Fire, is indeed, in the hole…

I don’t think I’ve used trigonometry once since leaving school. Plenty of tangents, sure but I haven’t picked up a single protractor or compass in the intervening decades, and SIN and COS might as well have been pandemic variants for all the good they’ve done me.

Videogames on the other hand, have taught me a lot. From Mario Kart for example, I’ve learned to never be complacent, even if you think you’re winning the race, there’s always the possibility that somewhere out there, there is a blue shell with your name on it, so stay frosty, with one eye on the rearview. That and drifting.

Call of Duty has taught me the art of strategy, to come prepared to office place meetings, scout out foxholes, and be frugal with whatever might constitute precious ammunition. And never bring a metaphorical knife to a metaphorical gun fight.

Player two has entered the game

These life skills will have a very practical application in Jebel Ali’s Festival Plaza soon. The mall, which also features the Laberynthal home decor destination, Ikea and a very bougie-looking Lulu, has hoardings up teasing that a version of Battle Park, and Drift Karting will be “coming soon”.

Oscar Mike

We don’t have a whole lot of information about either project at the moment – but we know that the former is a multi-arena themed experience called ‘Mindtrix Code 55’, (By Battle Park) which will involve iBattles and Paintballing.

There has already been a Battle Park location in Abu Dhabi’s Marina Mall and it was a solid bullseye for the Fortnite and PUBG generation. Offering a thrilling live and interactive FPS experience. The venue’s iBattle ‘map’ was created to simulate an abandoned prison environment, where teams had to find cover (it’s not camping if you don’t get caught) between the bars and beds of this Abu Dhabian Alcatraz.

The ‘Prison Break’ team deathmatch adventure has been described as ‘the closest you can get to a real-world version of online gaming’ — and features realistic sound effects (and screams if we’re your point man), real time feedback on scoring and intelligent battle stats.

War spawn

Presumably Festival Plaza’s Mindtrix Code 55 will offer it’s own independent theme, with challenging game modes and objectives. We’re guessing from the name, some form of infiltration-based back story. A cheeky little round of Search and Destroy perhaps? But these plot facts are currently, like the opening date, classified.

As is the pricing structure, but if it’s similar to Abu Dhabi, you’ll find package prices starting at around Dhs75 for one 20 minute game.

Shells incoming

And then there is the karting, with – drift in the title, you’d expect that particular driving technique to play a pretty substantial role in the experience, but we just don’t know.

It does however mean that, along with Mario Kart IRL attraction, Chaos Karts – Dubai’s entertainscape is about to get a big nitrous boost of track top, racing fun dumped into its tank.

Images: Instagram