Being in quarantine during the pandemic can mean a lot of things to many people. Some may worry and that is understandable, others may try to continue on to make normalcy, and others may choose to stand up and smash their way to a new person. But does Developer Daruma The Factory,Inc. allow us a way to smash away some frustration? Let’s find out with Smashing Healthy VR for PCVR.
What you are going to find with Smashing Healthy VR is no big introduction that holds your hand. When you first start, you are given the option of control style between Light (Oculus, etc) and Heavy (HTC Vive controller). The option for the Rule which is very simple. Smash the box when it appears and smash it hard. You also have the option for custom music so you can just smash your way to your own favorite tunes. Once you are ready, it’s time to start, but you need to decide if you want the Normal or Hard levels and if you want to just go for 15 minutes or Endless. Remember, if you do go Endless, you may lose all track of time as well as not realizing the sweat that could occur. So make sure regardless of how you go in, stretch before, have some water standing by, and get ready to smash your way to a new you.
Again the gameplay is simple. Smash the boxes, enjoy your escape, and before you know it, you will be sweating to the oldies or new songs or built in game music, regardless, you are getting some exercise. There is also no leaderboards, no high score, and no record of how many hours you smashed. One of the things I really enjoyed is just the all-out neon colors that really pop in Virtual Reality. Not only that, the stages can actually change based on the power of your punches. Which if you really think about it is quite interesting. So every day can be a new experience.
Now because you are using boxing movements to smash the boxes, the harder you hit the more calories you can burn. But it’s when you add your own custom songs that can be fast, then it’s on. Any gameplay footage I tried to get an upload, I got flagged due to copy right and that’s understandable, but needless to say if you put in some Metallica or Guns N Roses and you start now, you may be able to stop feeling it once November Rain hits. (I couldn’t resist).
Overall, Smashing Healthy VR doesn’t try to be this over the top fitness experience. It does what it sets it out to be, a place for you to not have to worry about competition and can exercise on your level with the ability to listen to your own music while trying to keep you motivated. And right now, couldn’t we use some motivation in our lives?
Smashing Healthy VR is out now on Steam. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Daruma The Factory, Inc. please visit their site and follow them on Twitter.
Also, check out the Smashing Healthy VR interview.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to load my music and smash my way to a new me.
