Here’s something a little unexpected – Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania publisher Konami is releasing a new Oculus Quest game this week, but only in Asia and it’s not based on one of those beloved series.
Instead, the publisher is channelling its popular line of music games and launching Beat Arena on March 12th. Despite the name, this is closer to the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games than it is Beat Saber. In the game, you perform in a rock band and have the option to play on guitar, bass, drums or keyboard. Check out the trailer below.
Beat Arena works pretty much how you’d expect – notes stream towards you in time with the music and you’ll have to strike them in the correct position with your respective instrument. The game also lets you build your own avatar and even features a sort of asynchronous multiplayer mode in which you can import friend’s data and play alongside their performances. A Replay Mode also lets you revisit your own performances and control a camera as if you were at a concert. Tracks are taking from Konami’s past music games.
Think it looks good? Well, bad news – it’s only releasing in Japan and other Asian countries for now. Head to the store listing if you’re elsewhere and you’ll get a message saying the game isn’t available in your region. Either way, Konami hasn’t said anything about a potential release elsewhere.
Still, it’s another big gaming publisher getting into VR, even if it’s not exactly what some of us would have had in mind. Hopefully we might see more Konami VR releases come to more territories in the future.
We’ll have other new content to check out on Quest tomorrow, though. We know that Flow Weaver is launching on the platform and will keep an eye out for any other big launches.
