Top 5 Oculus Releases – April 28th-May 4th – Go, Go Go!

May 5, 2018Best Oculus Gamesbest Oculus games, Gear VR games, Oculus Go games, Oculus Rift gamesinfinitywaltz

With the launch of the new Oculus Go stand-alone mobile VR system, our top Oculus releases are extra focused on mobile this week. But fear not, Oculus Rift users: all but one of them are cross-platform, so you won’t be missing out on the fun.

Starbear: Taxi

from Funktronic Labs

Starbear: Taxi is – perhaps obviously, given its title – a game about a bear driving a space taxi. Funktronic Labs follows up their award-winning strategy game Cosmic Trip with a light arcade game featuring a natural physics-based RC flight system that’s easy enough for a child to pick up but engaging enough to keep even jaded, long-time VR players entertained.

It’s also beyond charming, with a futuristic cartoon aesthetic that draws heavily on that wonderful opening credits scene from The Jetsons, with added chubby bears and raccoons.

It’s also cross-platform compatible, so owners of the Rift, Gear VR and the newly released Oculus Go can all experience the addictive joy of bear-piloted RC flight.

Oculus Rift | 300 MB | $7.99 from Oculus or from Steam
Oculus Go | 92 MB | $4.99 from Oculus
Gear VR | 92 MB | $4.99 from Oculus

Dead Secret Circle

from Robot Invader

The sequel to 2016’s acclaimed and atmospheric Dead Secret has everything a fan of classic horror games could want: a mystery to solve, a gritty and well-realized film noir setting – in this case, early ‘70s Chicago – and of course a serial killer wielding a straight razor.

Dead Secret Circle also features a soundtrack scored by Ben Prunty (of FTL and Into the Breach fame), multiple endings, and again, cross-platform compatibility that even extends to conventional Windows and PC platforms for the poor souls still playing games in only two dimensions.

Oculus Rift | 4.1 GB | $14.99 from Oculus or from Steam
Oculus Go | 93 MB | $14.99 from Oculus
Gear VR | 93 MB | $14.99 from Oculus

I Am a Man

from Derek Ham

Like last week’s DeathTolls Experience, this isn’t so much “game” in the traditional sense as interactive educational experience. Where that release combined journalism with VR art, I Am a Man sees VR designer and NC State College of Design professor Derek Ham using the medium to explore the civil rights struggle.

Using video and voice recordings of participants from the era surrounding the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ham brings recent history to the present in a new and visceral way that makes comparisons to King’s struggle and current American civil rights and equality issues hard to ignore.

Oculus Rift | 3 GB | FREE from Oculus

Virtual Ninja VR

from MAMMOSSIX Co., Ltd.

Sword and rhythm game crossover Beat Saber is getting loads of hype this week, but that’s still in Early Access, and mobile VR players need sword-swinging action, too! Enter Virtual Ninja VR, a gloriously simple Samurai-slashing, boss-battling, katana-flinging arcade game.

Easy enough to pick up, this game is surprisingly addictive in spite of – or perhaps because of – the simplicity of its concept, and with both attack and defense options, range and melee attacks, and the added bonus of slicing airborne watermelons like some Shogun-era Gallagher, it has a lot more going for it than the typical Gear VR (or Oculus Go) wave shooter.

Oculus Go | 178 MB | $4.99 from Oculus
Gear VR | 178 MB | $4.99 from Oculus

Back to the Moon (Google Spotlight)

from Google

Back to the Moon - screenshot courtesy Steam — Back to the Moon – screenshot courtesy Steam

Google made history this week with its first Google Doodle designed for VR. A short interactive story celebrating French stage magician and film director George Melies, Back to the Moon is a lovely little piece of animation that’s now available as a stand-alone download from Steam for Rift users.

Gear VR and Oculus Go users can also watch it through Google’s Spotlight Stories app.

Oculus Rift | 2 GB | FREE from Steam
Oculus Go and Oculus Rift | FREE via Google Spotlight Stories

Top 5 Oculus Releases – April 21st-27th – Short and Sweet

April 28, 2018Best Oculus Games, Oculus Gamesbest Oculus games, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift gamesinfinitywaltz

Some weeks, our top releases are all about big budget, epic “save the world” experiences, but this time around we encourage you to explore things on a smaller scale with some shorter but still engaging and artistic new Oculus Rift releases:

Rolling Line

from Gaugepunk Games

As far as hobbies go, model trains have a fairly high barrier to entry. They take money, a lot of time, and a lot of space.

By moving the action into VR, Rolling Line eliminates most of those barriers, offering players the chance to rearrange bushes, hills, stations and tracks to their hearts’ content, not to mention controlling the locomotives themselves.

