I had the chance to experience the “VRoller Coaster” at Virtual Reality Adventures in Las Vegas and came away extremely impressed. Virtual Reality Adventures is located in the LINQ Promenade near the High Roller Ferris Wheel on the Las Vegas Strip. They offer several VR experiences with one simply called “Roller Coaster” that looks unassuming enough, but really packs a punch. During this experience you experience 3 coasters with first what I believe is Goliath at Walibi Holland, second being Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios in Florida and finally the Big Apple Coaster located at the New York New York Resort in Las Vegas.

During the experience you wear the classic VR headset that allows you to turn your head 360 degrees to view anywhere you want. Additionally the seats below you move and vibrate to create the illusion of motion. Put together, these create a compelling simulation of the hills, twists, turns and loops of a roller coaster. I especially found the Big Apple Coaster simulation to be spot on as it had all the intricacies of the ride down including its infamous slight roughness. It was also surprising that the inverting sensation was still there even with the limited movement of the seat and your mind telling you that you were obviously not going upside down. I even walked away with the slight nausea I sometimes get from riding a lot of coasters in quick succession which let me know this experience was spot on.

VR Studios offers the roller coaster experience for $25, but you can usually find a Groupon for about $10 cheaper. I found the staff to be super nice and on a Tuesday night I had essentially zero wait. It is kind of funny and ironic too that they offer a VR version of an actual coaster that you can ride just a mile down the road for about the same price! It’s also wild that the Big Apple coaster was part of a former VR trend several years ago of actually putting VR headsets on roller coaster riders to mix the real movements of the coaster with alternate visuals.

One of the best uses I could see of this technology would be for defunct coasters. There have been many rumors of the future demise of Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios Florida. However, perhaps it could be possible to experience it forever in VR? It may also make it possible for people to experience coasters in places they are unlikely to travel (like Walibi Holland). Finally, VR headsets are becoming more common at home and it’s already possible to find versions for these on YouTube including the Big Apple Coaster. It’s like watching your favorite POV, but with total freedom of where you look rather than a camera angle forced on you. It’s probably only a matter of time before an at home motion simulation chair becomes more common along with other effects like wind.

I had a great experience at VR Adventures in Las Vegas. I don’t think I’ll be adding Goliath at Walibi to my official credit count, but it was nice to get a preview of a ride I’ll hopefully experience someday. VR will probably never completely replace the speed, height and thrill of actually riding a coaster just like watching a sports game on TV is a similar, but different experience to watching it live. However, it’s a potential great way to experience defunct or far away coasters and essentially create an archive of these great rides.