Mazda Nagare Island is Mazda Motor Europe’s virtual showcase for their Hakaze show car. Since the Hakaze isn’t something you can actually buy in real life, the island is more of an image builder for Mazda. While they haven’t gone to any great lengths to build a gathering place or community, there are some nice diversions.
The main atraction is the Hakaze car. If it looks odd it’s because, well, it’s a show car. That said, the model is very well executed and looks remarkably like the real thing, complete with rippled metal and ginormous windshield. While the car is a freebie, you have to drive it around the island-encompassing track and make a successful jump in order to make it yours. You can have the car in any color you like, as long as it’s yellow. There are no gears to shift, yet the car is surprisingly easy to control for a Second Life vehicle.
Hakaze kites and boards
Take a walk to the docks and you can pick up a free board and kite, which you can then kite-surf through a well-marked water course. It’s harder than it looks, especially the jumps. Why kite-surfing? Because the Hakaze concept is supposed to represent the emotional embodiment of wind-surfing, that’s why. Although after failing at the jumps a few too many times, for me the emotional embodiment of wind-surfing is frustration.
The island is named for an earlier concept car, the Nagare. If Mazda is periodically updating the island to include different concept cars, I’m looking forward to seeing what they drop into Second Life next.
April 20, 2008 at 3:45 am
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