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One of the most common questions we get when new VR headsets come out is what games and demos should I play? With the Pico 4 it is no different. So after weeks of playing and testing I compiled a list of the best 10 games and demos to play on the Pico 4 VR headset.
Disclaimer, the list is not in order but is structured into recognizable genres
Disclaimer, the list is not in order but is structured into recognizable genres.
If you are looking for an excellent Social VR experience while catching a wide variety of fish in relaxing settings, Bait! is it. In fact, this Pico Store VR game even has a decent storyline.
A far cry from Bait!, Hyper Dash is a free-to-play multiplayer arena shooter with high-octane action and dual-wielding a rooster of guns. Also, you won’t have to wait in the lobby before your shootouts due to the game’s freemium model.
The penultimate Social VR app has come to the Pico Store, Rec Room is a space where you can build and play user-generated games and hang out in a virtual VR world with colorful avatars as your friends and family.
Winning the VR game of the year award in 2019, A Fisherman’s Tale is a captivating narrative-driven VR adventure and physics puzzler.
One of the pivotal action-adventure VR games is The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is on the Pico Store. In particular, I like the semi-open world design with the faction warfare bringing dynamic gameplay to this survival RPG zombie title.
While the sequel to the seminal adventure RPG Saints & Sinners hasn’t arrived at the Pico Store yet, it is announced on the platform and will come soon.
The latest VR game on this list and one we have been eagerly waiting for, Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, is a show that oozes the atmosphere which has translated beautifully in virtual reality. While the 3-hour campaign feels short-lived, it is riveting that any fan of the show will enjoy it.
Playing as a young pre-teen in first person and the nostalgic arcade games from the 1990s, Pixel Ripped 1995 benefits from its novel premise in that you are balancing beating the arcadey games played in the VR world while turning them off when your mother is about to come in and spoil the fun. I highly recommend this one if you were an 80s or 90s kid.
Speaking of nostalgia, Red Matter and the sequel Red Matter 2 took me back to the glorious Command & Conquer and Red Alert days as this first-person interplanetary adventure-puzzler is driven by full-motion video cutscenes.
Despite its half-a-decade age, the stylized art direction of greyscale with popping orange figures is timeless. Superhot VR is the original puzzler-shooter game taken to the next level as time only moves when you move, turning you into a first-person Max Payne or The Matrix slow-motion shootout scene. This game is a must.
The heart-pumping action shooter with grappling-hook mechanics makes you feel like Levi from Attack on Titan. In short, you’ll be glued to your Neo 4 headset during every play session with SWARM. Just keep in mind that while shooting drones in midair is exciting, you may experience some dizziness.
If you’ve always wanted to be a gladiator and shout: “are you not entertained!?” Then GORN is simply for you. While it doesn’t feature the riveting story the quote is from, the hacking and slicing in this action arena game are glorious nonetheless.
Likewise, if you are less into waves of enemies rushing towards you in an arena but still seek medieval hack-and-slash mechanics, Blade Socery Nomad is the Pico Store game to pick up. In particular, the back-and-forth VR gameplay is what upgrades this VR game from good to great.
Walkabout Mini Golf will transport you to a tropical paradise, a snow-crested castle ruin, and a barren desert while you experience solid mini golf mechanics. In other words, if you want the whimsical and fantastical levels of real minigolf to turn into the virtual reality worlds you are in, Walkabout: VR Minigolf is highly recommended.
It is simple, if you are into high-quality sports sims, or even better, a table tennis (or ping-pong) fan, then you need to pick up Eleven Table Tennis. This sports game takes full advantage of the strong controller tracking on the Pico 4, which is crucial when you fling ping-pong balls toward your opponent.
One of the categories of VR gaming I enjoy is this sports sim genre because you can get your pulse up from home while playing a game pushing you to the limits. If you share this, then Les Mills Bodycombat is excellent for this, turning you into a boxing champion with over 50 workouts in over nine VR environments.
A VR game that is underrated in my opinion is Real VR Fishing, which from its name transports you into photorealistic environments for fishing. If you read the Bait! game earlier, then this game is all about the fishing experience and the immense calm it will bring you in its scenic locations.
