Spotted On Test: MotoGP VR

The following story is about a game on “location test,” which is the arcade industry’s version of a beta test. The game may never be released or it might change from what is discussed below.  

Back in 2015, Play Mechanix took a break from developing light-gun titles to create a motorcycle racer, MotoGP. This offered a different take on arcade motorcycle racing compared to Raw Thrills’ Super Bikes and Super Bikes 2 games, particularly in regards to how the play unfolds. Where SB is more casual, MotoGP offered something serious as a simulator-style game might. It was in production up until a little after the pandemic, ultimately being replaced by Super Bikes 3.

Thanks to Jdevy, here are a couple of blurry shots of the new MotoGP VR that is currently on test at the Dave & Busters in Addison, IL. Unfortunately this is the best I have at the moment; From what he says, the screen just shows what the player sees in the headset. It’s unknown if there are any other changes to the software/content and whether or not it can be played in 2D (without the headset); I reached out to RT for comment but they had nothing to add for now:

If this hits production, this would be Raw Thrills’ second VR game, following King Kong of Skull Island. If you haven’t seen MotoGP before, here’s some footage of the non-VR version:

As for motorcycle games getting headsets, we have seen this a couple of times before, first with this Motorbike VR simulator by Cesys some years ago:

To UNIS’ more recent Ultra Moto VR:

Ultra Moto does allow users to play with the headset off but we’ll have to wait and see if MotoGP VR will do the same (assuming it reaches production).

We’ll update with more info when/if we get it but until then, what are your thoughts on this?