Remember Kinect? Back when it was called “Project Natal,” I had pretty high hopes for this technology. In all fairness, those hopes may have been further fueled by some tech demos that, well, kind of hid the truth.
When Kinect launched it was a wreck, but it had some pretty damn good games on it – I had a blast with Fruit Ninja Kinect and would often pull it out and play (ooer) at house parties, while Ubisoft’s Child of Eden was hands down the best.
Which brings us to Thrasher, Thumper’s spiritual successor, just released on Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. As you’ll see in this week’s episode of VR Corner, Thrasher eschews Thumper’s industrial soundtrack-driven uphill toboggan ride for a gameplay loop that feels like a cross between Fruit Ninja and Child of Eden, with a dash of Jeff Minter-esque psychedelic atmosphere thrown in for good measure.
Graphically, Thrasher looks fantastic on the Quest 3. There isn’t a ton of variety, at least in the first three zones, but the colors are bold and bright and everything looks beautiful and crisp in the headset.
Like Thumper, Thrasher’s control scheme is fairly simple: you only need one arm to play the game, which you use to swipe your sci-fi electric eel around the screen to smash things of different shapes. Also like Thumper, gameplay mechanics are added bit by bit over the course of the game: as the game progresses, dangerous red shapes that you must avoid are added to the mix, as well as power-ups that slow down time or grant you the ability to charge through pesky red obstacles.
It’s a great gameplay loop, and a wonderfully easy control scheme makes the game completely accessible to both veteran players and VR newbies, but at the same time, it didn’t feel as engaging as Thumper. Thrasher’s boss fights were rather disappointing, and while the music is atmospheric enough, I missed the epic, adrenaline- and anxiety-inducing audio of Thumper.
However, please be aware that the thoughts on this page are only first impressions based on the first hour of the game. I may change my mind after playing a bit more, or there may be some unexpected, super crazy twists in the gameplay along the way. Still, I have a feeling that Thrasher will have a hard time breaking out of Thumper’s shadow. Is this a classic case of difficult second album syndrome? If you’ve played Thrasher, let me know what you thought in the comments below.
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