This past week I died twice, cause of death you ask? Zombies. My rifle could not reload quick enough and they devoured my feet and up until I passed into the afterlife...and 10 seconds later I was rebooted. FlipSwitch Virtual Reality in the Crossroads Art District is the new future. I have never in my life experienced a more realistic gaming adventure.
The gaming room is around 1,200 square feet of playing area and allows up to three players per game cooperatively. After getting suited up and a quick tutorial of buttons and switches, you are fully immersed into the game and ready to battle for your virtual life. We choose to play Arizona Sunshine: The Zombie Apocalypse but also could have picked Skeleton Crew, a fantasy realm of sailing a ship and battling off the enemy.
Once suited, you are able to see your partners in the virtual world and your own weapon in front of you. The room you once existed in has disappeared and the virtual world has now become your reality. As the game proceeded, you not only have zombies to fight off but small missions and new pathways to discover and travel upon to make it to the end of the game safely. I found myself running around the ware house and screaming multiple times trying to stay alive! In the end, we were successful and completed the mission, that feeling of success was unlike any other game I have ever conquered.
The KC native founders father and son, Jim Mahoney and Jamie Mahoney have truly created a little masterpiece here in the heart of Kansas City. They both have always had a passion for VR technology and have seen others do well in all parts of the world. They saw an opening in the KC market for virtual reality and decided to go for it. They finally settled to take the VR outside of their home and spring for their own joint. They began searching for the perfect space and started to develop the game which took around eight months.
Jamie focused on finding the space and hiring and training the employees while Jim was the technology wiz and fine toothed all the minor details to perfect the game. They hope to switch up some new games every 4-6 months but want to make sure they are diverse and a new experience for the players. They also have plans to expand to Player versus Player in the future. If all goes well, new locations will also be spreading towards the end of the year. This experience is unlike anything I have ever come across and truly recommend you dive into it. It may not be for the faint hearted, but hey it’s just virtual right? Can’t be too scary…
Until next Week,
Kimmy