Quest 3 mixed reality game Laser Dance adds two new challenge modes in its first major content update.
Thomas Van Bouwel, the creator of Laser Dance and the critically acclaimed puzzle game Cubism, has announced the "Challenge Update" for Laser Dance is now live. The update introduces two new challenge modes designed to intensify the game's Mixed Reality laser obstacle courses.
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The two optional unlockable game modifiers increase the game's difficulty and add replayability.
The first, called Grid Overlay, layers a dense mesh of lasers over existing levels, which demands heightened precision from players. The second, called Invisible Lasers, causes laser beams in the play area to fade as players approach, demanding more player spatial awareness. Audio cues and controller haptics become more critical in this mode.
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Laser Dance turns your living space into a challenging maze full of lasers, where the goal of the game is to navigate the maze and reach certain places throughout the room. We reviewed the game when it debuted late last year, calling it "one of the easiest games to play ever made. [...] it belongs in most libraries and should be a go-to party game."
Inspired by animated series like Rick & Morty and Futurama, Space Control is an absurd and comic VR game with a Steam Next Fest demo available now.
MoonMonster Studios has just announced a playable demo of Space Control, a ridiculous and hilarious VR adventure inspired by animated comedies like Futurama and Rick & Morty.
In Space Control, you've been abducted by an intergalactic megacorporation, which has unceremoniously thrust upon you a massive debt. Over three unique episodes, you must take on a variety of unpleasant jobs set in the corporate space station.
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Work off your debt with your alien crew, abduct new recruits, take care of alien babies, and cook up some highly questionable snacks. The game's key features include physics-based VR gameplay, an episodic narrative, a cast of outrageous companions, and a delightfully dystopian universe in which to toil away.
MoonMonster Studios plans to bring Space Control to Meta Quest and Steam VR this April. You can wishlist the game at those storefronts, and sample the demo now as part of Steam Next Fest.
Stay tuned for our full impressions piece on Space Control in the coming days.
A demo of the immersive XR game will be playable this year at special public events.
Pixelity Inc., developers of Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections, announced that a demo of the game will be playable throughout the year at live events all around the world.
The game has thus far only been playable to an extremely small segment of the public. In December, it was playable at a limited event spanning three days in Tokyo, then at a one-day event in California. In order to try the game, applicants needed to apply through Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections' X account and be selected to participate. More recently, the demo was playable for lucky lottery winners who attended the Evangelion 30th Anniversary Event, which just wrapped up.
Supporting both VR and mixed reality gameplay, Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections is the first installment in a planned trilogy that aims to cover all 26 episodes of the TV series. The game will tell a new story from the perspective of an original protagonist who dreams of becoming a pilot, making connections between the anime's “key episodes” and the game's new characters.
“Players will enjoy the story set in the locations from the anime from their own perspective. Battles between Evangelions and Angels, various interactive elements, and engaging captivating storylines with original characters are also planned,” Pixelity noted in a press release.
Originally created by the filmmaker Hideaki Anno, and first airing in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a critically-acclaimed post-apocalyptic anime mech series focusing on the fight between NERV, a paramilitary group, and the Angels, otherworldly antagonists seemingly bent on humanity's destruction.
The anime series has been massively influential within and outside of its native Japan, expanding to manga, merchandise, anime retellings, video games and more. While the franchise has dabbled in VR before with Bandai Namco's 2017 release, Evangelion VR: The Throne of Souls, that arcade VR experience was only playable on-site at VR Zone locations in Japan. Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections is the first Evangelion VR/XR game designed for home use via consumer headsets.
News broke this week that a new Evangelion animated series is in production. The new series is being written by Yoko Taro, the unconventional video game creator most-known for Nier and Nier: Automata, in collaboration with Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara.
An Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections public demo is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2026. Specific platforms and release dates remain unconfirmed, and while no dates or details have yet been revealed regarding the aforementioned live events, Pixelity encourages anyone interested in trying the game to watch their official X account for announcements.
Update Notice
After publishing this story, UploadVR was contacted by the PR agency handling Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections with a statement regarding the possibility of live events and public demos.
"It seems there could be a translation issue - the events through the year may not be "live events". As it sits [...] the opportunities for hands-on could be live or other activations."
Iron Guard: Salvation, a VR sci-fi tower defense game, is launching on PlayStation VR2 in March.
Iron Guard: Salvation is a tower defense strategy game in which players must build and upgrade bases and weapons while managing resources and fending off waves of enemies in VR. A story-driven campaign mode offers a cinematic experience across 30 hand-crafted missions.
Iron Guard: Salvation is a direct sequel to Xlab Digital's Iron Guard, which first debuted in 2021 and was ported to PS VR2 last year.
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We previously reviewed Iron Guard: Salvation when it released on Quest, where our reviewer found it to be a strong tower defense game that might have benefitted from heavier implementation of RTS mechanics and inclusion of a multiplayer mode.
Underwater PC VR narrative puzzle game Echoes of Mora will launch in April on Steam.
Selkies Interactive announced at the recent Convergence Games Showcase that their debut title, Echoes of Mora, will launch April 29 on Steam. The announcement comes alongside a haunting story trailer and a 30-minute playable demo during Steam Next Fest, which begins today.
Echoes of Mora is described by its makers as an exploration-driven mystery with high emotional stakes, a fusion of Subnautica's atmospheric aquatic exploration and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture's melancholic storytelling. You follow and guide Mora. After her brother disappears near a cursed lake, Mora sets out to find him. As the lake's water rises, threatening the village, your help is crucial. You'll share clues you find in the underwater world, guide Mora in the past, and accompany her on a time-bending journey that could decide the fate of her family and village.
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When we previously covered Echoes of Mora, our writer felt that "While [Echoes of Mora] is by no means a seamless swimming simulator, its compelling narrative beats and dreamy world design provide more than enough intrigue to earn it a place on my wishlist."
