VirtuGO

Developer / Publisher – SurrealVR, Inc
Price – US $1.99 / EU €1.99 / UK £1.49 / AU $32.95
Release date – December 19th, 2017
Control Method – Dual Shock 4
Pro Patch – No
Digital only – Yes
Reviewed on – PS4 Pro

Who doesn’t like a good VR throwback to classic puzzle games of old?  I know I played a game so similar to this back in my youth and even as I write this, it’s driving me insane that I can’t remember what it is.  Anyways, with VirtuGo, we get a very simple, puzzle game based around 1, singular mechanic; stacking blocks of matching colors in a few different types of rows to eliminate them and make room for more, that’s it.

This is the whole game, right here, in this pic.

It’s DS4 only here and it’s about as simple as it comes.  Move a platform back and forth to catch incoming square blocks and place them in 1 of 5 spot beneath the platform.  You can speed up a row allowing you rush forward a much-needed piece.  These square blocks come in a variety of colors and stacking them in rows of 3 to 5 in any direction will cause them to disappear, freeing up space for more blocks.  As you accrue points, every 10,000 points gets you a rainbow block that can be used as any color.

It’s a basic looking game, mostly comprising of darker tones, greys and blacks.  The blocks come 4 colors; red, green, blue and yellow which are neon in color and stand out in contrast to the rest of the game.  My one issue with the visuals is that to some of us colorblind folk, neon yellow and green can be hard to distinguish from each other and caused me a few catastrophic errors.  The lone stage looks like a hanger bay in a spaceship with dark grey blocks providing the play area.  The visuals look fine considering the content, and while I would have appreciated a stage mix-up once and while, it’s not a huge issue.

Consisting of 2 difficulty levels w/ 100 stages each, the running drive here is to see just how far you can get or just how long you can last.  The mechanics here are fine, fun, challenging and somewhat addictive, but to play through all 100 stages just gets old, even with the challenge ramping up the further you progress.  A continue option would have been a welcome addition as even playing through just 10 stages feels like more than enough of this game for one sitting.  The one additional mode mode is a time trial that requires you to get the most points in 3 minutes with bonus time being added for scoring more points.  It’s more of the same for the most part.

You want to avoid stacking these 5-high at all costs!

This is a budget puzzler and it shows and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s not all that great either.  VirtuGo delivers exactly what it promises and nothing else.  If you are in the mood for a classic, simple puzzler that relies on a little strategy and quick reflexes than this will do just that, but I feel only a select few will see this game through to its final stage and for the record, I am not one of those few.

What would I pay? $2 is perfectly fine asking price.  Playing through all the content will swallow up a couple of hours of your time and those looking to test their puzzle skills are sure to get a lot out of this.