Star Wars: Battle Pod Unveiled, Arcade Shooting Strikes Back

Bandai Namco has unveiled a new Star Wars- themed arcade machine. Let's just say that your senses can't repel gameplay immersion of that magnitude.

Polygon reports that Bandai Namco unveiled Star Wars: Battle Pod on the eve of New York Comic-Con 2014, and it intends to revolutionize arcade gameplay. Forget Star Wars Trilogy Arcade and Star Wars Racer Arcade (that bland podracing game from 'The Phantom Menace'), Battle Pod is going to exponentially raise the standards of the arcade combat as you shoot-it-out across Yavin, Hoth, Endor, the Death Star and many other famous locales from the sacred trilogy.

Star Wars: Battle Pod is a vehicle combat simulator that uses a curved, half-dome screen to launch a single-seated player directly into the Star Wars universe. There's a flight stick and a throttle to perfectly replicate your experiences in the game. The domed screen offers a crisp, 180-degree display to provide Battle Pod's excellent use of the Unreal Engine 3. The flight seat has low-frequency vibrations, special fans around the seat simulate speed and wind, the flight stick authentically jerks around and you have 5.1 surround sound all around you as all of this is going on.

As you can tell in Kotaku's hands-on video with Battle Pod (provided above), you get to play through all our favorite dogfights from Episodes IV-VI. While X-Wings, Snowspeeders, Speeder Bikes and the Millennium Falcon are all pretty much expected to be played during a game like this, Bandai Namco has also included a "Vader's Revenge" stage, where you actually play as the Sith Lord in his Advanced TIE Fighter.

Star Wars: Battle Pod will be hitting arcades starting in January. It's a safe bet that most Dave & Busters locations in North America will be getting this impressive machine. Those in the New York area should be happy to know that Battle Pod will be playable at the Midtown Dave & Busters starting from today until Nov. 2. An inside source at Dave & Busters suggested that the game will likely charge a "couple of bucks" per play. It looks like Star Wars' futuristic combat isn't as far, far away as we thought.

You're going to need to play this as you soar through space.