You can wishlist Echoes of Mora on Steam today in advance of its full release in April.
Birdseed is a cozy, free-to-play game about photographing silly birds. And trying the Early Access release, I simply love it.
Games are so often obsessed with spectacle, which is paradoxically one of the reasons I so dearly appreciate Birdseed. This gentle game about watching and photographing comically cute birds doesn't shout or overstimulate you. Instead, it invites you to relax, slow down, and simply enjoy a peaceful slice of nature filled with charming, delightfully curious birds.
After my first hands-on session with the Early Access release, I found myself returning over and over, not just to satisfy daily objectives and collect more in-game currency, but to simply exist, to listen to music or the sounds of nature, to hang out and shoot some photos of my hilarious birdbrained pals.
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Serious Photography?
As someone who's been a photographer for over 20 years, and a writer covering the camera industry for more than a decade, I was especially interested in how Birdseed, a game about photographing birds, handles the art and craft of photography.
While I personally love mechanical cameras and the extreme nuance of making a picture with a dedicated camera, adjusting aperture and shutter speed, ISO, and reading all about the finer points of depth-of-field and circle of confusion and other photography nonsense that most of the humans on Earth have never heard about, I understand that highly technical simulations of making pictures don't always make for a good gaming experience. For most people, serious photography is obtuse and opaque and boring.
Birdseed sidesteps that by being incredibly simple. You can't move very far. In fact, you stand (or sit) in just a small central viewpoint from where the whole of your observation and photographing occur. You hold a camera, and that camera has just two controls: It can zoom in and out, and it can take a picture. That's it (for now). There are unlockable lenses of different focal lengths that can be interchanged, and future updates will likely bring art lenses and special effect filters and all of that good stuff. But for now, we're basically using a point-and-shoot, a type of camera that works as its name suggests. Point it at something, shoot, and a picture comes out.
The simplicity of gameplay is beautiful, and perfect for a game that's trying to do what Birdseed is trying to do. That is, put a camera in your hand, and give you something to point it at.
The environment is far from photorealistic, but it still manages to be lush and pretty, presented with artfully-crafted cartoonish simplicity. A pastel sun creeps low across a distant mountain range. Marshmallow clouds drift across the azure sky. Sparkling water dances down a falls while towering evergreens sway in the breeze. And within this beautiful nature scape flit birds of all sorts.
They dance among the branches, preen on the rocks, and soar high in the sky. And they look absolutely stupid (complimentary). They're goofy and silly, delightfully plump and bouncy. Their enormous eyes blink dumbly as they flutter and squawk and bounce. Even when diving on the wind, they look more like bowling pins than sleek products of a million years' evolution. I love these dumb birds.
The Decisive Moment
You have twelve pictures per day, as you're using a film camera, and these images are instantly ejected to be held, looked at, and then stored automatically in your photo album. Photos are rated for their content, as well as for the rarity of the bird, and the bird's poses or actions are marked as well. Capturing a rare bird or a bird in a rare action or pose will rate higher, and higher ratings or achieving certain challenges (for example, photographing a specific type of bird or making a three-star photo) will earn in-game currency which can be spent to buy new lenses and cosmetic items, such as new skins for your camera.
The scarcity of available photos per day is an interesting mechanic, and one that I appreciate. As happens in real life when we're shooting a film camera, the knowledge that we only have a limited number of shots tends to change the way we photograph. It forces me to pause for a moment, or to think deeper during the act of making an image. Do I really want to use a frame to make this photo? The result is that I either make better pictures, or sometimes I miss out. I found the same thing happening in Birdseed.
Exhausting your daily supply of film doesn't necessarily mean the play session is over. You can still hang out in the environment, watch birds, and enjoy the scenery. There's even a radio with which you can listen to some chill tunes.
If there's one major strike against Birdseed, it's that the game is not technically solid. During my play sessions, there were several instances of the game crashing. Restarting my Quest 3S smoothed things out temporarily, but a few more crashes led me to uninstall and reinstall Birdseed, which seemed to mostly solve the problem.
For now, and when it works without crashing, I'm enjoying every minute that I spend in Birdseed. Though those minutes amount to just about 30 per day, it's a nice half hour in VR. Birdseed has been a lovely experience that will surely only become more endearing, fully-fledged, and enjoyable when the game officially releases in March.
Birdseed VR is out now in Early Access on Quest 3 and 3S, with the full release coming in March on Quest and Steam.
The musical rhythm climbing game is coming to Meta Quest Early Access on March 5th.
Developed by Zeitlos Interactive, Peak Rhythm is a VR climbing game that challenges players to climb in sync to an exciting soundtrack. Players grab handholds in time with the beat, which is visually denoted by "Timing Rings" which tighten around the various handholds.
Multiple types of grips add variety. Twist grips ask that you twist your wrist like a volume knob, and Double grips demand you grab hold with both hands. Grip and climb at the right moment and you're propelled ever higher; miss the beat and you fall. The higher you climb, the higher your name lands on the leaderboard.
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The game is launching in Early Access with original tracks spanning several genres, including Drum & Bass, Dubstep, House, and Disco, with tracks from FEISTLING, Killin' Void, Ion Diary, and funiel.
Also launching in Early Access is a fully functional Beatmap Editor, supporting custom maps and players' own music files. Multiplayer is planned as an Early Access update shortly after launch.
Peak Rhythm launches in Early Access on Quest on March 5, 2026 for $12.99.
The bizarre weaponry and battle-ready pets of comic shooter Vortex 9 are coming to VR soon on Quest headsets.
Developed by iWorlds, the VR port of Vortex 9 will launch on Meta Quest on February 26. The shooter has previously been released as a free-to-play game on iOS and Google's Play Store, where it has cumulatively amassed more than 10 million players. The VR port will be Crossplay compatible, which could help the game's transition to VR.
