Effec­tive games always invoke a strong response from the play­er, whether pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive. Vir­tu­al real­i­ty has the added ben­e­fit of total immer­sion, which real­ly ramps up any of those feel­ings. The game thus far that had the biggest effect on me has eas­i­ly been Thumper. Hurtling the play­er down the lane at break­neck speeds, this trip­py rhythm vio­lence game suc­ceeds at feel­ing immense­ly oppres­sive. The speed of the game feels equal­ly impres­sive, espe­cial­ly with the VR head­set strapped to your face.

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One of the most inter­est­ing things I’ve noticed about Thumper involves its use of VR. The head­set is option­al, you can play it using a TV, but when I’m not using VR I am ter­ri­ble at Thumper. Strap that head­set back on my head and I become an expert at the game. It’s very inter­est­ing that while it’s not required, it can great­ly affect how well I can play. I’ve always loved rhythm games and Thumper is top of its class. It takes a lot to dial into the beat and does some real­ly cool with time sig­na­tures. It is elat­ing to fin­ish­ing a stage per­fect­ly and I am still work­ing toward get­ting that plat­inum tro­phy. As I blast down the space-bee­tle path, Thumper eas­i­ly slams into the fourth spot in my top ten games of 2016.

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