Gaming
Games
6 videogames that should be recreated in real life
As PAX Aus 2024 approaches and the inaugural Aussie version of Gameball Royale beckons, we thought we’d look at a handful of activities from games that could be made into larger-than-life real events
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Red Bull Gameball Royale is a gamified version of dodgeball (or poison ball as it’s more commonly known, or remembered, in the Aussie vernacular). And at this year’s PAX Aus it’ll be played on an interactive floor with two teams made up of content creators and influencers alike. The point(s)? BRAGGING RIGHTS!
With the likes of IAMFALLFROMGRACE, Loserfruit, Lachlan Power and Muselk captaining four respective teams, it’ll be anyone’s game come October 11 in Melbourne.
Already a runaway smash hit in Germany, Red Bull Gameball Royale introduces videogaming elements to the base game that include things such as power ups, extra lives, helpful items and peripherals and much more. So in the spirit of this Wacky Races-esque, err… escapade, we thought we’d look at a handful of videogame-created events, activities and sports with competitive elements to suggest that they too, could one day, be given a real-world treatment in the most OTT (and safe) way. You’ll need to stretch the imagination a bit with these, so bear with us, but we reckon in all they’d be a fun activation to pull off!
The original OTT sport and everyone's dream to come to life!
© Psyonix
Rocket League
Yeah, yeah. This is definitely the most obvious one, and versions of it have been trialled before, but it’s mostly just small cars on a regular soccer pitch very cautiously nudging a giant inflated ball around. There’s almost no theatrics to it, let alone elements of stunt driving. So, in the immortal words of Chef Elzar, we’re gonna kick it up a notch!
Having a similar size course to Rocket League here just wouldn’t work, what with real-world physics and all...
Imagine custom courses made for monster trucks -- the kind that do all of the backflips, front flips, wheelies, endos, torpedoes and more. Having a similar size course to Rocket League here just wouldn’t work, what with real-world physics and all, but a few tweaks to that playspace and some of the rules potentially encouraging contact and engagement based more closely off real-world monster trucks events, this could be an absolute winner. An expensive winner, but a winner nonetheless!
Seatbelts and helmets on, of course (safety first).
This game was really ahead of its time, particularly in its soundtrack
© SEGA
Jet Set Radio
This is an older game that might not be on everyone’s radar, but the concept is really cool and could work in a few different ways (and had a soundtrack for the ages). The first would be to just have skilled throw/put up artists who also happen to skate working a short street course with cans in-hand to complete some sort of piece on a bespoke wall (for the event). Another option would be to have the same course, but with skaters working in tandem with artists who aren’t on wheels, but are calling out for specific can colours as they move along a tricky, maze-built scaffold, equally adding to their own challenge.
Drop a can, and you need to wait till the skater hits the other side and reloads. Bail on a rail or kicker, and the artist has to wait for you to reset.
Hrm, maybe this writer should have copyrighted that idea… ;)
An instant classic that should be played by all - James Caan would be proud
© Roll7 / Private Division
Rollerdrome
What if ... we have bespoke courses but instead of real weapons (obvs), skaters are armed with either laser tag tech, or Nerf gear to replicate the sport?
Another one that might have flown under the radar for some, Rollerdrome from skate specialists, Roll7, is a dystopian combat sport involving what can only be described as unique park and street (skate) locales where competitors take on hordes of enemies and weapon placements using ever-escalating skills and combos to become more powerful to impact the course, clear it, and win overall. Loosely based on the seminal James Caan classic, Rollerball, it was critically-acclaimed upon release and ticked this writer’s noodle…
What if, as above, we have bespoke courses but instead of real weapons (obvs), skaters are armed with either laser tag tech, or Nerf gear to replicate the sport? We’d need to pull away the dystopian stuff (depending on your current-world views), but largely this could actually work. Maybe with fewer mctwists and flat-spins while aiming to avoid injury, but otherwise this could rule.
Alternatively, maybe ditch the skates and just arm parkour experts with the above and foam and pad the playspace up enough to mitigate injury while promoting OTT laser or foam-based combat! (I need to stop giving these ideas away.)
Imagine being wide receiver for that ball. Metal glove would be in order!
© Nacon
Blood Bowl
Threw this one in for some fun. If you’ve never played Blood Bowl, it’s a spin on gridiron in a turn-based tactical sense and is a brutal experience befitting its setting. It’s also among the oldest here, initially starting as a tabletop game as a splinter of the Warhammer universe, but we want to move away from the table and onto a field proper with this hike.
The idea here being this is a tongue-in-cheek spin on LARPing but still plays to the rules of both an old-school tabletop game and a traditional sports game.
What could make this unique as well is that cosplay could come into it. Heavily. (Which would suit a PAX-like environment.) This could mean teams go all out on the theatrics and aesthetics of it all where certain abilities and buffs and archetypes could be tied alongside so it's not all just 'cosmetic'. It would very much be a perfect spectacle for both gridiron fans and fans of TT gaming and the eventual Blood Bowl videogames that followed. And as a turn-based experience, it would be an interesting watch… to say the least.
A short-lived life that deserved more
© DMA Design / Nintendo
Uniracers (or Unirally in Australia)
If you know nothing about Uniracers, at least walk away with this knowledge: it was a game tied to litigation with Pixar because of its apparent visual and tonal reference to a Pixar short titled “Red’s Dream”. The developers lost, unfortunately, because the game was pretty awesome.
How could this work in a modern competitive playspace in the real-world? VR headset and gyro is the answer...
Despite being 2D in presentation, the level design and game design around this was fun and unique at the time and really leant into the unicycle character-type. So how could this work in a modern competitive playspace in the real-world? VR headset and gyro is the answer. Not too dissimilar to many VR drone games, imagine being strapped in, ocularly, to the seat of the unicycle and straddling thin roads, lines, wires, branches and more?! Equal to that would be the need to keep the head still because any left or right head tilts would shift the unicycle and… oh, did we mention PHYSICS?!?! Yeah, they’d play an important part, too.
Make it happen HTC Vive, Meta Quest or anyone else!
"That's sylop sabacc!"
© Ubisoft
Kessel Sabacc
Do note: This post in no ways condones gambling
If you’ve played the recent Star Wars Outlaws, you’ll no doubt be aware of Kessel Sabacc -- a unique spin on cards based *very* loosely on poker, but actually really far removed from that age old game through unique mechanics, a ‘Tariff’ system that can throw anyone’s strat out of the window and the best dang droid table ever created.
And it’s that last point we see this, maybe not so much as a ‘sport’, but an activity tied both to gaming and Star Wars with a lot of scope. Imagine coming to a PAX-like event and seeing a Sabacc table with a functioning Droid doing its thing. No so-called ‘credits’ need to exchange hands, instead participants earn badges or other swag for just having fun. But it would all need to be about that table, which would be no mean feat but there's bound to be some genius Star Wars fan out there capable of making it.
And like the Blood Bowl idea above, this would be a cosplayer’s dream.
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Again, as stated in the opening post this is all to be taken not only with a grain of imaginative salt, but also fantastically. Some of these do have legs but, really, it’s just trying to imagine them outside of gaming that’s the most fun, with you and your friends front and centre and maybe, just maybe, screaming “that’ sylop sebacc!”
Be sure to check out the Red Bull Gameball Royal at PAX Aus either in-person, or streaming here.
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