Blog V Reality: Best VR Sports Games On Oculus Quest And Meta Quest 2

Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Best VR Sports Games On Oculus Quest And Meta Quest 2

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Playing a sport like football, boxing, mini golf or ping pong is easy on the Quest platform. Here’s our list of the best sports games available on Oculus Quest 2.

The list is presented in no particular order and is not ranked, as we didn’t want to pit a variety of different sports against each other. However, for sports that have multiple VR games available on Quest, we’ve stuck with just including the one best experience available on Quest for each.

We’ve also included a few sports games that aren’t direct one-to-one translations of a real sport, but something altered to work in VR.

Eleven Table Tennis

Eleven Table Tennis is really as simple as it sounds — it’s table tennis in VR. However, to leave it at that would be to do it an injustice — it’s not just table tennis in VR, it’s really good table tennis in VR. It also works so well because it feels like the real thing — there’s relatively little physical resistance when hitting a ball in table tennis in real life, so a VR translation feels scarily accurate. Slight vibrations when you hit the ball are all that’s needed to make Eleven Table Tennis feel properly authentic. Plus, the game supports LAN matches for a lag-free experience, and you can even use a 3D printed paddle with your Touch controller for the full authentic experience. It’s table tennis in VR, recreated in impressive detail.

There’s also something special about being able to take your Quest anywhere and — provided you have an internet connection — play against a friend (or a random) online with a 1:1 recreation of a table tennis table. Upcoming updates will also add in support for the upgraded Meta avatars, with full upper body representation, along with 3-4 player support and an overhauled UI/menu system.

Cross-platform play: Yes, between Quest, Rift and SteamVR users.

Eleven Table Tennis On Quest To Surpass Rift Sales As Devs Plan New Features

Totally Baseball

Totally Baseball lets you be the pitcher, batter and outfielder all in one. The game has a unique “teleportation system” that will switch you between positions mid-game, giving you the full baseball experience in VR.

The game launched with just singleplayer in July last year, but has since been updated to include two multiplayer modes – 1v1 or free roam.

ForeVR Darts

By the same developers as ForeVR Bowling, ForeVR Darts provides an easy option to get head-to-head with your friends in a round of virtual darts. It’s simple but effective – invite friends and meet up at the ForeVR pub, where you can each compete in a lane with classic darts rules, such as 301 up.

You can use either hands or controllers to throw darts – the hand tracking works quite well and, if anything, shooting a bullseye with an aiming reticule seems a little bit easier in VR than it does in real life…

Carve Snowboarding

The most challenging part of Carve Snowboarding is the first few hours — learning the ropes and adjusting a foot-driven sport to be controller by your hands take a bit of getting used to. It’s tough and quite tiring at first, but it’s well worth the effort. The game is less focused on impossible stunts and more concerned with using VR to simulate the rush of racing downhill, ducking under tree branches and daring yourself to hop into the air and try for an Indie or a Japan Air.

It doesn’t have the precision of classic snowboarding games and it’ll tie your mind in knots at times but, once you’ve experienced the rush of Carve’s downhill stunts, you wouldn’t want it any other way.

Echo VR

This game is perhaps the most abstract translation of a real life sport into VR, but it basically takes Ultimate Frisbee and creates a stunningly-deep and engaging VR version of the game with two teams of three fighting over a Frisbee in zero gravity. If you’re familiar with the book Ender’s Game, imagine a cross between that and Ultimate Frisbee and you’ve got Echo VR.

If you haven’t tried Echo VR, it’s probably as close to a native VR-first sport available on the platform. It’s a properly amazing new take on Frisbee that could only work in VR. Even better, it’s completely free to play on Oculus Quest.

Echo VR Season 2 Starts June 8

Walkabout Mini Golf

Mini golf is one of those sports that lends itself particularly well to VR, and Walkabout Mini Golf is probably the best realization of the sport in VR. The only real difference to playing in real life is the lack of a proper club with the appropriate weight. However, you’ll quickly get the hang of it and can add an accessory to get that proper club feeling. Arguably, the game might even be better than physical mini golf with no pressure to get to the next hole, no hitches in the carpeting and the ability to move your putter right through obstacles instead of needing to move the ball away from it.

Walkabout Mini Golf launched on Oculus Quest but is also available on Steam from July 15 of 2021, with a phone version planned for later in the year. Cross-play is supported across all platforms too, so you’ll soon be able to play mini golf with Quest, PC VR and mobile users as well. There’s seven different courses in the game, set across some fun environments, with unlockable hard modes for the courses as well. There’s plans for one more course for the base game as well as some additional DLC courses as well.

