If you've read my VR posts from the past, you'd know that I'm a big fan of Astrobot and Lucky's Tale. Both are fantastic platformers. I couldn't really get into Moss as much (need to give it another go), but in my mind those three games were/are the gold standard for VR Platforming games in the past.
Now we live in the apocalyptic VR world of "post-gorilla tag." I've actually never played Gorilla Tag, but I know all about it. I've watched several YouTube videos. I've watched my son play. I've watched my friend's son play. It's a horrifyingly ugly looking free-to-play game that had epic multiplayer action where the controls and design of the game trumped everything and won the heart of millions and most likely taking its place in the top 10 VR games of all time just from a popularity standpoint.
I should probably play it a couple times. It's a free download after all.
It uses a very simple and genius mechanic. You use your arms to jump and move. That's it. I mean, yeah, there's like six multiplayer games of various types, but really, at the core of the game, bouncing and moving around with your arms is the game, and it's super fun. Because you're using your arms to move, there's less motion sickness. It's genius.
As I understand it, No More Rainbows used to be called Dingleberries and had been in development for a couple of years. (Pretty fun to look at the game in greybox.) I think I heard it was a VR Arcade Brick and Mortar Store exclusive for a while, but I'm having trouble finding a source to back that up (file this one under stuff-you-hear-in-a-game-dev-Team's-chat).
In the end what we have is a really fun evolution of the platformer where you play as THE BEAST and your objective is to destroy the rotund, little egg dudes that are just having a cute, happy time. There are four worlds for you to explore in the campaign mode with a total of 28 levels across them. So far I've only played up to world 2 after a really fun Boss Battle at the end of world 1.
A really good innovation here is that the beast has claws, so not only do you hurl yourself from platform to platform, but you can also grab your claw onto an edge and climb up, you can snatch a berry and chuck it at things (including a basketball hoop), and (of course) slash things to your delight.
To add to the replay-ability, each level has a speed run leaderboard, and this is just further proof that I'm not very good. There is a 3 star objective to each level, and I don't think I've gotten many stars . . . uh . . . it'll come with time! There's also a few casual and competitive tag games ala gorilla tag.
The game itself is a really big shoulder work out as you continually slam your arms downward to get big jumps out of your beast. I was doing a mini-game race around world one this morning and, although I beat it, I think I might need to put my shoulder on ice now. Ouch.
It's interesting to see that this is a paid game with a cash shop inside of it. You don't see that in VR games typically. I don't mind it at all, and I imagine if I was big into the 3v3 scene, I might even purchase an outfit to peacock a bit with my team mates and competitors.
I'll be playing this one to the end and talking more about it.
Of important note: Just a mere two weeks ago, another platformer game that would fall in this new genre launched called Outta Hand. Apparently it was all the rage at the last Gamescom. I'm liking this experience enough so far that I'm pretty sure I'll give that game a shot as well.
Happy Dueling!
3 comments:
There's a game coming out soon that people are comparing to Lucky's Tale and the name of it is..... I can't remember. But if I come across it or it springs into my brain I'll drop you a note. It had the name of the character in the title but my old man brain just can't quite find it in the dark recesses of my mind.
Is it Max Mustard?
Yes! See, you already knew about it anyway...
Thanks for being my off-site brain for me. :)
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