the name Yu Suzuki, then you should be familiar with some of his work (particularly if you’re reading this blog): OutRun, Hang-On, After Burner, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, and so on. Mr. Suzuki hasn’t been directly employed by Sega for a while now, working on different projects here and there, most notably Shenmue III. The last time he was credited for an arcade project was with Sega RaceTV, meaning he hasn’t been involved in our industry for the past decade.
Fast forward to now, where VR tech has been a hot topic in the amusement industry for a few years now. This is now drawing the attention of Mr. Suzuki as he has partnered with a company called JPPVR to create VRSUS, intended for an amusement VR release next Summer. They are promising you’ll be able to play for 500 yen, but after watching this video, I think it’ll be best to wait and see how it is on the final release. As it is from this low quality video, it’s like the Disc Arena from TRON: Legacy meets a CAVE bullet hell shooter that was designed by Jeff Minter:
By that, the gameplay seems to be a bit too much, but it is best to withhold judgement until the final product is out there to play. No idea if these will show up in the States, where I expect IAAPA to once again be packed with many VR contenders with competing products.
More details can be seen over at Game Watch. Mr. Suzuki was also pictured on JPPVR’s “Photon Bike” game, but this does not indicate that we’re getting a Hang-On VR title any time soon. Of course, if you really want a VR motorcycle game, there is always this.
Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report is promising more details on JPPVR/Suzuki’s VRSUS project, so keep your eyes peeled for the next TSR. From the little info on VRSUS that was unveiled, what do you think about it?
Wow I didn’t think he was still making video games anymore and that he retired or something, especially after playing sega race TV. It wasn’t a terrible game but it’s certainly not his best like all the other great games he’s worked on and that made a huge impact to the amusement industry. For watching the video it reminds me of suzukis other game that didn’t get released psy phi due to the looks and how the game was performing. Could it be a new spin off of the original game that got canned?