The Climb 2

This one’s for the rock climbing and bouldering fans — while Crytek’s The Climb 2 can’t quite capture the full body physicality of the real sport, it comes pretty close. Despite not being available for PC VR, we called it one of most visually impressive Quest games on the platform in our review, featuring some stunning vistas and climbing courses. It’s not just a visual spectacle either — there’s also quite a bit of nuance to the climbing mechanics, allowing you to half-grip, jump, use zip lines, avoid breakable rocks and much more.

It’s a thrilling experience that lets you climb in some situations that you might never want to risk in real life. On the harder levels, it can even be a good accidental workout as well.

Freestyle Expansion Pack Coming To The Climb 2 Tomorrow In Free Update

Thrill of the Fight

When it comes to VR boxing, there’s a surprising number of options. However, when push comes to shove, Thrill of the Fight throws the best punches.

This boxing simulator puts you in a virtual ring to fight off against AI opponents in a manner similar to a real boxing match — you’re encouraged to move around the ring and the game will automatically adjust the difficulty depending on how hard (or soft) you hit. It’s definitely more of a simulator than a game, so don’t come in expecting a big campaign or lots of game-y structure. Developer Ian Fitz’s main focus was to mimic real life as much as possible, with different outcomes depending on where each of your hits land.

The Thrill Of The Fight VR Boxing Sim Hits Oculus Quest As Dev Teases Sequel

Racket NX

Racket NX takes a fundamentally different approach to some of the other games on this list — instead of taking a sport and trying to emulate it as closely as possible in VR, Racket NX gives you a racket and a ball and introduces a new form of gameplay made for VR.

You play inside a giant dome, using your Touch controller-turned racket to hit balls at targets that light up across the curved walls. There’s a single player campaign and endless mode, while multiplayer options offer versus and co-op modes with support for cross-platform play.

2MD: VR Football Unleashed

When this game released, we called it a simple but fun arcade-style VR adaptation of American football. However, since our initial review there’s been a wealth of new updates that have added more content and overhauled big parts of the game. The recently-launched “Challengers Edition” update is the culmination of this, adding multiple leagues, new play modes, a new soundtrack and some graphical upgrades to the fairly lackluster launch visuals.

It’s still a fairly simple arcade-y version of American football, but if you’re looking for some quarterback action in VR, this is the game for you.

ForeVR Bowl

On the surface, ForeVR Bowl does everything right — it’s incredibly polished, has real character and gives plenty of reasons to keep playing. However, unlike other games on the list, the sport it’s simulating presents one big problem — bowling relies heavily on feeling the weight of the ball as you throw it. In VR, this simply isn’t possible. ForeVR Bowl tries to offer some smart solutions — it gives balls stats for weight and speed, offering options for different techniques — but ultimately it still comes off as an iteration of Wii Sports-style bowling as opposed to something more realistic.

The reason it’s on the list over other bowling games, such as Premium Bowling, is because it offers a more realistic experience overall, even if it does have those control issues associated with the lack of weight. It also offers multiplayer and once you accept the game’s limitations, it’s still a lot of casual fun. The developers have also already made improvements to the throwing mechanics since launch and are continuing work on additional changes.

ForeVR Bowl Review: A Great Take On A Sport That Isn’t Ready For VR

Real VR Fishing

Real VR Fishing is the game for you if you’re looking for something that captures the calming joy of just sitting out on the shore or boat with your line in the water and chatting with friends to your right and left. You can collect catches for your aquarium and visit a range of beautiful settings, plus there’s a pretty large range of difficulty options. When you’re just starting out, the game helps you see where the fish are, but you can turn that off for an even more realistic and challenging experience. The developers are planning a US West DLC pack for new areas to fish in as well as a revamp of the game’s mechanics.

Gym Class VR

Celebrating a new trailer designed by our community #VR pic.twitter.com/SXl4lEy5EP

— Gym Class VR (@Gymclassvr) November 11, 2021

In terms of basketball, Gym Class is probably the best route on Quest 2. We’ve tried other basketball games that take a more skee ball-inspired arcade approach to the sport, but Gym Class opts to translate the proper basketball game experience as best as possible in VR, similar to the approach taken by Eleven for table tennis.

Basketball is a lot harder to pull off properly in VR, but Gym Class is a solid attempt with good core mechanics and ball physics. You can shoot hoops solo on a full court, but the main draw is multiplayer, where you can play with up to 8 people across 2 teams. There’s support for audio chat on the court, as well as full-body IK to make players appear more natural.

The ball has good weight to it, which works alongside a smart auto-release mechanic for throwing and bouncing. We’ve mainly tried the solo mode and haven’t played a full online match – nor are we experts in real life basketball either – but it felt like the game struck a nice balance between providing a realistic, true-to-life experience and necessary adjustments to make everything work well in VR.

The app is still currently in beta, and so is only available through App Lab at the moment.

What are you favorite sports games on Oculus Quest? Let us know in the comments below.

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