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Vortex 9 hangs its hat on absurdity. Players customize a variety of stylish heroes and jump into colorful arenas wielding over-the-top weapons, such as battle lollipops and bubble miniguns. Players can also create and play with cute battle pets across several multiplayer modes, including Team Battle, Solo Deathmatch, and Capture Point.
The infamous cave in which a youth football team was trapped in 2018 is coming to VR spelunking game Cave Crave.
3R Games has announced that the next real-world cave to appear in their virtual reality spelunking game Cave Crave will be Thailand's Tham Luang. The cave gained international attention in 2018 when a youth football team became trapped in the cave by rising flood waters.
To ensure accuracy and appropriate context, the studio is collaborating with diver Vern Unsworth, who directly participated in the rescue, and 3D cave-scanning expert Roo Walters. The new cave will appear in Cave Crave's Tourist Mode, a non-gamified virtual recreation of real-world locations.
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This addition to the game's "real cave" experiences follows an earlier update that added Utah's Nutty Putty Cave, another real-world cave that closed in 2009 after the death of John Edward Jones. 3R Games is careful to note that their real cave recreations aim to offer a way to explore dangerous or permanently closed sites that's both respectful and authentic, and not gamified experiences.
In Cave Crave, you'll explore tight tunnels and caves, spelunk your way through the darkness, mark walls with chalk and use various other caving tools to plumb the depths and escape to the safety of the open air.
Previous updates have added an Arcade Mode, which turns the game into a competitive race against time, where you aim for the quickest run on the online leaderboards.
The Battlefield-like 32-player VR FPS Forefront just got a major update - alongside a price increase.
The popular 32-player Battlefield-inspired VR FPS Forefront, has received an update today, along with a price increase. The update (v0.23.141) brings a brand-new conquest map, a new APC vehicle, plus balancing tweaks and bug fixes.
The new map, Oasis, is desert themed. Players will battle on sand dunes, dodging bullets between lush riverside palm trees and derelict mining facilities. The new APC vehicle is made for transporting troops and for light assault actions.
Alongside this update comes a price hike. The previous price of $22.99 has risen to $24.99. Forefront is currently available on Meta Quest, Steam, and Pico.
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Since launching in Early Access, Forefront has been well-supported by its makers, receiving several updates to add new maps and weapons, address balancing issues, provide graphics updates, and more.
I previously covered Forefront and found it to be an exciting and tense take on the Battlefield formula. The game's combat is immersive, its VR gunplay is tactile and satisfying, and its dynamic environments are well-designed. While there were certainly a few small problems in that Early Access build, mostly due to weapon balance issues, on the whole, Forefront jumped ahead of every other multiplayer shooter I've played in VR. Its large-scale battlefields are hard to beat.
Nintendo's strangest Switch 2 accessory has arrived: a remarkably faithful recreation of the Virtual Boy.
Toward the end of last year, Nintendo dropped the surprise announcement that Virtual Boy games would soon be playable on Switch and Switch 2 via the company's subscription-based membership service, Nintendo Online + Expansion Pack. For the first time in 30 years, Nintendo fans would be able to play Virtual Boy games like Red Alarm, Wario Land, and Mario's Tennis on a current-gen Nintendo console.
Perhaps even more surprising was the announcement that the catalog of Virtual Boy games would be accompanied by two new accessories: an inexpensive cardboard "headset" priced at $24.99, and a full-on replica Virtual Boy for $99.99. In both cases, the Switch and Switch 2 slot into these accessories (like a dock) in order to play the old games.
Editor's Note: What Exactly Was The Virtual Boy?
We're aware that not everyone knows what the Virtual Boy was, so here's a quick rundown.
Released in 1995, Nintendo's Virtual Boy was the first standalone home stereoscopic 3D gaming system, providing a 384×224 red-only image to each eye via its two lenses. While often described as a "VR headset", Virtual Boy lacked any kind of head tracking, not even rotational, and had a tiny field of view of around 20 degrees. That's not to say it wasn't an interesting 3D device - it just wasn't really VR.
Virtual Boy was a market failure, selling very few units, and was discontinued after just one year. But it had a lasting cultural impact in the gaming world, and is looked back on fondly by many in the VR industry.
Virtual Boy for Switch (foreground) is a remarkably faithful remake of the original system (background).
A couple of items of note: To start, due to the way that Virtual Boy games are displayed, you will need to buy one of Nintendo's official accessory "headsets" to play the Virtual Boy's catalog on Switch and Switch 2.
Second, I'm using the term "headset" loosely. Virtual Boy was never, in fact, a headset, as Nintendo opted to sell it on a stand, rather than in a configuration that allowed mounting the unit to your head. This was the right call, since the original Virtual Boy was ridiculously heavy, and though the new replica "headset" is lighter, it's indeed a replica. The new model is not a headset, either.
Hardware First
What most surprised me when the headset arrived was just how faithful its design is to the original system. Owning my launch edition Virtual Boy from 1995 gave me a great opportunity to put the two pieces of hardware side by side, to compare the units and take some photos.
It's so identical that my ten-year-old daughter (who I taught to solder on my original Virtual Boy when its ribbon cables detached) saw the new unit and asked, "You bought another Virtual Boy?"
It's true that the new Virtual Boy is slightly larger than the original, but then again, we need to slot a Switch or Switch 2 inside it. That naturally requires some extra space. That said, the small details are incredibly accurate. The rubber bumpers on the side of the unit, the rubber nubs at the end of the stand's legs, the focus and IPD controls, the (fake) volume control and headphone jack and EXT. port, they're all here and replicated perfectly. Even the stand's adjustment mechanism utilizes a virtually identical acorn nut as the original.