If you want a sports game with the most variety akin to Wii Sports, then All-In-One Sports VR is made for you with basketball, archery (my favorite), bowling, badminton, table tennis, golf, dart, billiards, I can keep going. I especially recommend playing with or against your friends and family if you can.
Inspired by tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, this co-op party VR game puts you in randomly generated dungeons lasting anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours. So if you want to take your tabletop RPG gaming to the next level with your friends, then Resolution Games – the developer – is constantly adding new content to the title.
One of the best multiplayer action experiences you can get in 2023 is Wands Alliances seeing you adopt your inner witch or wizard hurling fireballs or block spells with ice walls against your friends. While the spell variety could be bigger, the tactical elements of winning go deeper than you think.
The best sentence to describe Contractors VR is that it is Call Of Duty in virtual reality, with weapons realism, gun customization, and using the level environment to gain the upper hand against your opponents.
While it may appear to be a smartphone F2P game, Cubism is actually a fascinating and soothing puzzle game. So put your spatial reasoning to the test with 90 cube challenges that can be completed using Pico 4’s built-in hand tracking.
Another somewhat underrated casual and relaxing game is Townscaper VR which takes the beautifully minimalistic town-builder game into virtual reality. For me, the stellar sound design is what instantly puts me into a meditative state, and for that, it found a way onto this list.
Also a city builder, however, Cities: VR is far less relaxing and more creative with a solid city management layer on top. There is something truly magical in seeing your city sprout to life after you have colored in your zoning, utilities and road network. Now I am just waiting for mods to be enabled.
If you find yourself in a creative mood, Gravity Sketch is a powerful 3D drawing and sketching VR app. In fact, some design and development departments in enterprises use Gravity Sketch for their prototype and design process.
One of my personal go-to games for relaxation after a long day at work is Puzzling Places. Instantly this VR game puts me into a relaxed flow state from its amazing sound design to the unobtrusive art style. This is a game we always tell newcomers to VR to try out.
On the humorous side, while still being considered ‘casual’, Tentacular sees you play as a giant Kaiju monster out of a Lovecraftian novel if the world was less dreary and more cartooney. What makes this game home for me, is its touching story that I didn’t expect while you build various structure and solves puzzles using your monstrous tentacles.
Ragnarock is a VR rhythm game based on themes from Vikings and Nordic mythology mixed in with Finnish metal music. Players will control their longship based on their performance to the pumping heavy and rock music. It is a riff on the Beat Saber rhythm game genre, and we are all for it!
Pistol Whip is SUPERHOT VR without slow motion and Beat Saber combined. It is a winning formula as the rhythm-based gameplay puts you into a state of play that makes you shoot to the beat of a song. Just the music-pumping gameplay is enough to fire this one up in your Pico VR headset.
A more traditional VR rhythm game is Synth Riders which gives Beat Saber a run for its money. In the game, you punch colorful balls to the beat of a song and while it doesn’t pose much of a challenge on hard difficulty when you toggle ‘extreme’ on, you will have to “gitgud”.
Fish, hunt, build, and explore; Green Hell VR gives you an unbelievable survival experience in virtual reality. You play as Jake Higgins, an anthropologist, stepping into the Amazon jungle where you will have to build shelters and use various tools for survival. The scenery is both deadly and gorgeous, and you will find out there is more than meets the eye in this story.
Instantly the engrossing atmosphere of wandering around aimlessly with no weapons or tools in a thick wilderness pushing you to find out what is around the next bush or cave wall is what makes this VR game excellent. But as you progress through the game, you start to feel more confident and your skills increase overall making for a solid survival RPG experience.
If you think we missed any games or don’t agree with any of the games in the list let us know in the comments below.
Jakob Pii is the Head Writer for VR Expert and currently lives in the UK. He started his career in VR gaming in 2015 and has stayed in XR since, from exposure therapy in VR to 360-degree video documentaries. He is fascinated by how emerging technologies change how we live, play and work.
