Later this August, the VR Zone exhibit at Diver City in Tokyo will have a Gundam themed attraction added to its ranks. Called Gundam VR Daiba Assault, it’s based around the 18 meter tall Gundam outside Diver City coming to life and protecting you from an attack by a renegade Zaku II. As with all VR Zone events, you will need to reserve a slot to attend this new attraction. Like the amazing VOTOMS simulator, this too is using Unreal Engine 4 and I am curious as to how this will play out. Naturally, Bandai Namco called in Toru Furuya, the voice of Amuro Ray, to help promote the new attraction (shown below). So if you’re in Tokyo over the next month or so, you might want to go and check out the VR Zone at Diver City.

So I got to check out the new Armored Trooper VOTOMS VR simulator at the VR Zone event space at Diver City, Odaiba. In short, it was amazing and very accurate to how the ATs work and move in the anime. The battling simulator is also using Unreal Engine 4, so it will be interesting to see if Bandai Namco builds on this further. Though, the best part of this simulator was the controls and not the fact you had a screen strapped to your face. It’s weird to think that VOTOMS used a VR setup in the anime itself back in 1983, so to have Bandai Namco actually stay true to that and have it work so well is kind of amazing really. If you’re in Tokyo you should totally check this out but make sure to sort out a reservation first.

The VR Zone event space in Odaiba will be getting some changes to its playable game lineup, with one of these being a VOTOMS battle simulator (shown above). Released on July 15th, you will have to reserve a timeslot in order to visit the event (you can do that here). Each go costs around 700 yen and the duration of each battle will be approximately 8 minutes. I already visited VR Zone earlier this year and covered it for Forbes. It was an interesting setup and made me think that Bandai Namco is experimenting with VR for the arcades here in Japan. I am guessing this VOTOMS simulator also replaces the other mecha game, Argyle Shift that was developed by Sola Digital Arts (of Shinji Aramaki fame). It seems this new VOTOMS simulator was also developed in-house, which is a shame as I had hoped that they would have given it to Yuke’s, as their PS2 game was excellent. Getting to Odaiba isn’t too tough and I tend to use the Rinkai Line and get off at Tokyo Teleport. The walk to Diver City is a few minutes and it’s also where the life-sized Gundam is currently stationed. I will be checking out this VOTOMS simulator later this month, so will report back on that accordingly.