The next thing you'll notice is that it's remarkably well made. The stand feels good, deploys tightly, and holds the unit well. The adjustment point on the stand also cinches tightly. The plastic feels dense and solid, the spring-loaded docking cradles work beautifully and hold the Switch in place nicely, and the satin foam of the eye-shroud feels more comfortable than the original.
In short, Nintendo did a great job making an almost perfect replica of their least successful gaming system.
It should also be noted that the new Virtual Boy arrives configured to work with Switch 2. To use the original Switch, we are required to install an adapter plate, which involves unscrewing four screws, swapping the plate, and reattaching the screws. The adapter plate comes packaged with the unit.
Do You Need One?
Do you need to spend $99.99 on a replica Virtual Boy headset? Probably not. Despite it being well made and effective at its one and only job, unless you're a big fan of weird tech and oddball experimental products, you'll almost certainly regret buying this thing.
Additional strikes against it would come down to the fact that these games are only accessible on Switch or Switch 2 via Nintendo's subscription service. You won't really own these games on Switch unless Nintendo releases some sort of purchasable collection. As of now, you're buying a headset to play games that you're essentially renting.
And if you've never played Virtual Boy and simply want to try out some old, weird games, there are cheaper and easier ways to experience Virtual Boy's compact library.
But if you're like me and love the Virtual Boy, well, you've probably already spent the money.
If you'd like your own Virtual Boy for Switch and Switch 2, you'll have to be a member of Nintendo Online, and then grab one via the company's website. We'll have an overview of all the Virtual Boy games playable on Switch and Switch 2 soon.
Looking to stretch your mind in VR? Here are some of our favorite puzzle games available on Quest today.
There’s something unique about puzzle games in VR. When you can reach out and touch the world around you, the genre transforms into something magical. Games like Lumines Arise and Tetris Effect: Connected wrap you in a warm sensory blanket while narrative puzzlers like Red Matter and Ghost Town immerse you in their story in ways wholly unique to VR.
Meta Quest users have no shortage of puzzle games. From meditative and musical experiences to emotionally powerful narrative puzzlers that challenge your mind and stir your emotions, here are some of the best the genre has to offer.
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Tetris Effect: Connected
With Tetris Effect, Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his colleagues at Enhance tapped into something remarkable. The 2018 release took the classic puzzle game from the 1980s and transformed it into a musical trance masterpiece. In 2020, the updated Tetris Effect: Connected added co-op and competitive multiplayer, and it remains one of the best puzzle games to this day.
Tetris Effect: Connected wraps you in reactive visuals and music that evolve with your moves. Every rotation, every slammed block, every cleared row adds a new dimension to the soundtrack so that playing Tetris Effect: Connected becomes less about traditional gaming and more about entering a flow state. It’s the ultimate VR vibe game, and beautifully demonstrates VR’s power to elevate traditional gameplay into something greater.
If you love mechanical puzzles, secret compartments, and mysterious artifacts, Fireproof Games’ The Room VR: A Dark Matter is an essential game for your Quest collection. Not only is it one of the most immersive puzzle games on Quest, it’s also one of the most visually impressive.
In this narrative puzzle game built exclusively for VR and set in 1908 London, you’re tasked with investigating the mysterious disappearance of a renowned Egyptologist after a police investigation yields no result. The 5-6 hour-long adventure will have you exploring cryptic locations with fantastic gadgets as you work your way through an opaque mystery.
In addition to its standalone release, Fireproof Games has also bundled The Room VR: A Dark Matter into a two-pack alongside the team’s extraordinary Ghost Town (mentioned later in this list).
Part slapstick comedy, part absurd escape room, part mid-century spy parody, the I Expect You To Die series drops you into increasingly ridiculous and deadly scenarios, and tasks you with saving yourself (and the world) from the nefarious super-villain Dr. Zor. You’ll explode, get swarmed by bees, zapped by lasers, and try to survive, all from the comfort of your Quest headset. Clever design rewards experimentation, and the tongue-in-cheek humor makes failure feel fun.
There are three mainline I Expect You To Die games on Quest, which can be purchased separately, or bundled together as part of the Phoenix Rising Trilogy.
As Leonardo Da Vinci’s most promising apprentice, you are summoned to Florence only to find that Leonardo has mysteriously disappeared. Thus begins The House of Da Vinci, a challenging puzzle mystery that our reviewer described as “one of the best VR puzzle games I've ever played, delivering an experience that's been lovingly created with reverence to its historical inspiration.”
Gameplay takes the shape of escape room-style challenges in which we manipulate complex machines, peer into the past, and solve puzzles based on Da Vinci’s real-life inventions. Gorgeous visuals and advanced riddles make this a perfect game for puzzle fans and art history buffs alike.
The latest phenomenal mystery from Fireproof Games, Ghost Town is a narrative puzzle game set in the 1980s that puts players in the shoes of Edith, an Irish witch turned exorcist and ghost hunter. “What follows,” says Henry Stockdale in our review last year, “is a thoroughly gripping narrative that sees us searching for Edith's missing brother. Fireproof's not afraid to have some fun with this story[...]”
One of Ghost Town’s great strengths is that it strikes a great balance. It tells a story, but does so with both humor and suspense, and its puzzles, while challenging, never feel overly difficult. The end result is, as our review put it, “one of the best VR games so far this year.”
Humanity is a third-person puzzle-action game in which your goal is to guide a massive mob of humanity to the end point of each level. You lead the pack as a cute Shiba Inu, leading the seemingly mindless humans as they jump, turn, push, float, shoot, and climb their way toward salvation across 90 story-mode stages.
Another game from Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Enhance, Humanity is a flatscreen critical darling that has really stuck the landing on Quest. It was voted VR Game of the Year at the 2023 EDGE Awards, ranked Best Puzzle Game of 2023 by Game Informer magazine, and was nominated for Best VR / AR Game at The Game Awards in 2023.
