Last week we were kindly invited to a media day for the upcoming PSVR 2 release C-Smash VRS to give it a try and learn more from the teams who developed the title, RapidEyeMovers and Wolf & Wood.
Director of RapidEyeMovers, Jörg Tittel, was inspired 23 years ago by the original Sega title Cosmic Smash. He felt it was perfect for VR and worked for the last few years to bring the, in his own words, “low-gravity squash meets block breaker” title to PSVR 2.
We got hands on with the tutorial, practice and co-op modes, with single player being reserved for the full experience.
The tutorial took me a little while to get to grips with the start as I was slightly confused on how to get the tutorial started (I believe it was more of a me thing than the game!) but once I had got going it started to click pretty quickly. You are presented with a ball that you need to pull towards you to get started. It felt almost Star Was-esque, using the force to move an object!Once it flies towards you you then bat it towards the targets in front of you and earn points.
As I played each level I went from thinking “this is fun” to “okay, how do I change things up to get the most points”. The game very quickly got my competitive juices flowing which to be completely honest I was not expecting at all. I found my self repositioning myself to get the most out of my swings, rethinking the position of the ball and tactically hitting the walls around me to avoid any blockers in front of me.
I’m especially excited to see how the solo player mode plays out because the team specifically mentioned they held it back from the session because they wanted people to be surprised when they played on release.
Things I found over the course of my session was to make sure my PSVR 2 was actually on properly and my view was good, as soon as the headset shifts the quality of your image really suffers and when you’re playing a game like this that requires precision it makes a huge difference. Also make sure you have a proper distance from your screen so you can swing away to your hearts content!
With music being key to the experience, Ken Ishii (Rez Infinite) and Danalogue (The Comet is Coming, Soccer 96) are on board to provide the OST.
Surprisingly, the original Cosmic Smash was also available to play in it’s Arcade format so we also got a chance to play that and compare it. I had a lot of fun with Cosmic Smash, as I did we with C-Smash VRS. It felt different yet similar and they seem to have retained a lot of the ideas of the original.
PSVR 2 has only just released and when any new piece of gaming hardware comes into the mass market, it’s inevitably flooded with launch titles. It can be hard to find a way to separate yourself from the pack and really show why your game stands out. That’s why they’ve decided to release a demo on the 23rd March 2023 with the full game releasing at a later date.
I had an absolute blast trying out C-Smash VRS and it’s a title that actually makes me excited for the PSVR2, especially to play the super secretive solo mode!
