While it might not have the finesse of a AAA title, it has the charm, uniqueness and personal connection that only indie games can offer. In that way, Bizarre Barber feels more like it belongs in an art gallery than on a top 25 list, and that’s the best thing about it.

Neptune Flux is short and inessential, but serves as a good example of a satisfying, self-contained VR short story. Perhaps Zoxide once had dreamed of it being more than that, but the immersive atmosphere and interesting — if flawed — story still made this a journey I was glad I went on.

Sairento VR is a game with a ton of stuff to do and some really fun core gameplay elements, but it just doesn’t feel like it all comes together well in the end. There’s a lack of meaningful depth, some glaring repetition, and a general lack of polish that holds this action-packed romp from truly achieving VR greatness.

I want to love Legendary Tales but I don't know that I'd recommend it. The biggest hurdle it fails to clear is that it's come out in a post-Dungeons of Eternity world. Frankly, the combat feels better in Dungeons of Eternity. Things are more fluid, hitboxes are sweeter, and it's just a smoother experience. I like the RPG systems of Legendary Tales more and the legendary items substantially more, but you have to grit your teeth to enjoy it all. Mostly, though, I think I just miss the Early Access version of this game, and that's a weird place to be.

Archangel is an ambitious game, just in the wrong ways. The on-rails gameplay provides a few hours of forgettable fun, but the emphasis on a generic story and cast is to its detriment. VR can blend narrative and interaction together in meaningful ways, but Archangel fails to capitalize on them. Still, this is one of the more polished VR shooters out there at the moment, especially on PSVR, and those of you with itchy trigger fingers will probably find a satisfying distraction here.

Just in Time’s premise alone is brilliant enough to warrant a look, though the game only scratches the surface of its potential. When it gets it right, saving lives in slow-motion is a silly thrill, but many of the game’s levels are simply unmemorable. Second Wind is onto something here, but its short campaign never successfully mixes the comedy, action, and puzzle-solving into one truly satisfying package. These elements instead remain separate, creating an inconsistent, albeit promising, experience.

Iron Guard: Salvation offers more than a simple tower defense title in VR, but it's not quite enough to make it a fully fledged RTS. There are good foundations here and welcome mission variety, but awkward design choices from Xlab Digital and a lack of depth are holding it back. Without any multiplayer options either, this hinders the game from living up to its full potential.

Who knows — a few years from now, there might be a pinball equivalent to Walkabout Mini Golf, allowing you to spend time with friends and fully recreate the joy of spending time with others at an arcade. For now, this is as close as it gets to mimicking the feeling of actually using a pinball table, although you might have heard this before.

It’s certainly easy for basically anyone to craft a simple beat in Track Lab, but someone looking for anything more advanced would be better spending their time in a program like GarageBand. For VR junkies, the prospect of becoming a virtual DJ is certainly appealing, but a game with pre-selected and popular song clips like Electronauts will be a lot more satisfying and a lot less time-consuming.

Operation Chromite 1950 has a fascinating premise that, like so many other VR shooters, is betrayed by underwhelming design. The handful of levels never amount to anything other than a disconnected, thrill-free shooting gallery and the game never really shows you why the conflict you’re aiding is so important. This could have been something to replace the history books, but it’s better left in the flood of Steam shovelware.

Honing in on the original game’s most effective sequence doesn’t do much to elevate Unearthing Mars 2. Dull shootouts and a story that’s both too boring and incomprehensible to follow put the game’s impressive production values to waste. Unless it’s willing to put in the time and effort to create more engaging content like the mid-game boss fight, Winking VR best abandon the hope that this could ever be PSVR’s premiere sci-fi franchise.

There's a good game hidden somewhere in Ember Souls, even if the current version makes it hard to parse underneath a ton of jank. The core conceit with the game's heavy emphasis on parkour platforming, and the unique level design centered around the use of your Ember Stones feels like it should work better than it does - yet performance and tracking issues collide with uneven game design that hold the whole experience back. Maybe with a few patches the game can reach a point where it can be recommended, but in the current state it's hard to do so. Ember Souls' heart is in the right place, but the execution is frustrating and promising in equal measure.

It's hard not to think of the wasted potential here with COLD VR, and the 40-stage campaign took me roughly three hours to complete. ALLWARE's debut game needed more time, better balancing, and considerably more polish to fine tune the core campaign before next week's launch. That's especially true when playing on Quest compared to the Steam edition. I hope future updates can address these issues because there are moments where COLD VR delivers a fun twist on SUPERHOT's premise. I came away from numerous levels celebrating my victory, dodging bullets in slow motion still feels cool, and the action is satisfying when it works. Presently though, it's a difficult game to recommend.

Unearthing Mars is a difficult game to write about simply because it comes and goes without ever giving you much to go on. By the time the credits roll you’ll already find yourself forgetting what actually happened. Maybe there is life to find on Mars, but you won’t find any here.

