This year saw hand tracking and mixed reality games begin to develop on complementary paths to VR games.
We kicked off the year with an editorial from Job Simulator creator and former Owlchemist Devin Reimer telling developers they need a hand tracking plan. By the end of the year, we've seen some of our first truly impressive uses of the input method. In some cases, VR is better without controllers than with them. This article highlights some of that work.
Devin Reimer
Yesterday, we covered our favorite PCVR, Quest, and Apple Vision Pro games of the year on each of those platforms.
Tomorrow, we'll follow up with PlayStation VR2 as we also cover our Best VR Game Of The Year and VR Developer Of The Year awards.
Best Early Access Hand Tracking Game
We've seen innovative gaming ideas pop up that rely on hand tracking in 2024, but the moment we saw Airspace Defender we knew developer Not Suspicious was on the path to something really interesting with its diorama-sized pinch-to-fire air defense system.
This year's award in the new early access hand tracking game category goes to Airspace Defender, the spiritual successor to the classic Missile Command. The fresh take on this arcade-style gameplay with its vector graphics and nice use of hand tracking make it a must-have for Quest.
Don Hopper
Best Hand Tracking Game
Maestro has potential to be bigger than Beat Saber. That's an outlandish claim, and we'd be fine with being wrong here, but from demo to release to the addition of John Williams' Harry Potter and Fantasia music just a few months after release, we believe France-based development studio Double Jack and their label Creature are well on their way to building out an incredible roleplaying concept.
You step into the role of a conductor in front of their orchestra, wave your arms around to direct their sound, and then turn around to bow to the audience, and all of it seems to access something even more deeply embedded in us than dual-wielding lightsabers, and it's an absolute delight to play when you've left your controllers at home.
We can't wait to see what the developers do next with this concept.
Don Hopper
Best Early Access Mixed Reality App
Plenty of people don't consider themselves capable of sketching out a decent looking figure using a pencil. Pencil in early access on Quest headsets is ready to show you otherwise, giving you a reason to bring along a traditional pencil and a piece of paper as accessories for your headset, because Pencil is always ready to give you something to trace.
If there's an app that can convince parents that a VR headset for their teenager is more than just about gaming, Pencil is the leading candidate. This is one of the most impressive applications to ship on headsets in 2024 and we can't wait to see what developers do with this idea in 2025.
Josh Petersel
Best Mixed Reality Game
We're witnessing more developers embrace mixed reality. Infinite Inside set a high bar, Shattered offers a mixed reality escape room puzzle game with horror elements, while some MR games recreate existing activities like MiRacle Pool. Other standouts include Starship Home, Augmented Empire, Slot Car VR, Cues, and Wall Town Wonders.
In this instance, our award goes to Spatial Ops from Resolution Games, its recent multiplayer FPS. Though the campaign mode doesn't go beyond your standard wave shooter, the multiplayer Arena Mode presents a strong adaptation of Laser Tag across large environments.
Best Mixed Reality App
We saw a number of interesting ideas explore mixed reality in 2024 across Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, but our favorite remains Figmin XR.
Figmin is at its best on Apple Vision Pro but it is incredible on Quest 3 and 3S as well as other headsets. This interactive sandbox app of the year makes full use of the Apple Vision Pro's eye and hand tracking for genuinely creative endeavors in Tilt Brush, also supporting co-location with Quest 3 users. Figmin XR's expansive toolset only just recently reached Apple's headsets, but it also fully embraces the headset's tools and its playground for physics and lighting is an absolute delight.
Ian Hamilton
Most Anticipated Mixed Reality Game of 2025
Thomas Van Bouwel's Laser Dance offered one of the best demos we've seen yet for room-scale mixed reality, and now it is our most anticipated mixed reality game of 2025, after the developer decided to delay it.
Seeing a maze spring up around you and listening to the lasers hum by your ear as you slip past is so much fun. Though some developers are already trying their own take on the same general idea, we believe it's very likely that Thomas Van Bouwel's entry will be worth the wait.
Henry Stockdale
