Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Astrobot and Lucky's Tale -- two peas in a VR pod

It's hard to think of something made in 2016 as being the OG VR Platformer, but really the Oculus Rift has only been around since 2016 and that's really when commercially viable VR headsets started to become available. (Shhh Nintendo Virtual Boy fanboys . . . just lemme call Lucky's Tale an OG VR Platformer, ok?)

A couple years ago when we all went into lockdown for Quarantine, I discovered a love for Astrobot on the PSVR. I was legitimately kinda losing my mind in lockdown, and Astrobot was the perfect escape. It felt like on some of those levels, I could just lean back and enjoy the digital world around me, and you can't escape the similarities between Lucky's Tale and Astrobot when you play them.

In Lucky's Tale and in Astrobot, you, as the camera, float along behind the hero of the story on a track. This is completely different than say how platforming is handled in the game, Moss, where you are viewing the level from a darkened side view. Lucky's Tale and Astrobot both have a really charming and cute hero that gushes with personality, and of course, they're both VR Platformers.

I need to find a better way of recording gameplay from Oculus, but for now, here's a little "silent" movie of some Lucky's Tale Gameplay. (btw, I should make a side blog post about how awful VR gameplay footage is to show around . . . it doesn't capture the essence at all and always ends up super jittery or super zoomed in . . . ugh)

A friend of mine was talking about the ingenious use of VR's ambionic sound in Astrobot. For the layman, that means when a hidden robot is sitting in a location saying "help me," you get a sense of direction to where they are hidden in the level. I wish there was more of that in Lucky's Tale. It's just done better in Astrobot.

The obvious difference is that Astrobot uses the playstation controller, and the input for Lucky's Tale is done through your two hand controllers. I do think that both are successful in using the controls in clever ways, however.  In Astrobot you can fire ninja stars and grappling hooks with the touchpad. In Lucky's Tale, you throw bombs and use headset view positioning to target.

Another obvious difference is that Lucky's Tale is much shorter than Astrobot, but also came at a lower price point. 

End credits "playroom" in Lucky's Tale

Both characters from Astrobot and Lucky's Tale were charming enough that they both got a sequel game. Astrobot introduces everyone to the PS5 in Astro's Playroom and I wouldn't doubt that there will be an Astrobot 2.  Lucky's Tale has the Super Lucky's Tale and the New Super Lucky's Tale on the Switch. Interestingly enough, neither of these follow on titles are in VR.

KAYUTE!

Ultimately I liked both games enough that I kind of want to try both Astro's Playroom and the New Super Lucky's Tale. 

The next VR platformer game I need to take a look at is Carly and the Reaperman. I'm loving this genre of VR game enough that I feel comfortable in exploring around here . . . perhaps enough time has passed that I can even give Moss another shot?

Happy Dueling!

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