As a VR game this is most often dated and only rarely the eye-opening adventure that a VR game about characters that can climb inside your psyche should be. I’m happy that the Psychonauts are alive and well, however anyone but the series’ most devoted fans should wait until next year for what will hopefully be the coming home party they so truly deserve.

Out of Ammo: Death Drive comes and goes without making much of an impression. Its 90 – 120-minute campaign fails to ever excite or amuse, and there’s only the beginnings of what could have been a great tower defense game to experience. VR has moved beyond the need for raw content for the sake of having something to play, and Death Drive is firmly stuck in the past as a result. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

RollerCoaster Tycoon Joyride serves as a decent proof-of-concept for PlayStation VR, but more than two years after the headset launches, is that really what we need anymore? During our time with the game, we also experienced three crashes and a bug that forced us to restart it completely, and without a large group of players interested in designing their own courses, it’s going to end up like many of the worst RollerCoaster Tycoon theme parks: empty and dull.

Don’t Knock Twice feels very much like it was conceived by making a checklist of features and ideas, doing just enough to include those core essentials, and then stopping short of delivering much in the way of true horror game inspiration. The versatility of playstyles in and out of VR is commendable, but once you settle on a way to experience it the actual game is over far too soon. While you’re there the scares are good and the atmosphere is rich, but it doesn’t do enough to really break new ground.

Bloody Zombies has a confusing existence. On the one hand the gameplay is fun enough to entertain for a few hours, especially if enjoyed with friends, but it lacks enough pull as an original concept to really offer much in the way of innovation. For all intents and purposes this is a very by-the-numbers sidescrolling brawler with a zombie theme that just so happens to let you look around at levels in a VR headset. Unless you’re dying for a Streets of Rage-esque experience in VR then you can probably survive by just passing on this one.

While it has some interesting ideas on how to present mental suffering, the innocent act of overlooking one crucial moment meant it ultimately failed to justify its tour of misery and left me with too sour a taste. By the time I discovered there was a sunnier conclusion out there, the damage had been done. That, coupled with the poor VR optimization, make it hard to recommend to anyone with an interest in its subject matter and I would advise people suffering from depression to actively avoid its troubling depictions. There may be some that applaud this unflinching approach to an impossible situation, but a lighter touch may have been the better approach.

Ark Park is neither the thrilling prehistoric vacation of a lifetime nor the intense Jurassic shooter you might have hoped it to be. Whatever goodwill it builds in its opening moments is quickly spent on wearisomely padded out crafting mechanics and a half-baked, ill-advised wave shooting component that would have been better left on the cutting room floor.

Monkey King isn’t a bad VR animation, but it’s just not that great either. The three episodes dovetail together nicely, but it never feels like it really takes advantage of VR as a medium. Visually it felt underwhelming and left a lot to be desired.

Space Control is an underwhelming experience, not least because the seeds of a genuinely cool VR concept are clearly there. The premise is decent, the setup works well enough and the idea of blending episodic animated storytelling with interactive VR gameplay feels like something that absolutely should work. As a narrative comedy the writing lacks the sharpness and consistency needed to sustain so much passive listening, and as a game, the interactive elements are too limited and too consequence-free to feel genuinely engaging. Unfortunately, Space Control never fully commits to either side of that equation, and as a result fails to deliver on either.

Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot has all of the right ingredients to be an exciting VR game focused on murdering tons of Nazis, but ends up feeling like it’s just too safe with far too little content. Mechanically it works well and there are some quality moments of fun, but just as the world starts to get interesting it’s all over.

Extremely simple and frustrating beyond belief, Racket Fury is disappointing because there is a good game underneath it all. Never has performing an action in a VR game felt so accurate to the real thing, and better balancing and more modes could turn it into a must-have for sports fans. Right now, however, it’s very far off from being that game, and you might have to spend a few hundred dollars extra to afford anger management sessions.

MoonStrike has a lot of good ideas, but it just feels like a small vertical slice of an otherwise much larger game. Without balanced factions, more game modes, and some type of way to upgrade units or progress somehow through the course of a match it gets old very quickly. I love the concept and creativity on display at a fundamental game mechanic level, but there just isn’t enough in the package to push it beyond bland, mediocrity. Especially in the face of options like Brass Tactics.

Million Arthur is a passable card battler that struggles to find purpose in VR. Though its combat system may be engaging on a basic level, the hefty amount of story told through virtual screens, lack of interactivity in its virtual worlds and the unwelcome sting of in-app purchases left me wondering why Square Enix didn’t choose a better-fitting game for its first VR JRPG port. A very niche audience might find something to love about Million Arthur, but it’s got very little to say about what VR can do for the JRPG. Stick to Dragon Front instead.

When Bravo Team was announced at E3 last year it looked like an exciting, tactical shooter that would let players navigate environments in cooperative multiplayer. It more or less looked like the PSVR’s very own Onward or Rainbow Six. In reality it’s just another wave shooter, even if it uses a nifty gun controller. If you’re waiting on a more fully-featured shooter for PSVR, then keep an eye on Firewall: Zero Hour instead.