[VR Game Review] Thumper: Oh My God, Holy Shit, What the Fuck

That's right, it's one of those games. I don't know of any single genre to plop this into. Rhythm? Racing? Horror? Shooting? You don't really shoot, at least not on command. You're not racing anybody else, just going fast as fuck. It's a rhythm game but somehow that just doesn't capture it.

The closest comparison I can draw is that this is what the baby of Rez and SkyRoads would look like. You're a chrome space beetle hauling ass down some kind of psychedelic space road. You'll have to angle into turns in order not to crash. You'll have to jump over spikes and other similar obstacles.

You'll have to smash through some barriers, switch lanes, ground pound some lights to destroy distant shields via shockwaves and all manner of other gameplay mechanics I didn't expect from screenshots showing a single lane road. I never imagined the complexity I was in store for when I bought this.

Take a hit, fail to bank into a turn or fuck up in some other way, you'll lose your shell. Wings exposed, you'll lose a life if you're hit in this state. Fortunately, glowing blue powerups can restore your shell, typically found at checkpoints or as a reward for landing each hit on the boss at the end of every level.

I can do nothing but applaud the sheer variety this game offers. You might not expect that from the screenshots. I didn't. But absolutely every level introduces some new gameplay element, constantly keeping things fresh before they even have a chance to become boring.

The visuals are a marvel to behold. Stereoscopic 3D adds immeasurably to the appeal, which is good because you won't be turning your head much. This was kind of an odd choice to port to VR given that you're staring straight ahead all the time, and it has no need of motion controls (this is a gamepad only title).

It quickly begins to make sense, however, when the rhythm becomes really raucous. The brutality and speed of the gameplay also do loads to pull you into it, even before the inherently immersive nature of VR is factored in. Adding VR to that really puts it over the top. You will forget where you are, or that you have a life outside this game while playing it.

There's nothing in the way of a story, but there are two types of boss battle. Mini bosses occur within levels at various points and tend to be abstract shapes that employ some new trick in each level to protect themselves from you. It's never spelled out how to defeat each of them, and learning by trial and error winds up teaching you a new gameplay mechanic you will use in subsequent levels.

This is the way to do it if you ask me. It can be frustrating but on the flip side, it makes it all the more satisfying when you work out what the trick to each mini boss is. The main recurring boss is a hideous floating head which escapes after each defeat, until the final battle.

This brings to mind the endless, addictive replayability of classic Atari games. I can't get it off my mind when I'm not playing it, and the relentless beats of the soundtrack will no doubt invade my dreams. I swore I would avoid gamepad titles after I got my Touch controllers, but I'm glad I didn't. I give Thumper a 10/10.

^{All images courtesy of Drool and Oculus}