As with most of Mizuguchi and Enhance’s games, there’s more than meets the eye here. And while the game’s online servers and user-generated level support are ending in March, 2026, there’s enough meat on the base game’s bones to warrant a thorough chewing.
These narrative-heavy adventures blend environmental puzzles with atmospheric world-building and deliver some of the most impressive visuals yet seen on Quest headsets.
The first game drops you into a retro-futuristic Cold War space race where you play as Agent Epsilon, sent to a deserted Volgravian base on Rhea, Saturn’s mysterious moon to investigate a secret project with the potential to change humanity’s destiny forever. And once you’re done with that, fire up Red Matter 2 for yet another stunning story.
Few games define the puzzle genre like Myst. For most gamers of a certain age, it was the first puzzle game we’d ever played (and the first we’d ever owned on CD-ROM). In VR, its enigmatic puzzles and lonesome island feel more tangible than ever.
Built from the ground up by Cyan Worlds, the indie studio that created the beloved classic way back in 1993, Myst for Quest is a definitive reimagining of one of the greatest puzzle games ever made. It brings new art, new sound, new interactions, and optional puzzle randomization.
When you’ve finished unraveling the mysterious island of Myst, you may be tempted to jump into its sequel, Riven. While Riven is a must-play for fans of the original flatscreen version, or for those who simply can’t get enough of the Myst universe, in truth, Riven on Quest is not a very strong adaptation. It’s good, just not as great as Myst.
Called “One of the most unique and creative VR games ever” by Polygon, and “the best puzzle game since Portal” by Beardo Benjo, The Last Clockwinder is a creative and clever game that our own review described as “a true delight and gem of a puzzle game that’s well worth your time.”
The main mechanic of the game centers on mapping your real-life physical actions to several robotic “clones” which will repeat your actions indefinitely. This allows you to create a sort of production line that moves fruit from one place to another, feeding the health of a mystical tree. It’s a gameplay hook that defies explanation, but it’s one that’s totally engaging and superbly executed. Add to this a mysterious story that’s “an absolute delight to unravel” and we have all the makings of a VR classic.
In A Fisherman’s Tale, you play as a reclusive fisherman puppet who awakens locked inside a lighthouse. In the center of the room sits a model of the very same lighthouse, with a tiny version of yourself inside, and a larger one outside, mimicking your every move. The perspective-bending puzzles begin from there.
When we reviewed the game some years ago, we gave it 5 out of 5 stars and said it "might be the first [Quest game] to achieve a perfect storm of gameplay, immersion and narrative in a single experience. [A Fisherman's Tale] fuses experience and interactivity to really show what this medium is capable of."
The game's sequel, Another Fisherman’s Tale, doubles down on the original's creativity with whole new gameplay mechanics. It’s imaginative, slightly absurd, and filled with tactile puzzle design.
Another special experience that could only exist in VR, Puzzling Places lets you build gorgeous photorealistic dioramas of beautiful places from all over the world, either in full VR or in the familiar comfort of your own space in mixed reality. There are no timers, no pressure; just pure, mindful building at a peaceful puzzling pace, alone or with others in online multiplayer and local MR co-op modes.
The base game includes 25 puzzles, and a massive collection of DLC puzzles continues to grow. The most recent, a gorgeous Van Gogh-inspired impressionist diorama, joins previous themed puzzles such as cities of the world, a haunted house, underwater seascapes, and dozens more.
Clean shapes and floating blocks, Cubism strips puzzle design down to its essentials. You rotate and place geometric shapes into transparent containers, building increasingly complex forms in full VR or MR modes. Hand tracking makes the game play seamlessly and intuitively, and the balance of relaxation and challenge is perfectly struck.
While the concept of Cubism is great, what really sets it above is the game's minimalist aesthetic. As in old Japan Studio games like Echochrome, or Keita Takahashi's Katamari Damacy, there's a simplicity of concept that we also find in Cubism. As we shift pastel-colored shapes into place, the resonant strings of a rich piano strum a beautiful backing soundtrack. The overall vibe is elegant, calming, and clever.
Gadgeteer lets you build elaborate chain-reaction machines in both VR and MR using ramps, marbles, dominoes, and motors, creating chain reactions that may even end up tearing apart the fabric of space-time.
There are over 60 physics puzzles, plus sandbox environments that let you build whatever wild machines you like. Hundreds of community-made puzzles round out the experience. For older gamers who might remember launching the MS-DOS build of The Incredible Machine on some ancient PC, watching your Gadgeteer contraption unfold in 3D space feels like a dream come true.
Shadow Point is a story-driven puzzle game in which you'll explore a vibrant kingdom and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the mystery of missing schoolgirl, Lorna McCabe who vanished from Shadow Point Observatory twelve years ago. As your adventure unfolds, you will manipulate gravity, play with shadows, work with your own reflection, walk on walls, peer through a magical lens to reveal an alternate reality and much more.
Narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart, Shadow Point combines over 80 puzzles with a reflective story about memory and mentorship. Its paper doll-esque art style is gorgeous and evocative and its light-and-shadow mechanics are clever. We recommended the game in our review some years ago, though we felt Stewart to be underutilized. More than anything else, however, the game's emotional framing elevates it to a must-play.
Whether you want a musical flow state (Tetris Effect, Lumines Arise), a story-rich adventure (Red Matter, Shadow Point), or relaxing brain training (Cubism, Puzzling Places), Quest offers some of the most inventive puzzle design in gaming today.
Orcs Must Die! By The Blade, the VR reimagining of the long-running tower-defense series, is available now on Quest 3 and 3S.
Developed by Teravision Games, makers of the tower-defense shooter Captain Toonhead vs. The Punks from Outer Space, Orcs Must Die! By The Blade is the first VR release in the Orcs Must Die series. By the Blade builds on the long-running franchise's core gameplay loop for VR. Beyond setting up traps and auto-battling as you try to survive waves of orcs, as in traditional tower-defense, the VR version of Orcs Must Die! will have you physically wielding weapons to defend your base in first person.
