Polygon Nightmare (Oculus Rift)

Price at Time Of Review: Free
Comfort Rating: Red (Extreme Movement)
Genre: Shooter
Supported Platforms: Oculus Rift, Rift S
Supported Controllers: Oculus Remote, Oculus Touch
Best Playing Position: Standing
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

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Description: Tribute to “Dactyl Nightmare” for the Virtuality Arcade platform 1991. Platform shooter, best practised with the Touch controllers. Score based single player only, against NPC. After 8 shoots is fired, the Dactyl will come for you.

Review: Sadly I am old enough to remember the “First Wave” of virtual reality arcade machines and let me tell you that the moment you tried them, you knew VR wasn’t ready yet. It was slow, nausea inducing and the gyroscope tracking was atrocious. But yet, it was still exciting and without those times we wouldn’t be where we are today. For those of you who are reading this, but are not old enough to remember those times this game is based on “Dactyl Nightmare”. It was a multiplayer map with several levels and platforms. You had the use of grenade launcher weapons to take down the evil looking pterodactyl enemy.

So here we are 26 years later and playing that same game on the Oculus Rift. It is still the same game, you get 8 shots, kill whoever you can before the Dactyl comes to get you. There is one button to walk forward and one button to fire. There is nothing complicated here, just some good old fashioned retro VR fun.

Polygon Nightmare is a reminder of fun days spent in the arcade and playing these new “VR” games. With the “Emulator” mode on you really get a view on how bad it was back then with just 60 FOV and low frame count. While I certainly wouldn’t have paid for it, given that it is free it’s well worth a download by anyone who is old enough to remember those times or people who are curious about what it was like. This game is a gentle reminder of VR times gone by, after playing this game for a while you will appreciate how far VR has come.