Battle Pod: An Unusual Star Wars Experience

“BUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM BUM BUM BUM, BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUUUUUUM, BUM BUM BUUUUM, BUM BUM BUUUUM. BUM BUM BUM, BUUUUUM, BUUUUUM BUM BUM BUM BUUUUM, BUM, BUM BUM BUM BUUUUM, BUM, BUM BUM BUM BUUUUM.”

No, that’s not the translation of some analy obessessed madman, but rather about 57% of my internal thoughts ever since the second trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted a little while back. I’ve always loved the quintessential sci-fi series, but that trailer awakened something of my own. A weird, slightly unhealthy, obsession with the stuff. I’ve re-watched all the films (in - gasp - chronological order!), watched a bunch of Clone Wars, played some terrible Star Wars games and was really, really tempted to spend money I don’t have on Star Wars: Imperial Assault: a damned amazing-looking boardgame that lets you control little plastic Stormtroopers. There’s even at AT-ST people!

Then DICE announced Battlefront, and I peed a little bit.

So that didn’t help matters. By the time I actually got to Star Wars: Battle Pod, all I wanted to do was transport myself to that galaxy far, far away (the long time ago bit seemed more difficult). It was, essentially, perfect timing.

For the uninitiated: Battle Pod is a recently released arcade game developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment that allows players to sit in front of a huge screen that almost wraps around the player. It’s encased within a dome that features plenty of bells and whistles to replicate the feeling of movement and interactivity. As you can expect, Battle Pod drops the player into a selection of scenarios from the original films; from speeding through Endor to fighter battles on the surface of the Death Star. That’s a great sales pitch, by all accounts, so the machine has gained a fair amount of attention from press and fans alike.

Of course, you may be reading still perplexed by the first sentence. An arcade game? They still make those? I knew that companies were still coming up with inventive arcade devices, but this was the first truly modern design I’d seen. The cabinet itself looked like a neat cross between modern console design and classic ‘70s sci-fi goodness.

As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to jump into the machine at London’s Namco Funscape. Unfortunately, everyone at the press event I was attending had the same idea - and with only one Pod between us all, I had to patiently wait my turn. When my time finally came, I sneaked into the dome through a nifty sliding door (minus the ‘ssschhhhh’, sound effect), and took a seat in front of the bizarrely wide screen. The whole point of the display is to give you a feeling of immersion, of being surrounded. Obviously we typically view our digital entertainment head-on, so to have Tie Fighters approaching me from my peripheral vision was a strange sensation.

Another strange sensation was the more tactile stuff going on. One thing I found particularly cool was a burst of air that accompanied certain actions like swooping turns or craft flying overhead. Considering I was locked within an X-Wing in one level, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it was still amazing to have something a little more ‘real’ during my playing experience. I wonder what’ll happen when I plug a fan into my PS4 when playing Project CARS...

The Pod comes with all the other bells and whistles, like a vibrating chair and joystick and a realistic set of controls. Then you get five different levels including the aforementioned Death Star and Endor, as well as Hoth, a level in the Millennium Falcon and another in Vader’s Tie Advanced. I was told that every game within the Battle Pod would cost £2, so you’d need to sink £10 into the machine to see everything - for that I’d say you’re getting about 15-20 minutes of total game time. Which, it must be said, isn’t the most economic gaming experience you’re going to have any time soon.

It’s probably worth it though, just for the thrill of it all. The weird thing about all of this, is that the game itself wasn’t especially great. It is, in essence, an on-rails shooter that simply asks the player to aim within a semi-restricted field of view, speed up or slow down (which seemed to make little difference) and obviously pull the trigger once the target is within your crosshairs. For all the techno wizardry at play in an effort to create an ‘immersive experience’, you would have thought they could make the actual game a little more ‘immersive’ too. In reality though, it doesn’t matter all that much. Star Wars: Battle Pod is designed for short bursts of wild fun. On that front, it certainly delivers.

Yet it’s a fascinating example of the way games have changed. We may complain about DLC and microtransactions, but look back to gaming’s past and you’ll see many a game that rely on the same ‘quick hit’ principals of Battle Pod - designed by and large to rake in your pennies. We can pay £30 now for a game that takes hundreds of hours to play. So maybe we don’t have it so bad afterall?

Anyway, I’m getting distracted. Star Wars: Battle Pod is definitely worth checking out. It’s a unique experience, and while the game may be a little lacking, it’s still awesome to sit within the dome and momentarily feel like a Rebel pilot. There are a bunch of the machines all over the UK and US, so keep an eye out next time you go bowling.