C-Smash VRS was easily one of the best games from the PlayStation VR 2’s launch window. Taking the cult classic arcade and Dreamcast game Cosmic Smash, it shifted the perspective, giving us a minimalist blend of Breakout and real-life Squash for a compelling VR sports game.
But shouldn’t everyone be allowed to smash cosmically? Not just the relative few with fancy hats? Enter C-Smash VRS: New Dimension, a fresh launch and free update coming at the end of September that will bring back flat-screen play and arcade delights alongside all the VR goodness of before.
New Dimension feeds a lot more of the original Cosmic Smash back into C-Smash VRS, specifically with the shift back to a third-person camera – there’s both a dynamic tracking cam and a pulled-back fixed camera – and seeing your avatar race back and forth as you position yourself to slap the ball back down the arena.
Going hands-on back-to-back with a classic arcade cabinet, there’s a very familiar feel between them, with the way that your avatar is animated in running, jumping and hitting, the ease and accessibility of timing shots, and more. However, New Dimension has added a few extra flourishes and moves on top of that. Whether they’re new moves or old, it’s pretty cool to see your character pulling off wall jumps, seeing the spinning flourish of a power shot, or a last ditch dive to reach a ball that’s heading outside of your hitting sweet spot.
Every mode from C-Smash VRS is available to play in New Dimension, whether it’s the Journey mode through strings of action puzzle stages, the endless Infinity mode, co-op or head-to-head multiplayer. Through all of the multiplayer modes, one of the key factors to New Dimension is that this bridges the divide between VR and flat-screen play.
This isn’t quite the first time that this has been done in VR gaming, since we have cross-play in digital board games like Demeo, or more significantly with racing games like Gran Turismo 7 and flight games. However, C-Smash VRS:
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