In addition to the game's standard solo mode, a two-player co-op mode is also included.
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The game's main campaign features 12 missions across three chapters. These task the player with placing traps on a map before physically battling oncoming orcs with weapons like axes and swords. By The Blade uses free locomotion for movement and combat, and you'll need to balance blocking and countering along with offensive attacks. As you progress through the campaign, you'll upgrade your weapons and traps to become a more formidable anti-orc force.
In a recent interview, Teravision Games' Co-Founder and Creative Director Luis Daniel Zambrano spoke about bringing Orcs Must Die! to VR for the first time. "We dialed up the importance of combat vs. the traps, and we made the enemies focus more on the players than the Rifts. Bold ideas that aimed at making the player feel more present, and the game more immersive overall. [...] Once we did that, it started to feel more excitingly VR than ever."
Originally announced to release on January 22nd, Orcs Must Die! By the Blade was delayed due to an unexpected performance issue found in the Quest 2 build. That version is still under construction and will release at a later date.
Though no release date has been announced, the multi-player FPS will be storming onto PS VR2 later this year.
Triangle Factory has announced that its Battlefield-like FPS, Forefront, is coming to PS VR2 in 2026. The visceral and tactile FPS dumps players onto large-scale battlefields where up to 32 players fight for control of territory using handheld weapons, Humvees, tanks, helicopters, and other war machines of the air, land, and sea.
I previewed Forefront when it launched in Early Access on Meta Quest and found it to be a solid take on the Battlefield formula. Combat is exciting and tense, its VR gunplay is tactile and satisfying, and its environments are dynamic and engaging. While some small problems did exist in that EA build, mostly due to weapon balance issues, on the whole, Forefront stands as the strongest large-scale shooter I’ve played in VR.
The PlayStation VR2 port of Titan Isles is coming on February 24th.
When Psytec Games announced last September that their high-mobility action-adventure shooter Titan Isles was coming to PS VR2, they didn't specify a release date. Today, the game's makers have announced that Titan Isles will be swinging onto PS VR2 on February 24th.
Designed to make the most of PS5's hardware, the PS VR2 port runs at a native 90fps on base PS5, boosted to 120fps on PS5 Pro. The game's devs also confirmed that both versions utilize native resolution and eye-tracked foveated rendering for maximum visual clarity.
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Psytec Games has also made the most of the PS5 controller's adaptive triggers, giving each weapon its own resistance, plus headset haptics and full bHaptics support.
We reviewed Titan Isles when it debuted on Meta Quest, where we found it to be "a compelling action adventure that's equally enjoyable in co-op and single-player." Furthermore, our reviewer called it "the most fun I've personally had with a VR co-op experience since Dungeons of Eternity."
Titan Isles will be available on the PS VR2 store from February 24, and will cost $24.99. The game is available now on Steam and Quest.
Update Notice
This story was initially published on February 12, 2026, stating that Titan Isles' release date was revealed during Sony's State of Play showcase. However, this was a mistake, as the game did not appear during the stream. We have updated the article to remove mention of Sony's State of Play. All details contained in the article are now correct and accurate.
Unhinged chaos sim Wreckin' Raccoon, nDreams' answer to games like I Am Cat and Gorilla Tag, has left Early Access for full release on Quest.
Developed by nDreams' newest studio, Compass, Wreckin' Raccoon is a sandbox game in which you play as the titular trash panda, spreading chaos and destruction everywhere your paws touch. Taking place at a roadside diner, you'll dig through food, smash bottles, make a mess, and generally torment the diner's staff and customers in ways that only a horrible little critter can.
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You can drink from a toilet, deep fry your own excrement, and squirt ketchup into the face of the grumpy exterminator. If you couldn't tell from that description, or the trailer embedded above, nDreams' latest release is clearly targeting a younger audience.
Wreckin' Raccoon is banking on replicating the success of games like I Am Cat and the ever-popular Gorilla Tag, which throw users into heavily physical experiences in which the primary goal is to move around and cause chaos.
Charming clockwork puzzler Tin Hearts: Act 1 arrives on Quest today, bringing its heartfelt story and inventive Lemmings-like gameplay to standalone headsets.
Celebrated for its emotional story and richly detailed Dickensian environments, Tin Hearts combines a lovely narrative with classic Lemmings-inspired puzzle mechanics. In Tin Hearts, players manipulate time and interact with objects in the environment to direct and redirect an ever-marching column of tiny toy soldiers. Along the way you'll solve puzzles and uncover a deeply personal tale about family, love, and compromise.
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Tin Hearts originally released in VR on PS VR2 and Steam last year. The game's publisher, Wired Productions, has said that today's Act 1 port to Meta Quest will be followed by Acts 2, 3, and 4 "in the coming weeks," though no specific release dates have been confirmed.
We previewed Tin Hearts VR years ago, where we felt it offered "well-considered mechanics," plus "enjoyable puzzles and an intriguing whimsical setting."
The complete Tin Hearts series is out now on flatscreen platforms, PS VR2, and PC VR, while Tin Hearts: Act 1 arrives today on the Meta Quest platform.
As the space-faring simulator orbits into its tenth year, its latest update adds new tools, gear, and gameplay.
Hello Games has launched an update for No Man's Sky, called Remnant, which adds a new tool to the game's ever-expanding arsenal - the Gravitino Coil. This anti-gravity "gun" is described by the game-makers as "a powerful [...] module for your multi-tool. Allowing you to grab large objects and fling, toss or carefully carry them around the world."
More than just a toy or industrial tool, the Gravitino Coil doubles as an improvised ballistic weapon, with heavy objects becoming deadly projectiles (should the need arise).
