Screams of terror pierced the air as I made my way up the steps to what used to be the terrifying Project X roller coaster. Legoland Malaysia, together with Merlin Magic Making, had given it a tech makeover: It’s now the ostensibly less intimidating Great Lego Race. Still, I was nervous.
The Great Lego Race marries virtual reality and good old roller coaster thrills, with a dash of Lego fun sprinkled on top. Riders zoom into a world made entirely of Lego bricks, where they careen aboard a Lego car and race Lego characters. The Malaysian theme park will be the first to launch the experience, followed by its resorts in Florida and Germany next year.
VR roller coasters are not new. Alton Towers, a theme park in England, last March opened the world’s first such attraction, called the Galactica. But previous rides have been targeted at an older crowd and roller coaster enthusiasts. The Great Lego Race, on the other hand, is aimed kids — perhaps Lego’s biggest fans.
And off we go! Make sure your headset’s securely fastened so it doesn’t slide down your face during the rough ride ahead.
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Before hopping on the ride, staff at the Great Lego Race will hand you a Samsung Galaxy S8-powered Gear VR headset (decorated with Lego eyes!) with headphones attached. It doesn’t matter where you sit in the coaster because you’ll find yourself in the driver’s seat of your very own Lego car. Make sure the headset’s securely fastened so it doesn’t slide down your cheeks like mine did after the ride’s first drop.
Once done, I found myself in my Lego car parked in a garage, cut off from the real world. As the roller coaster began moving, the garage doors opened and my virtual Lego car began driving itself onto a racetrack. There’s no steering: You’re just along for the ride.
Spectators on the grandstand cheered as I entered. As I looked around, I found myself joined by fellow Lego racers: Trendsetter, Pharaoh, Surfer Girl, Wizard and Pirate Captain. I’ve never been a fan of roller coasters, but this time I could feel excitement creeping in as our cars began speeding away.
Dodge falling trees and race atop rapids in a world made entirely out of Lego bricks.
Legoland MalaysiaWhen the real-world roller coaster action kicked in, the virtual world reacted accordingly. Swerves and turns along the course are translated into your driver’s attempts to avoid crashing into falling objects or rogue Lego racers, and the ups and downs are turned into bumpy roads or rapids in VR. Needless to say, sudden drops are most exhilarating — I could only watch as my Lego car tumbled down a slope 18 meters high or off a broken track.
It’s lots of fun, and the fruit of hard labor. The creators went on countless rides over two and a half years to identify every twist, turn and drop along the course, which are then added to the storyline that makes up the VR experience and recorded on every headset, according to Thomas Wagner, CEO of VR Coaster, one of the companies involved in the Great Lego Race project.
Tracking hardware on the coaster transmits the rider’s position along the track via Bluetooth to the headset, ensuring that what you see in VR is in sync with what you’re experiencing in the real world.
As your coaster drops, you see your car racing down an 18-meter-high slope.
Zoey Chong/CNETAs with all new tech, glitches can happen. During the ride, the wrong experience was playing on our headsets in my coaster so we had to get off and wait to board the next car. In another coaster, riders said the Lego car they saw themselves sitting in wouldn’t move out of the garage, so they didn’t know where and when to expect the turns and drops, essentially riding blind.
It turned out the problems we had were with the tracking hardware on the coaster, according to the staff, although issues can also happen with the headset. But if you do end up on a coaster with faulty equipment, Legoland Malaysia says you’ll be allowed to go on the next ride without having to queue all over again.
The ride officially launches on Nov. 22. Hopefully these kinks get ironed out so others can feel as much joy as I did. By the end of the race, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.
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