If you are getting your HTC Vive soon, you’re gonna need some games.
We’ve had a Vive (and some Vive Pre units) for a while now, and we’ve spent some time with several dozen games for HTC and Steam’s virtual reality head-mounted display. The device is all about room-scale VR, which enables you to walk around a space that is at least 6.5-feet-by-5-feet. This means you can walk across a simulated space as if you were really present. But you can still play a few of these (and dozens more) with just room to sit or stand.
Let’s get you hooked up:
#SelfieTennis
Steam link: #SelfieTennis
Price: $20
I just played with myself in @VRUnicorns #SelfieTennis. You can play with yourself too https://t.co/b81eByqTkh pic.twitter.com/GqUgjFkNnh
— Grubb (@JeffGrubb) March 30, 2016
You can’t have a new motion-controlled gaming system without tennis. Thankfully, developer VRUnicorns stepped up to provide us with something a bit more than that.
#SelfieTennis is a game where you play with yourself. You whack a ball over the net, and then the game zaps you to the other side to return that service. This core action is fun, and I had fun playing for hours.
On top of that, #SelfieTennis also has a bunch of weirdo tennis-ball creatures for you to murder and a selfie stick that enables you to make GIFs of yourself from within the game. It’s dumb, and I love it.
Fantastic Contraption
Steam link: Fantastic Contraption
Price: N/A
Fantastic Contraption gives you a pink ball, and you have to get it to the pink goal. You can only do that by building a complex machine capable of carrying the ball to that endpoint.
This is one of the best VR games for builders. You’re going to see a lot of amazing ways to build toys, structures, and entire cities in VR, but Fantastic Contraption is the best version of this so far. It’s awesome to see your creations come to life and work exactly as you want them to.
Job Simulator
Steam link: Job Simulator
Price: N/A
Job Simulator is a game where you are a human in 2050 learning what it was like to do a job back in the “old days.”
This was one of the first VR games I ever played, and it still stands out to me. There’s something about living and walking around a cartoon world. You would think that would take a lot of getting used to, but I found that I accepted it as real almost the second I started using my big, dumb Mickey Mouse hands to pick up objects.
Developer Owlchemy has worked on Job Simulator for a long time now, and that has allowed it to include a lot of great gags and hidden secrets.
Space Pirate Trainer
Steam link: Space Pirate Trainer
Price: N/A
Here's @mgrubb11_mike, Space Pirate. pic.twitter.com/HQbD9yeTzP
— Grubb (@JeffGrubb) March 29, 2016
One of the best things about VR is that almost anyone can instantly play just about any of the games. You don’t need to figure out how to use a controller with its 15 buttons and dual analog sticks. Instead, in a game like Space Pirate Trainer, you just pick up your laser pistols and pull the triggers.
Space Pirate is essentially just a horde mode where waves of training robots attack you. It’s your job to use one of four kinds of pistols and your shields (which you can pull from your back) to survive as long as possible. It’s a great score-chasing game, and you’ll want to pass the headset around and play with your friends.
Audioshield
Steam link: Audioshield
Price: N/A
Audioshield is VR’s killer app. It’s instantly understandable and impossible to put down. This is a music-rhythm game from the creator of AudioSurf. You play it by blocking bubbles with the correct-color shield as they come flying at you to the beat of the music. That’s it. But it is mind-blowing to stand in a Tron-like world as a song comes to life to attack you, and it’s even better to throw your whole body into the action of fighting off that assault.
I remember feeling this way about Dance Dance Revolution, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay to a game. I adore DDR, but Audioshield is potentially even better because many more people can instantly start playing. Using your feet as a controller takes a lot of practice. Holding up your hands with hyperaccurate motion controllers to the beat of an awesome song (streaming from your computer or Soundcloud) is equivalent to the first time you threw a bowling ball in Wii Sports.
On Friday night, my wife spent two hours in Audioshield. I couldn’t pull her out of it. I think you’ll probably have a similar experience.