VR Gaming

50 Days of PS VR #8: 'Super Stardust Ultra VR' Brings An Arcade Classic to VR

, & Jamie Feltham

5 October 2016

50 Days of PS VR #8: 'Super Stardust Ultra VR' Brings An Arcade Classic to VR

8 days to go until the launch of PlayStation VR! We’re counting down to the release of Sony’s VR headset on October 13th by highlighting one game a day for its anticipated release. Today we’re revisiting an arcade classic with Super Stardust Ultra VR.

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Whenever a new piece of Sony gaming hardware is launched, it feels like a Super Stardust game will be there to support it. Housemarque’s celebrated acrade shooter has appeared on PlayStation 3, 4, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita now. Thankfully, PlayStation VR will be no exception; Super Stardust Ultra VR is on its way to the anticipated headset next week with the help of a new developer, d3t Ltd.

For those that don’t know, the traditional Stardust experience takes the form of a third-person isometric ‘shooter’ of sorts, where you steer a ship across tiny planets, blasting incoming rocks and enemies. It’s a fast-paced twin stick shooter with sharp controls and an addicting high-score driven hook. You might think that d3t was simply going to port this experience into VR, making everything pop. While that mode will be available, it’s not the main draw of Ultra VR.

The developer has actually added a first-person mode to the experience for the first time ever. It brings players onto the surfaces of each planet to drive around in the cockpit of their vehicle, shooting down enemies. You use head-tracked controls to aim and fire as you survive waves and waves of opponents in environments that look a little be like the asteroid that Han and co touch down on in The Empire Strikes Back.

Truth be told, we have no idea how well this is going to work for PlayStation VR. The traditional Stardust modes let you see enemies both in front and behind from its viewpoint, and here it looks like you’ll only be able to see forwards. You’re clearly not going to be driving all over planets either. It may be that this is more like a take on Battlezone than it is an arcade classic.

All that’s to say is that it could be a very fun game and hopefully it will capture the spirit of high score chasing for VR, even if it doesn’t necessarily capture the spirit of Stardust‘s gameplay. If you’re longing for that, however, the original modes will be fully playable with a DualShock 4. That pretty much guarantees that there’s a great game to be found in here.

Super Stardust Ultra VR will be releasing next Thursday, October 13th, the same day PS VR hits.