Mario Kart Arcade GP VR: the only Mario Kart in VR

GameMario Kart Arcade GP VRArcade VR (HTC Vive)

The only Mario Kart played neither on a screen nor with your thumbs. Launched in 2017 by Bandai Namco, this fourth entry in the arcade line sits four drivers in four cockpits, HTC Vive headset on their heads and sensors on their hands. This page details its set-up, its roster of four characters and its place in the history of the series.

Mario Kart Arcade GP VR (マリオカート アーケードグランプリ VR) is the only entry in the series that is impossible to play at home. Developed by Bandai Namco and launched in 2017, it exists on neither console nor PC, and not as a download either.

Our guide to Mario games in virtual reality presents it as the most advanced of these experiences, with one caveat: it exists only in arcades. It is also Mario Kart's only official foray into virtual reality.

Contents

• An attraction, not a game to buy
• The headset, the wheel and the hands
• Four cockpits, four drivers
• The last link in the arcade line
• Mario, VR and what comes next
• Fact sheet
• FAQ

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An attraction, not a game to buy

Mario Kart Arcade GP VR was never sold in a box. It is a paid attraction installed in arcades, not a piece of software you take home with you. Its first location was VR Zone Shinjuku, the virtual reality centre opened by Bandai Namco in July 2017 in the Kabukichō district of Tokyo: it was among the venue's opening attractions.

Running it falls to Bandai Namco's amusement division, which operates under licence from Nintendo : the same partnership that has been producing Mario Kart arcade cabinets since 2005. The concept had been trialled a year earlier at a pilot site opened in Odaiba in 2016.

• The hardware required is an HTC Vive headset paired with a cockpit : nothing that fits in a living room.
• VR Zone Shinjuku was only a temporary installation: the venue closed at the end of March 2019.
• The attraction outlived it and was redeployed to other arcades run by Bandai Namco, in Japan and abroad.

The constraint is not only a commercial one. The HTC Vive, released in 2016, is a headset tethered to a PC: it is this hardware constraint, as much as the commercial choice, that ruled out any port to a home console of the time. The title therefore remains exclusive to arcades, with no ROM and no emulation.

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The headset, the wheel and the hands

The gameplay is physical in the literal sense. Each station brings together a kart-shaped seat, a steering wheel and a platform that moves in reaction to the race: the player is not looking at a kart, they are sitting inside one.

The real shift, though, happens in the hands. The driver wears sensors that display their hands inside the headset, and those hands are used to grab items. Catching a shell in mid-air and then throwing it with a sweep of the arm replaces pressing a button: it is the only Mario Kart where the item is handled by hand.

• The race lasts a single lap, on a track that strings together a variety of settings.
• The graphics are in high definition, a clean break from the previous cabinets.
• The full session, kitting up and briefing included, lasts only a few minutes.

That format says a great deal about the intention: a fairground ride rather than a proper play session. The press did indeed cover it as an attraction and not as a game, taking away the sensation of catching items by hand rather than the depth of the content.

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Four cockpits, four drivers

Four players race together, one per cockpit, in the same virtual race. The roster is modelled on that number of stations: Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi, and nobody else. Where Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fields dozens of drivers, GP VR sticks to what is strictly needed.

This reduced roster is not a case of impoverishment but a consequence of the set-up: each seat takes up floor space, and the number of characters follows the number of machines, never the other way round.

The headset also changes the nature of local multiplayer. It does away with the split screen: each driver gets their own first-person view. No other Mario Kart playable by several people in the same room allows that, not even Mario Kart 64, which had nevertheless established the four-players-on-one-television formula.

• Playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi.
• One cockpit per player, four in total, in a shared race.
• A first-person view for each of them, with no split screen.

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The last link in the arcade line

GP VR is the fourth entry in the arcade line, after Mario Kart Arcade GP (2005), GP 2 (2007) and GP DX (2013). This branch is not developed by Nintendo's internal teams, unlike the console entries.

It therefore has habits of its own, right down to the names of the items. The Golden Mushroom appears there under the name Miracle Mushroom and works like a star: it grants invincibility and knocks over rival karts for five seconds. The Mega Mushroom, for its part, keeps its English name of Giant Mushroom there.

• The previous cabinets played host to in-house guests from Namco, from Pac-Man and his family to Don-chan of Taiko no Tatsujin.
• None of them appears in the VR roster, which has gone back to a strictly Nintendo cast.
• GP DX was only partially distributed internationally, with some updates and some cabinets remaining reserved for the Japanese market.

Since GP VR, no new Mario Kart cabinet has been released : it is to this day the last link in the chain, and the only cabinet in the series to require a headset.

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Mario, VR and what comes next

Nintendo carries a long history with virtual reality. The Virtual Boy, released in 1995, remains its most famous hardware failure, and that memory goes a long way towards explaining its caution on the subject.

Two years after GP VR, in April 2019, came the Nintendo Labo VR Kit, built on exactly the opposite principle: cardboard and the Switch screen, as against a high-end PC headset. It is what makes Super Mario Odyssey VR possible, with its three exclusive mini-levels in stereoscopic vision, the other solution our guide describes as official.

• Official : GP VR in arcades, Super Mario Odyssey VR on Switch with the Nintendo Labo VR Kit.
• Alternative : EmuVR and Dolphin VR, outside any framework approved by the publisher.
• Community-made : SM64VR, driven by players.

The other attempts to take Mario off the screen rely on different technologies. At Super Nintendo World, Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge — Koopa's Challenge in Japan — is a ride in augmented reality inspired by Mario Kart 8, with an AR headset and a final showdown against Bowser. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, released in 2020, takes a third route with a real miniature kart fitted with a camera.

Our guide sums up the limits of the genre where Mario is concerned: a limited official catalogue, titles poorly suited to it, eye strain on long sessions. As for what comes next, the answer comes down to two words, nothing official, even if VR patents are multiplying at Nintendo.

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Mario Kart Arcade GP VR in brief

Type	Virtual reality racing attraction
Developer	Bandai Namco, under licence from Nintendo
Launched	2017
First location	VR Zone Shinjuku, Tokyo (July 2017)
Hardware	HTC Vive headset and cockpit
Format	A single lap, a few minutes per session
Players	Four, one per cockpit
Characters	Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi

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FAQ

• Can you play Mario Kart Arcade GP VR at home?
  No. The title has no console version, no PC version and no download release: it is an attraction installed in arcades, requiring an HTC Vive headset and a cockpit. It remains exclusive to arcades.
• Which characters can you play as?
  Four: Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi. The roster is modelled on the number of cockpits, one per player, where the console entries field dozens of drivers.
• How do you throw items without a button?
  The player wears sensors on their hands, which are displayed inside the headset. They catch the shell in mid-air and then throw it with a sweep of the arm: it is the only Mario Kart where the item is handled by hand.
• How long does a session last?
  A few minutes, kitting up and briefing included. The race itself lasts a single lap, on a track that strings together a variety of settings: the format is that of an attraction, not of a long play session.
• Does the attraction still exist?
  VR Zone Shinjuku, its original venue, closed at the end of March 2019, but the attraction outlived it: it was redeployed to other Bandai Namco arcades, in Japan and abroad.

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