Steel Beam Crossing Of Despair: Kaiji Has His Own VR Game?!

Hope You Aren’t Afraid Of Heights

Where did this come from? Any fans familiar with the anime and its titular character are well aware that over the course of the series our protagonist goes from one hellish predicament to the other. Every gamble carries with it the chance of our main man Kaiji falling into deeper debt, with some carrying the threat of bodily harm or even death. You couldn’t ask for a tenser animated viewing experience, but it’s hard to say how well it would translate into video game form.

Apparently the developers of this particular project tried to channel that tension by combining one of Kaiji’s greatest challengers with VR. The result? Instant vertigo.

The VR experience, going by the name Steel Beam Crossing of Despair, was actually released sometime last year in Japan, though it is now back on peoples’ radar due it being ported over to the Switch.

According to an article on Anime News Network –

Solid Sphere began streaming a trailer for the Nintendo Switch version of its Kaiji VR ~Zetsubō no Tekkotsu Watari~ (Kaiji VR ~Steel Beam Crossing of Despair~) game on December 25. The Switch version launched on December 28.

The game launched for the PlayStation 4 for use with the PlayStation VR last August.

The game is based on Nobuyuki Fukumoto‘s Kaiji manga and is based on part of the manga’s “Despair Castle” arc where contestants attempt to cross four steel beams across skyscrapers, with the beams getting narrower the farther contestants go along. In the story, contestants are encouraged to push each other in an effort to be first. The VR game will also feature famous scenes from the manga.

In the Kodansha Manga Award-winning story of the original 1996-1999 Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji series, a consummate gambler named Kaiji bets on games ranging from janken (rock-paper-scissors) and human racing to falling pachinko balls and two-player mahjong.

Kaiji already has a fierce following, so we’re sure many fans in the west would be more than happy to test their mettle by partaking in his greatest trials. That being said, looking down into an endless abyss while we tiptoe across a steel beam? We’ll have to pass.

Be sure to check out the trailer for Kaiji VR ~Zetsubō no Tekkotsu Watari~ below as well as see where Kaiji himself ranked on our list of the Top 10 Anime Series to Binge Watch.