YouTuber's VR Game Preserves Closed Disney World Ride | Game Rant
Defunctland, a YouTube channel dedicated to exploring shuttered theme-park attractions, has replicated a classic Walt Disney World attraction in VR. The results are impressive, and will likely be nostalgic for viewers of a certain age.
While Disney is far from the only company to operate theme parks, it may be the most iconic. Many millions have fond memories of classic rides like Space Mountain that remain open to this day. Even those who haven't been to Disney parks may recognize classic rides from Kingdom Hearts 3, where Sora utilizes them as a weapon through the Attraction Flow system. Still, even though some mainstay attractions endure, many others are closed, replaced, or re-opened with major cosmetic changes. When the originals close, there's no way to experience them again, as home videos don't match the immersion of being on the ride.
The VR experience is introduced by Kevin Perjurer, creator and showrunner of the Defunctland channel, and replicates 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage, a classic Disney World attraction shuttered in the 1990s. The ride draws key aspects from the Disney film of the same name, which was itself inspired by Jules Vernes' classic novel. Along the journey, riders reach the North Pole, the remnants of Atlantis, a race of mermaids, and more. There is no interactivity included in the ride or its VR recreation, but save for the most hardcore video game submarine fans, the immersion of being on a classic ride should be more than enough to be enjoyable.
While the experience is particularly exciting for anyone with a VR system like an Oculus Quest 2 headset, this is only just the beginning. The experience begins and ends with a brief tease of a full-scale virtual park beyond the submarine ride. Although the only attraction available for virtual tours is currently 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the full-scale park will eventually include all manner of VR recreations. Perjurer includes a hint about the identity of the next ride to appear in VR: the infamous Superstar Limo, which Perjurer has called the worst ride Disney ever created.
This isn't the first Disney attraction to be replicated in virtual form. For example, the outdoors areas of Disneyland Park were digitally rebuilt officially through the game Disneyland Adventures. Still, it is especially impressive to imagine a fan-made VR theme park with no real-world analogue. Even better, while the VR experience is available for major VR platforms, it can still be viewed on a standard screen, making it accessible to anyone.
It may come as a surprise to many that Disney has experimented extensively with VR attractions of its own, long before the Defunctland channel was ever created. In the late 1990s, Disney introduced DisneyQuest, an indoor theme park based around cutting-edge VR experiences. While the concept was intended to become a massive national chain of parks, the technology was not an effective replacement for actual theme parks, and DisneyQuest failed. While DisneyQuest parks may now be relics of the 1990s alongside films like A Goofy Movie, the amazing virtual realm of Defunctland is just getting started.
Source: Polygon
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January 09, 2021
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