Pop-Up Pilgrims

Challenging enough, Pop-Up Pilgrims is a pleasant puzzle-platform with Lemmings in its DNA and a discretely exploited VR.

Pop-Up Pilgrims is a very interesting Lemmings-like concept designed for the VR. If you like this type of strategy game, give it a try.

Pop-up Pilgrims may not be the best showcase of VR technology but there is no doubt that the aesthetic style benefits from the perspective. It is not only gorgeous to look at, but beneath the graphics is a simple yet genuinely inventive game with some great ideas.

Pop-Up Pilgrims is a super-challenging VR game that's sure to reward perfectionists who love to strategize. However, its unreasonably sensitive mechanics will frequently make you feel like brutally bashing your headset in.

​Pop-Up Pilgrims does not reach any high or low. The best way to enjoy it is probably by playing it in short sessions, like a mobile game.

Pop-up Pilgrims is a beautiful and charming game that is pleasant for a time, until players discover that it carries some backdoor punishments for not getting perfect scores on every level. Compounding the issue, the game never explains this unfortunate mechanic, instead allowing the player to discover how things work when they are already in the midst of their punitive levels. There is no question that the game is well made, and fans of Lemmings-style games will probably find something to love here, Pop-up Pilgrims left me more frustrated than entertained.

Pop-Up Pilgrims is a puzzle-platform that manages to be entertaining while showing numerous flaws, such as the scarce variety of situations the game has to offer. That, along with a questionable use of the PS VR, prevents us from fully recommending the game.

While it is fun to experience Pop-Up Pilgrims in a somewhat faux VR mode, it is really a mere 3D presentation when you get down to it. You are truly restricted to a god-like point of view. And the gameplay mechanics don’t quite gell with the VR implementation.

Though later levels offer different and more challenging obstacles, it won’t take you long to settle in. I wish the practice of targeting and interacting with people was less reliant on the headset, but if that had been the case, there’d be no reason to make it a virtual reality enabled product (though to be truthful, it doesn’t need to be). If you’ve played any of Dakko Dakko’s previous games, you have a fairly good idea of what you’re getting into; a simple and straightforward game that bubbles with personality and is effective at passing the time.

Pop-Up Pilgrim is a discreet puzzle-game that picks up many mechanics that came from Lemmings. Published exclusively for PlayStation VR, it would work much better on mobile, considering that it makes a questionable use of virtual reality.

Pop-up Pilgrims is a title exclusively conceived for PlayStation VR, yet one often has the impression that the use of the viewer is just an accessory that weakens the potential of the gameplay instead of sharpening it.

The artdesign is beautiful (minus the big headed ugly pilgrims), the depth behind the VR glasses is impressive. But to be honest, the lemmings principle is not enhanced in any form by virtual reality and gets redundant too fast.

The best thing that Pop-Up Pilgrims does is present a fascinating papercraft pop-up world that more VR developers should explore. Had it offered a more consistent growth on mechanics and rapid change between the variety, it would have stuck with me more than it did. Instead it was a monotonous and repetitive 60 levels that didn’t offer anything memorable during the five or so hours that it took to complete. Pop-Up Pilgrims isn’t a bad game by any stretch, but it’s not all that interesting or engaging either.

Pop-Up Pilgrims is far from a must-have for PlayStation VR though helps demonstrate the tech’s implementation in terms of clever gameplay mechanics and not just immersive dioramas.

Pop-Up Pilgrims has a lot to like — cute and varied character design, appropriately festive music, colorful, animated visuals that overflow with sakura blossoms. However, I simply couldn’t look past the struggles I had with the gameplay. Due to the clunky, headset-guided controls and taxing physical requirements, Pop-Up Pilgrims would probably be a better experience without VR.