Get your VR headset carrying case ready, because if you’re visiting family this holiday season, there are a ton of great games out there you should consider showing off to first-timers of all ages.
Consumer VR headsets have been around for nearly a decade now, but many people still haven’t tried it—or worse, tried it and walked away without experiencing the slate of truly awesome VR games out on modern headsets.
And there are a ton of great games out there—a lot more than we can mention here. When you’re cracking out the VR headset though to mixed age group of VR first-timers, you might want to go easy on story-based stuff, or things that require a lot of explanation and artificial locomotion. Whoever you’re entertaining though, just make sure to mirror your headset’s display to a monitor or TV so everyone can watch!
Walkabout Mini Golf
Walkabout Mini Golf barely requires any explanation, as you putt-putt your way through a ton of truly astounding mini golf courses ranging everything from 18 holes inspired by Venice, Italy and a ton of official collabs with the makers of Wallace and Gromit, MYST, Meow Wolf, and more. Everyone can get in on the fun, since putters resize according to you height, making it easy to pass around to kids, teens and adults of all ages. There’s also crossplay with the mobile ‘Pocket Edition’ game, making for more fun for local multiplayer.
Get it on: Quest, PSVR 2, Pico, SteamVR
OhShape
Inspired by the Japanese TV show ‘Hole in the Wall’, OhShape is a VR rhythm game where players dance with their full body to go through, punch, and dodge walls following the beat of the music. It’s an easy one to boot up and laugh as everyone tries their best to fit through increasingly difficult shapes.
Beat Saber
Beat Saber constantly shows up on our holiday roundups for a reason. Incredibly addictive and easy to pick-up, the block-slashing rhythm game makes for one of the best entry points for VR firstimers, but has enough depth to appeal to all ages and skills. You may want to limit playtime to 5 – 15 minutes per person, giving enough time for failures and song repeats.
Get it on: Quest, PSVR 2, SteamVR
Pistol Whip
Pistol Whip is just as addictive as Beat Saber, but instead of slicing blocks to the beat, you’re shooting dudes John Wick-style. It’s all very stylized, so there probably won’t be much, if any issue with parents worried about on-screen violence, so it should easily appeal to older kids, teens and adults of all ages.
Get it on: Quest, PSVR 2, SteamVR
Tentacular
Tentacular is just as silly as it looks. You’re a gigantic, but good-hearted tentacled beast trying to figure out its place in the world who can solve puzzles, but also just flail about and smack the crap out of stuff. It’s probably better for smaller groups, and maybe not the first game you grab as a crowd-pleaser, but definitely worth passing around to puzzle fans in the group.
Get it on: Quest, PSVR 2, SteamVR
Blaston
Blaston is a room-scale, free-to-play dueling game that puts you in a ring to go mano-a-mano, giving you multiple weapons to shoot and dodge around. Online matches are fun for seasoned players and any household with two VR headsets, but there’s also a single player mode for some quicker and easier human vs. AI action. It’s easy to learn, so everyone will probably want a turn.
Get it on: Quest, Pico, SteamVR
Puzzling Places
Puzzling Places is as relaxing and wholesome as a regular 2D jigsaw puzzle, although way more immersive thanks to its hyper-realistic miniatures of beautiful places from around the globe. This is a good one for anyone, although you may want to show it to people who prefer to stay still and seated. It may lack crowd-pleasing wow factor, but it certainly shows off how ‘neat’ VR can be, especially to older family members. And it has a mixed reality mode for Quest.
Superhot VR
Old but gold, Superhot VR tosses a little time-bending cartoon violence your family’s way that shouldn’t receive too many odd glances from the older generation. Time moves when you do, so you can plan out tactical punches and gunshots as you Matrix dodge around the red crystalline foes, which shatter in such an oh-so-pleasing way.
Get it on: Quest, PSVR 1, SteamVR
Wooorld
Wooorld is like Google Earth for Quest. Browse an immersive, 360 Street View photospheres, or look down at a tinker toy map of 3D cities while in virtual reality or in mixed reality mode. This one definitely appeals to users looking for an immersive hit of nostalgia, as you can visit old homes, cities, countries, anywhere to spark a long conversations and stories down memory lane.
Get it on: Quest
Racket NX
Racket NX may be just what the doctor ordered to get up and burn some post-feast calories, as you thwack balls at a reactive dome around you, racking up points and combos in this futuristic racket sport. Everyone from kids to squash-playing adults can pick it up and start playing in single-player. Even better if you have two headsets, as you can directly compete for the high score.
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs
Angry Birds, but in VR (or MR if you have Quest 2/3/Pro)! Everyone knows it, and everyone can figure out how to play without so much as a tutorial, making it super easy to pass around, and challenge each other to blasting the green piggies in the least number of shots and getting the highest score.
Get it on: Quest, PSVR 2, SteamVR
I Expect You to Die Trilogy
Any of the three I Expect You to Die games are super approachable, and will make for some great fails to watch as VR players are gassed, exploded, and otherwise inventively snuffed out as a result of the trilogy’s deadly escape rooms. Plop down anyone in any of these three games, although any of the three may be better suited for the younger bunch to crowd around and take turns on missions.
Vader Immortal – Episode 1
There is a young Padawan among you who hasn’t seen the true power of the Force. If you have the time, this is a good one to plop the Star Wars fans among you down and leave them alone for a solid hour in a Galaxy far, far away. It’s not great for crowds, but if you have a bunch of Lets-players in the group, it may just be worth watching too. There are three episodes, but number one is the most approachable, and has the shortest run-time.
Get it on: Quest
Space Pirate Trainer
Space Pirate Trainer is fundamentally a wave shooter, but it’s still one of the best-looking and most approachable out there. The genre goes a lot deeper than SPT nowadays, but it’s still the easiest one to put on someone’s head without any real explanation required.
Bigscreen Beta
Not a VR game as such, but one of the most transformative things you can do for some people not into gaming is put them down in front of a giant virtual screen, and show them that among all else, VR headsets can be their own private theaters. Bigscreen is social, but it doesn’t have to be. Plop your old uncle down in a room in solo mode and let him click around free live TV, or hook it up to a computer to mirror your monitor for anything you already have access to.
Don’t Miss
- Demeo – Like any board game, Demeo takes some explanation to play, but provided you own the game on PC, console or iOS, you can easily play a cross-platform match locally. The tabletop game could easily take up your entire post-festivity lunch too, so be prepared for a longer tutorial, but also a longer and more fulfilling gameplay session. Find it on Quest, PSVR 2, SteamVR, Pico.
- Gran Turismo 7 (PSVR 2) – If you don’t mind hauling over a steering wheel controller, you could easily dedicated most of the afternoon to whipping around a set of global speedways in everything from F1 cars to vintage Ferraris, appealing to kids, teens, and motorhead adults alike. Find it on PSVR 2.
- Quest Intro Apps – Oculus First Contact, First Steps, and First Encounters (Quest 3) are great ways to ease in newbies if they’re looking to learn more about the headset and common control schemes. Not a ton of crowd-pleasing wow factor, but it might be just the thing for a smaller gathering of would-be Quest converts.
- Half-Life: Alyx (PC VR)– It’s not going to be the easiest to show off, since you’ll need to have a specific save state in mind to drop players into, but it’s tough to beat if you’re looking to wow anyone with the best-looking VR games out there. Find it on SteamVR.
- Moss 1 & 2 – Both games will immediately appeal to platformer fans, although both in the series may require a quieter environment, and not so much expectation to wow a group. Find it on Quest, PSVR 2, SteamVR.