The last we saw Colonel Sandurz, Dark Helmet, and President Skroob being spun out of control inside Mega Maid’s head out into space. But whatever happened to them? What if there was at a certain point in the movie where things could have had a different outcome?
What if this one scene had both Lone Star and Dark Helmet having a little too much swinging of the Schwartz-rings and at the right moment, when their Schwartz-ring sabers hit caused this explosion making this sort of time riff portal where it sent both of them to another dimension with double Schwartz-rings to finally see who had the biggest Schwartz of them all in a music slicing battle? One side sending blocks to defeat the other in this good vs evil…but you may have to ask, which side is good and which side is evil and does Developer Beat Games help decide who has the biggest Swchartz of them all? Let’s find out with Beat Saber for the PlayStation VR.
So for those who may not know what Beat Saber is and do not know what to do, Beat Saber is a rhythm-based game where you have blocks coming at you with arrows pointing in different directions. Sometimes they are the same directions on both blocks, sometimes they are opposite and sometimes at different angels. Then all you need to do is take your Schwartz-ring sabers and slice in the directions of the arrows to the beats of some pretty awesome music. But there are some things you will want to avoid when playing. Sometimes you will need to duck and move to the left and right to avoid any obstacles and do not try and cut the bombs.
Before you begin, you will want to make sure of a couple of things. Number one, please have space. You do not want to hit any family member, family pet, electronics, ceiling fans or lights. Number two, please make sure your Move controllers are fully charged. And number three, stretch…just stretch. I mention number one for two reasons, once you start playing you may not want to stop so if you have a family member that keeps bothering you, then Beat Games nor do The PlayStation Brahs condone trying to slice your family member to the beat of music and if you do have a family member that is bothering you, then if you swing in a more fierce like motion, maybe they won’t bother you so you can play longer.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s continue on. Some levels might have a requirement that you have a certain amount of points or a select number of misses you can have, to name a few, in order to move on. Remember that for every slice you get 100 points, but depending on how close you were to the center, that will score you and extra 10 points. Early on it’s good to try and get this practice in to hopefully be able to use it for later. But it’s the later where things start to get faster and harder that by that time, if you didn’t get the practice in from earlier on, then remember how I mentioned you should stretch? Yeah, this is where stretching comes into play. When you start adding arrows that can disappear right before they get to you, having to be able to move a certain distance, and increasing the speed, it can be challenging and difficult.
What I did and most are sure to do is to start with the campaign. And when you start this campaign and play the first few levels, stop for a second and think about what you just enjoyed. Then continue. When you get to that one level that smacks you in the face because you thought you were some Beat Saber slicing GOD…think back to your previous enjoyment and embrace it. But, for those up for the challenge, I welcome you to try some modifiers to your mix. So what are the modifiers you might be asking?
If you are up for a challenge than the modifiers might meet that challenge. This is where for example, if you wanted to make any mistake and fail instantly, then you would select Insta Fail. If you want to add disappearing arrows and even make the song faster, you can. But for those that find things a little too challenging at first, the modifiers can assist you as well. You can add No-Fail, where there is no way to fail the level or even add things like no bombs or obstacles or even make the song slower just to get the feel of what would be coming at you normally. You also have Party Mode that will show a local leaderboard so you can see who amongst you is the greatest. There is also Free Play allows you to really get in there and practice so you can attempt to beat the songs on Expert and try to be the best in the world.
Let’s talk about the visuals, music, and immersion. The music and colors that surround you and mix it all together and immerses you are very well done. Playing Beat Saber puts you on this pedestal as if you were on a stage as if you are putting on a concert and challenges you to make you want to do better. And when you look at the visuals, you hear the music and slice to the beats, it really does feel glorious playing.
If anything I would love to see is more songs. Yes, the PlayStation VR got new songs compared to the PC version and yes, new songs are coming and DLC packs which will just add even more fun and replayability. But being able to add our own songs via a USB thumb drive of music that someone already owns would have been killer. I mean when the PC version is already modded and people are adding custom songs, it just makes you wonder how awesome it would be to play Beat Saber to your own music on PlayStation VR.
When playing Beat Saber I failed many times, but I never gave up. And just as in life, don’t give up no matter how many times you may fail, do not give up. You have to pick yourself up, retry, and then once you hit the requirements to pass, it is rewarding and satisfying at the same time. To put in all that fun to fail only to put in more fun to succeed. It sounds like a winning formula to me.
Beat Saber is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift/S on the Oculus Store, and on Steam. To learn more about Beat Saber, please visit the site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, follow them on Instagram, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, the leaderboards are calling.
Mr. PSVR, January 24, 2019, theplaystationbrahs.com