7 PSVR Games That Are Basically Just Tech Demos

PlayStation VR Worlds

PlayStation VR Worlds isn’t just a single experience. One second you can be in a cage underwater with a very angry shark trying to find its way inside, the next you could be in the passenger seat of a van driving down the streets of London, shooting thugs as you go. While the variety is certainly commendable, the problem is that none of them are really going to keep you hooked for long.

The headline experience – London Heist Getaway – is only a few sections long and one of those has you fiddling with a cigar and listening to some dialogue. It’s only 20 minutes long at best, and none of PlayStation VR Worlds’ other experiences are any longer. That’s not to say that what’s here is bad, I mean some are, like VR Luge, but for the most part these are neat ways to get acquainted with your new tech.

Batman: Arkham VR

Another PSVR game that, while delivering on a really novel idea, doesn’t feel like it got much further than a polished tech demo. Batman: Arkham VR has likely already fulfilled the wish of many a childhood, placing players into the iconic Batsuit. Players are tasked with solving investigations, utilizing a number of classic Bat gadgets to do so. Throwing a Batarang really will never get boring.

The problem is, it doesn’t last long enough to really get going. Within an hour, you’ll have finished the Story mode, and once you’ve done that, there are only some relatively pointless collectibles to get and the prospect of starting it all over again. Arkham VR was one of the most immersive and detailed PSVR games at launch, it’s just a shame that all of that quality came at the cost of quantity.

Harmonix Music VR

Harmonix Music VR doesn’t really try to pretend and be a game. It’s more of an immersive VR experience, designed to help you enjoy your music in a different way to usual. As you may have guessed from the somewhat trippy visuals in the image above, Harmonix Music VR is all about using the 360-degree environment surrounding you to ‘interact’ with your music.

It tries to do this with four different modes, but each one feels more lackluster and limited than the last. The Easel is by far its most interesting mode, allowing players to use Move controllers to draw in a 3D space and then manipulate it with a bunch of tools, all while it bops to the music. The other has you foolin’ around with an adorable dance troupe, while the others are more focused on giving you trippy visuals than any actual gameplay. It’s a unique idea, but one that’s poorly executed and lacks any serious depth to be considered a true, worthwhile experience.

NBA 2KVR Experience

NBA 2KVR Experience immediately tries to distinguish itself as not being a full-fledged NBA 2K title thanks to that ‘Experience’ tagged on the end. That’s for good reason, as what you get here is a handful of kinda fun mini-games, stuck together by All-Star Paul George giving guidance and tips on your performance.

And that’s about everything you’re going to get out of NBA 2KVR. There’s not a whole lot here outside of a handful of basketball mini-games that only the most hardcore of fans will come back to. NBA 2KVR Experience feels like a tech demo not only for its limited content, but because of the potential the series could have within the platform. This is certainly the developer dipping their toes into the water, but here’s hoping its next effort is something with a little more meat on the bones.

Fruit Ninja

Remember when you played Fruit Ninja when you first got that iPhone or iPod Touch? No? Well, you did. Everyone got Fruit Ninja, if only to take in the satisfaction of swiping through a pineapple with your finger just once.

Well, Fruit Ninja on mobile is basically the exact same thing you get in Fruit Ninja VR aside from a Survival Mode that has you facing off against… fruit-firing helicopters, for some reason. Oh, you also have two swords rather than one, but aside from that, you’re playing a mobile game in a 360-degree, 3D environment.

There’s nothing wrong with aforementioned fruit-slicing action, but it almost really just acts as a proof of concept that mobile games can, indeed, work in VR.

Gran Turismo Sport

Gran Turismo Sport isn’t a VR-only game. You can speed around corners in a Nissan GT-R on your TV just as you’ve always been able to. It does have a PSVR mode, though, and while many had hoped it’d have the same extensive number of options and variables as the core experience, it just doesn’t.

First, the PSVR mode isn’t tied to your career progression, so any time you’re spending here won’t amount to any milestones you’ve been working towards elsewhere. You’ll also only be able to race against one AI opponent (probably due to technical limitations), and they’ll offer about as much challenge as a pineapple would… if they could race (it probably escaped from Fruit Ninja VR). Since it launched in October, Gran Turismo Sport’s PSVR mode does now have a Time Trial mode to add a bit of longevity to proceedings, but it’s still far from the Gran Turismo VR Career mode fans are clamoring for.

Carnival Games VR

Carnival Games should be a familiar name for anyone who owned a Wii. The title, despite being pretty damn awful, managed to ship over 7 million units. I know, we’re puzzled, too, but that’s the power of waggle remotes and a massive audience looking for something fun to play with friends and family. Of course, after that kind of success, it only makes sense we’d see essentially the same game ported over to PSVR to capitalize on that new tech audience.

Now, we know what you’re thinking, this one’s probably terrible too. That’s actually not the case. Carnival Games VR is incredibly similar to the non-VR version we saw 10 years ago, but thanks to PSVR’s added accuracy in movement detection, things aren’t quite as hit-and-miss. We like to think of this as the proof that developer Cat Daddy Games needed to start work on Carnival Games VR 2 – a giant compendium of the very best real-life carnival games.