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In addition to the gravity gun, the Remnant update also adds a new game loop centered on scavenging and recycling. Working alone or in groups with others, players and crews can scavenge debris from planets and wrecks, loading the collected salvage materials onto cargo trucks to be driven to industrial yards where the materials may be recycled to gain new loot and rewards including dozens of new vehicle parts and an all-new armor set.
A limited-time community expedition has been added, too, in which travelers will work in convoys to clean up and reclaim a planet covered in wrecks and garbage. Full patch notes for the latest No Man's Sky update can be seen here.
Remnant builds on the previous No Man's Sky update, Breach, which added explorable derelict space wrecks. It is the latest in a long string of No Man's Sky updates, a game which launched nearly ten years ago on flatscreen platforms and which has received continuous updates and improvement ever since.
In the VR space, too, No Man's Sky has been a trailblazer. It was the first PlayStation VR2 game to use PS5 Pro's PSSR AI upscaling, technology which uses a neural network trained on game footage to upscale games with much higher quality results than traditional image upscaling techniques.
No Man's Sky's Remnant update is available today on Steam, PS VR2, and flatscreen platforms.
The update brings 25 new cards, a new card type, new legendary cards for each faction, fully revitalized card artwork, and more.
Cards & Tankards, a free-to-play VR social game where players hang out and battle each other in collectible card games and other traditional board games, will receive a massive update in March. The coming update ushers in Season 3, and brings several significant additions to the game as well as new mechanics and features including:
25-card expansion at launch, with an additional 25 cards released gradually throughout Season 3
New card type: Relics are available to all factions, summoned into play like "creatures" but do not participate in combat and do not exhaust when played. Each Relic contains a limited number of Sparks of Aether, which are spent to activate its effects. Once those sparks are depleted, the Relic is destroyed. Relics are designed to add long term planning and resource management to gameplay without overwhelming the board state.
New Legendary Cards (one per faction)
Major mechanical balancing derived through collaboration between the development team and the community-driven Card Design and Balance Team
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The forthcoming update follows on from last year's major update, which added a new social area, chess and checkers boards, new physical shops to peruse, taverns in which to chill, and hidden corners tucked amongst a bustling town center.
The developer team has spent the period between updates rolling out several major quality of life and progression adjustments, including:
Achievements System in the Town, rewarding milestones with gold and titles
Global Deck Sharing via the Town Schoolhouse
Deck Sharing and Copying directly from the deck editor
Daily Quests and Streak Rewards
Focus Card System to guarantee specific cards over time
Expanded Deck Building, allowing over 40 cards for theory crafting
Deck Privacy Settings to hide deck information while editing
The team has also recently rebuilt the card visuals, giving all the cards a fresh and modern look.
Cards & Tankards is available on Quest and Steam, and the update is coming in March.
One of Meta Quest's top-selling VR brawlers will make the leap to PC VR headsets in spring.
Haymaker is a physics-first VR combat brawler focused on authentic body mechanics and replayability. You'll grab, grapple, block, kick, and strike adaptive AI enemies across a variety of environments specifically built for mayhem such as a skyscraper rooftop, a seedy billiard parlor, and more.
Console Studios has just announced both a content update for its physics-based VR brawler Haymaker, and that it intends to bring the title to PC VR via Steam in just a few months' time. The updated Steam release will also benefit from enhanced graphics and dynamic lighting.
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In addition to the Steam port, Haymaker will receive noteworthy updates on Quest, where the game has been available in Early Access since November. Coming updates include an expanded sandbox mode with deeper character customization and fresh designs to diversify the game's brutal street fights, a new MMA-style Octagon arena, and a tournament mode.
When the Steam port launches, it will do so with content parity with the Quest version.
Haymaker is available in Early Access on Quest headsets, priced at $14.99. It's currently on Meta's top-seller list, and has a strong 4.7/5 user rating.
Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss and Clay Hunt VR are this February's Horizon+ monthly games on Quest.
February 2026 brings a number of new games to the Horizon+ Monthly Games Catalog, including one of the best strategy games in VR, and an engaging target practice shooter. In addition, previously redeemed games will remain in your library while subscribed to the service.
Here's what you need to know about this February's offerings.
Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss
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The star of February's Horizon+ Monthly Games, Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss is, as our review put it, a "smart, competitive, and [...] one of the best strategy experiences available in VR." The tabletop strategy game, which features characters and lore from the Moss and Moss 2 game universe, blends the strategic depth of RTS games with the character personality and squad mechanics of the best MOBAs.
Clay Hunt VR is a relatively simple shotgun shooting game which challenges you to hone your aim against clay targets, ducks, and other game animals. A multiplayer mode allows shooting with friends in public or private rooms, and customizable weaponry allows players to tune their favorite guns.
Horizon+ Games Catalog Games
Horizon+ continues offering a Games Catalog of Quest titles that any subscriber can access. Meta can add new games to and remove games from the catalog at any time. Here is the current Horizon+ Games Catalog in the US:
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs
Asgard’s Wrath 2
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
Bartender VR Simulator
Blacktop Hoops
Cubism
Deisim
Demeo
Demeo Battles
Dungeons of Eternity
Eleven Table Tennis
Final Fury
Fruit Ninja 2
Ghosts of Tabor
Green Hell VR
Grimlord
Human Fall Flat VR
iB Cricket
I Expect You To Die 3
In Death: Unchained
Into Black
Into the Radius
Job Simulator
Kingspray Graffiti
LES MILLS BODYCOMBAT: Fitness workouts
Maestro
Medieval Dynasty New Settlement
Moss
Pets & Stuff
Pistol Whip
Premium Bowling
Project Demigod
Puzzling Places
Racket Club
Real VR Fishing
Red Matter
Red Matter 2
Starship Home
Synth Riders
Tetris Effect: Connected
The Climb 2
The Light Brigade
The Thrill of the Fight
Thief Simulator VR: Greenview Street
Titans Clinic
Townsmen VR
War of Wizards
Zero Caliber: Reloaded
Horizon+ Indie Catalog Games
Meta continues to add new games to the separate Indie Games Catalog, and you can see the entire list here.
