New Zealand has created a virtual tour of exciting locations in a video game walkthrough format. While border measures are still in place due to COVID-19, the PlayNZ campaign allows anyone to take a tour of New Zealand like an adventure video game.
New Zealand Tourism partnered with popular Australian streamer Loserfruit to create "the world's first gameplay walkthrough of a real country." A ten-minute video shows clips of the PlayNZ tours including a character select screen, different realms to visit, and various loading screens that have words in Maori, the native language of the indigenous population in New Zealand. The tours show off amazing New Zealand adventures like biking through the Huckleberry Hound trail, Kaituna river rafting and even soaring above the New Zealand landscape like a hawk.
Unfortunately, PlayNZ is not a fully interactive game but offers 180 and 360-degree videos that feel like a gaming experience. There are 18 quests to choose from including skydiving, rock climbing, and even a tour of Weta Workshop, a cave converted into a museum for Lord of the Rings memorabilia.
Overall, the PlayNZ campaign is a genius way to offer tours of New Zealand locations, and the video game walkthrough format makes it even more entertaining. Video game fans will find many references to gaming culture and the combination of video-game interfaces and real-world video makes for a unique experience. The partnership between New Zealand Tourism and Loserfruit has created amazing digital tours that may pave the way for fully interactive tour video games in the future.