Oculus Rift | 400 MB | $13.99 from Steam

BurningBridges VR

from Amstad Digital

The first VR release from Swiss technology/art start-up Amstad Digital, this experimental game combines “get-to-the-top” platforming action with a surreal storyline that explores issues of identity.

Honestly, though, even with no narrative component at all, we’d still be playing BurningBridges VR just for the chance to explore its gorgeous cyberpunk-influenced environments.

Oculus Rift | 10 GB | $4.99 from Steam

M.I.A. – Overture

from IBLACKHOLES

A fairly brief but engaging experience, M.I.A. – Overture uses a lot of familiar tropes and mechanics – treasure hunters, mysterious islands, solving puzzles to bring ancient artifacts back to life – in way that still manages to be fresh.

The vine-climbing sequence in particular is well-done, as is the visual juxtaposition of ancient stone ruins with low-poly natural landscape features.

Oculus Rift | 2 GB | $14.99 from Steam

DeathTolls Experience

from Ari Eslami

An incredible – but also incredibly bleak – offering, DeathTolls Experience is VR artist Ari Eslami’s meditation on mass death in general and the war in Syria in particular.

We wouldn’t call this “enjoyable,” but its use of the medium makes an incredible impact in a way that words and numbers can’t, and we applaud Eslami’s combination of art, journalism and new media.

Oculus Rift | 4 GB | $3.99 from Steam

Save Snegurochka!

from TIPA Games Berlin

It’s a bit odd to release a winter-themed game right at the start of summer, but with its heart-rousing tale of a snowman rescuing a dog, Save Snegurochka! is a charming little surprise that’s appropriate for the entire family (not to mention a nice emotional antidote to the seemingly endless parade of body bags in our previous pick).

Oculus Rift | 2 GB | $8.99 from Steam

Top 5 Oculus Releases – April 14th-20th – Meditate or Get Mental

April 20, 2018Best Oculus Gamesbest Oculus games, Gear VR games, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift games, oculus rift newsinfinitywaltz

This week’s top Oculus releases focus more on mind than reflexes, literally and figuratively. Twist your brain in the VR sequel to one of the greatest comedic adventures of all time, set your brain to work as a virtual city planner, or just relax with some paper airplanes:

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin

from Double Fine Productions and React Games

The beloved team of youthful psychics is back with an all-new adventure, initially released as a PSVR exclusive and now available for the Rift. Exclusive to VR and serving as a bridge between the original classic and its forthcoming sequel, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin picks up right where the first Psychonauts game left off.

Featuring some interesting control choices – like using your head to pick up and manipulate objects instead of your hands, in a simulation of telekinesis – this abounds with tricky puzzles that will push both your logic and your psychic abilities to their limits.

More importantly, it’s got the signature writing and twisted humor we’ve come to expect from Double Fine Productions in general and this series in particular.

Oculus Rift | 8 GB | $19.99 from Oculus or from Steam

Block’hood VR

from Plethora-Project and General Arcade

Another expansion of an existing – and award-winning – game concept into virtual space, Block’hood VR puts a 3D spin on the original game’s ecologically-focused, voxel-based approach to the city-building sim.

Players will still build neighborhoods using a block-based system that requires careful thought not only of each section’s own qualities but those of surrounding blocks, and the use of VR space gives each choice and combination even more impact.

Oculus Rift | 2 GB | $14.99 from Oculus or from Steam

Paper Valley

from Vitei Backroom

If psychic puzzles and ecological urban planning is making your head hurt, why not relax by tossing some paper airplanes in an idyllic wooded vale? Paper Valley is a meditative experience that still offers puzzles as tossed paper airplanes help to reveal a lost civilization – a bit like Myst gone papercraft.

Its combination of simple mechanics and tranquil environments netted developers Vitei Backroom a Famitsu Media Highlight Award at last year’s BitSummit in Japan.

Oculus Rift | 657 MB | $19.99 from Oculus

Fibre

from konzeptzwei

Not all this week’s releases are slow-paced – Fibre is far from it, in fact – but this combination of rail shooter and endless runner for Gear VR is incredibly meditative once you get into the rhythm of it. Stark, abstract graphics inspired by data packets on a network also make this a far different experience than the robot and zombie games more typical of the genre.

Gear VR | 130 MB | $2.99 from Oculus

3D Mahjong Worlds

from PixelBrain Studio

A favorite casual game genre – the venerable Mahjong solitaire tile game – makes its way to the Oculus. UK developer PixelBrain Studio previously released a similar game for mobile VR, and the experience served them well. This is a simple idea executed extremely well, bringing the relaxing puzzle-solving and hypnotic tile-clicks into a more immersive space.