Carnival Games VR: PS VR Review

Carnival Games VR: PS VR Review

Released by 2K Games
Platform: PS VR

All the fun of the fair comes to your front room with 2K Games' first VR outing.

Essentially a game that's all about racking up points, getting tickets and using said tickets to buy toys and collectables like a normal fair, Carnival Games is very much as you'd expect from the VR Experience.

As a pair of floating hands, it's up to you to control things and take control of the games.

Whether it's a case of hurtling balls at a mountain of bottles for points, or rolling them for a high score in Alley Ball, this is family friendly fare that hits the spot and is fun if you get a heap of mates around and start a series of mini game challenges.

The tracking is smooth, and while the floating hands is severely weird and looks rather unusual the game mechanics work pretty simply and relatively well. It's also immersive in its own cartoony way as you have to spin all the way around to ensure you get all the delights of the fair ground (though that's trickier if you're trying to utilise the Move controllers in a seated environment, and can lead to the bashing repeatedly of the walls).

There are 12 games to play and while the tickets gained give you the chance to purchase prizes, the idea of playing with them in the Playroom to unlock achievements seems more than a trifle odd (and to be frank, a little banal). Tickets are needed to unlock further alleyways and more games, so it's a sense of grind there in many ways.

Nicely colourful and very playable in a few family sessions, Carnival Games VR may be as heady a thrill as the fair is, but the novelty wears off quickly. More a distraction than a long time gaming prospect, Carnival Games (much like SingStar) benefits best from a family session or a gathering of mates - which is no bad thing for a headset that essentially turns the social into the anti-social.