Alvo
Apex Construct
Arcade Paradise VR
Battlenauts
Bocce Time!
Cactus Cowboy - Desert Warfare
Chess Club
Coffee Quest VR
Crumbling
Cybrix
Darksword: Battle Eternity
Disc Frenzy
Discovery 2
Elysium Trials
Espire 1: VR Operative
Final Overs - VR Cricket
Galaxy Kart
Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game
Gravity League: Galactic Football
Iron Guard
Ironlights
Killer Frequency
Laser Thief
LAX VR
Make it Stable
Motion Soccer PRO
Mythic Realms
Noun Town Language Learning
Operation Serpens
Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye
Rogue Ascent VR
Rogue Pinatas: VRmageddon
RUNNER
Shooty Fruity
Slot Car VR
Space Elevator
Squingle
Stupid Cars
Sushi Ben
Tactica
Taiko Frenzy
The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets
The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend
The Secret of Retropolis
The Wizards
Tiny Archers
Towers and Powers
Ultimate Swing Golf
Underworld Overseer
Vibe Punch
Windlands 2
Meta Horizon+ is a subscription service that gives players access to a monthly selection of games for $7.99 USD per month, or $59.99 USD a year. New users can give Meta Horizon+ a try for a month.
GOLF+, shared a new video showcasing an in-development mixed reality golf simulator.
As part of last week's GOLF+ roadmap announcement, which we covered here, CEO Ryan Engle mentioned golf simulators as a key focus for the company. Today, Engle has revealed a short video demonstrating how just such a technology would work in the real world.
Golf simulators use screens and launch monitors to allow players to shoot their shot with physical clubs and real golf balls. The velocity and path of the ball are shown on a large screen in real time, allowing the player to play courses from all over the world without ever stepping foot outdoors. Players can play in bars, clubs, at dedicated golf sim facilities, in cities, in their own homes, etc.
Golf simulators have become more popular over the last few years as technology has improved. The big challenge with golf simulators, however, lies in their relative inability to successfully replicate the sport's short game and putting.
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Engle believes the solution to this shortcoming is a combined ecosystem of launch monitor and VR headset, and if the video provided is anything to go by, the team may be onto something. While this is a project very much in the development phase, things do look promising.
We'll be sure to keep you updated on future developments in GOLF+, and in the virtual golf space at large.
Though not officially supported, Nintendo's upcoming Virtual Boy library may be playable on Labo VR, the DIY cardboard headset from 2019.
Beginning February 17, Nintendo will offer Virtual Boy Classics via their Switch Online subscription service, bringing the concise library of Virtual Boy games to new audiences for the first time in over 30 years.
In order to play these games, which are stereoscopic 3D experiences, users will need to have an active subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service, as well as buy one of Nintendo's official Virtual Boy headsets, which the company is offering in two varieties: the plastic replica Virtual Boy ($99.99 / £66.99), and the cheaper cardboard model ($24.99 / £16.99).
However a third option may exist.
One Nintendo rep recently stated that the discontinued Labo VR, a do-it-yourself cardboard headset that Nintendo released in 2019 as part of their Toy-Con line of Switch accessories, will work just as well as the new cardboard VB headset. However Nintendo was quick to issue a statement saying that this play method is not officially supported, encouraging users to instead buy the new Virtual Boy accessories.
Nintendo's statement issued earlier today, while extremely clear, directly contradicts a previous statement by the company's rep. Of course, that rep could simply have been mistaken and the old cardboard headset may not in fact work with the Virtual Boy's library. The Virtual Boy operates differently than the flat Switch screen that the Labo was designed for, after all.
Then again, the company may simply be keen on everyone forgetting the Labo VR exists so that users buy the new gizmo. It seems the only way to know for sure is to test the Labo VR when Virtual Boy launches on the Switch in under two weeks (which we'll do).
For clarity, Nintendo has stated that Virtual Boy Classics cannot be played on Switch without using a stereoscopic 3D headset.
Unofficial methods for playing Virtual Boy games on modern VR headsets have existed for quite some time. However, this is the first time since the system's discontinuation in 1996 that Nintendo itself has acknowledged the Virtual Boy in terms of releasing a new game product.
Virtual Boy Classics and the two accessory headsets will be available to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers beginning February 17th, 2026.
Cortopia Studios and Beyond Frames Entertainment are bringing the Ninja Turtles into virtual reality for the very first time with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City.
Launching on Meta Quest, SteamVR, and Pico this spring and priced at $24.99, pre-orders are now live on Meta Quest, where buyers can take advantage of a 20% early-bird discount.
A brand new gameplay trailer has also been revealed, highlighting the ways players will scramble, leap, and sneak through and atop the sewers and roofs of an atmospheric, comic-style New York City, battling the infamous Foot Clan and their villainous leader, Shredder.
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Designed from the ground up for VR, TMNT: Empire City focuses on immersion and optional co-operative play.
"Empire City isn't about playing one of the Turtles so much as it's about being one of the Turtles," says Ace St. Germain, the game's Creative Director. "Each Turtle has their different strengths, we don’t have traditional, pre-defined classes. Instead, based on your chosen builds, the gear equipped, and playstyle, you can freely organize how you want your sessions to play out.
The team has also released a new developer diary video which dives deeper into the way that combat, traversal, and co-operative play work in Empire City.
A time-limited single-player demo arrives February 23rd as part of Steam Next Fest, giving players the chance to experience the game's first 15 minutes, and to play as each of the four Turtles. This demo disappears back into the ooze on March 2nd.
Check back as release approaches for more coverage of TMNT: Empire City.
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