Oculus Touch Launch Titles
When a new video game platform launches, it’s not uncommon for the day-one software lineup to be slim. Marketing teams like to use the term “launch window,” which often describes the first quarter of a product launch, to advertise the content lineup. For several months, we thought Oculus’ marketing team was pulling those same tricks. At E3 2016, Oculus said Touch would have 30 launch titles, but it declined to name most of them (and then continued the confusing silence through Oculus Connect 3). We expected a short list of titles to accompany the Touch controllers, but Oculus gave us a big surprise the week before launch when it revealed that over 50 Touch enabled titles are hitting the Oculus Store on Touch launch day. Here’s a look at what to expect.
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Dead and Burried
Dead and Buried from Oculus Studios and Gunfire Games is competitive multiplayer shooter set in the Wild West. Each player gets dual pistols and unlimited ammo. Pair off into teams of two and battle it out in a team-deathmatch shootout at the saloon. You can play the game against other players, or take on hordes of undead with a partner. Gunfire Games also included a single player shooting gallery mode so you can practice your aim before you jump into the competition. Oculus Studios funded the development of Dead and Buried, and the company is giving it away for free to everyone with Touch controllers.
Developer: Gunfire Games/ Oculus Studios
Genre: Action, Shooter, PVP
Stance: Standing
Price: $39.99 / Free with Touch pre-order
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The Unspoken
The Unspoken is what we imagine Fight Club would have been if Harry Potter founded it instead of Tyler Durden. The Unspoken is an underground fight club for wizards. Throw fireballs, cast spells, and summon golems to defeat your foe. The Unspoken features three character classes, each with a specific set of magic skills. The game also features many unlockable skills and spells that grant you more power to rise in the ranks. The Unspoken is Insomniac Games' third Oculus exclusive title, and its first Touch-supported game. It's also Insomniac's first attempt at a competitive multiplayer game. The developer hopes to turn The Unspoken into a competive eSport.
Developer: Insomniac Games
Genre: Action, Spellcasting, PvP
Stance: Standing
Price: $29.99 / Free with Touch Pre-order
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Superhot
SUPERHOT is a first-person shooter with a unique twist. In SUPERHOT, time moves only when you move. If you’re perfectly still, your enemies won’t move either. SUPERHOT launched in February 2016 for the 2D screen, and now that Touch is launching, the game is making its way to virtual reality. The time-freezing mechanic isn’t as apparent in the VR version of SUPERHOT because you rarely ever stand completely still...moving the Touch controllers counts as moving.
Developer: Superhot Team
Genre: Action, Shooter
Stance: Standing
Price: $24.99
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Arizona Sunshine
Do you think you would survive a zombie apocalypse? Vertigo Games’ first virtual reality title, Arizona Sunshine, might be the best way to find out.
Arizona Sunshine is an open-world zombie apocalypse game made for virtual reality. Put yourself in the shoes of a lone survivor (or one of two in co-op mode) in the middle of the Arizona desert, surrounded by the undead in all directions. Arizona Sunshine features a variety of real-world guns, including several pistols, shotguns, and sub-machine guns. You must scavenge through cars and abandoned buildings for weapons and ammo to help you stay alive as you search for signs of other survivors.
Developer: Vertigo Games
Genre: Action, Survival Shooter
Stance: Standing, Room-scale
Price: $39.99
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Space Pirate Trainer
Space Pirate Trainer is a first-person wave shooter, developed by I-illusions, in which you play as a space pirate armed with an array of weaponry and tasked with defending a space station from an endless barrage of malicious droids. The game includes a revolver with a laser sight, automatic laser pistol, shotgun, grenade launcher, and more. You can also pull out a shield to block incoming fire, or the Volton, which lets you grab droids and throw them around.
Space Pirate Trainer works best with a large play space. The developer created the game for the HTC Vive and took advantage of the platform’s room-scale tracking. It might be a good idea to pick up a third tracking sensor so you can set up the Rift with room-scale tracking to unlock Space Pirate Trainer’s full potential. The extra hardware purchase is justifiable for this award winning game. Space Pirate Trainer won "Best Sound Design," "Best Game," and "Best Independent Experience," at the 2016 Proto Awards.
Developer: I-Illusions
Genre: Action, Gallery Shooter
Stance: Standing, Room-scale
Price: $14.99
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Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope
Croteam’s Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope is a first-person wave shooter with shoot-em-up elements. The game is set in the universe of Serious Sam, a long-running FPS franchise for PC. In The Last Hope, you'll fend off familiar baddies from the Serious Sam series, including Headless Kamikazes and Kleer Skeletons. As you progress through the game, you'll unlock a cache of serious weaponry, including a minigun, a chainsaw, and a double barrel rocket launcher. Croteam decided against using an artificial locomotion system, such as teleporting, to get around the map. The developer chose instead to leave you planted and forced the enemies to comes to you, like the gallery shooters found in arcades in the 90s.
Developer: Croteam
Genre: Action, Gallery Shooter
Stance: Standing
Price: $39.99
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Dig 4 Destruction
Dig 4 Destruction from Colopl Inc. is a first-person open-world online multiplayer deathmatch game with an interesting twist: The entire world around you is destructible. Dig 4 Destruction isn’t the first shooter to incorporate destructible environments, but it might be the first shooter set in a Minecraft-like world. Every time you hit the environment with a bullet, it chips a block away. Dig 4 Destruction features a virtual lobby environment where players can interact with each other amicably while they wait for the next round. Once the fight begins, friends become foes, and it's every many for himself. Just remember, camping in a corner doesn't work when your opponent can come through the wall behind you.
Developer: Colopl Inc.
Genre: Action, Shooter, Casual, PVP
Stance: Room-scale
Price: $11.99
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ZR: Zombie Riot
ZR: Zombie Riot is a zombie apocalypse survival shooter that lets you have full control of how you want to handle the threat. The game offers a wide variety of weapons to choose from, including sniper rifles that allow you to keep your distance from the horde and drop them one by one, flamethrowers and grenades to take zombies down in clusters, and melee weapons for getting up close and personal. It’s your skin on the line, so you decide how you want to survive the end of the world.
Developer: PlaySide VR
Genre: Action, Survival Shooter
Stance: Standing
Price: $19.99
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DEXED
DEXED is an on-rails VR shooter that favors dexterity over anything else. You wield the power of ice and fire, and as you travel through the world of DEXED, you’ll encounter enemies that are vulnerable to one element of the other. Ninja Theory borrowed Panzer Dragoon’s targeting system and adapted it for virtual reality, and took inspiration from Ikaruga for its elemental attack system. The developer also used Ikaruga’s combo system, which adds combo multipliers to your score when you target chains of correct enemies.
Developer: Ninja Theory
Genre: Action, Shooter
Stance: Standing
Price: $9.99
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Super Kaiju
Super Kaiju is a competitive multiplayer battle to the death. In this battle arena game, two kaijus enter, one kaiju leaves. Duke it out against giant “mech-monsters” known as kaijus in the fast-paced action game. Super Kaiju’s developer, Directive Games Limited, built the game to be accessible and easy for anyone to pick up, but with difficult-to-master mechanics. Super Kaiju includes a leaderboard so you can keep track of your global rank and compete for the top spot
Developer: Directive Games
Genre: Action, Shooter
Stance: Seated, Standing, Room-scale
Price: $9.99
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