Shack Chat: What game or franchise would you like to see come to VR?

VR is constantly growing as more developers take a crack at the medium. We’ve also seen some of gaming’s biggest franchises make the leap to virtual reality. Five Nights at Freddy’s just saw a successful launch with a VR game and Horizon Forbidden West is set to get a VR spinoff with the PS5’s iteration of PSVR. It got us thinking, what video game properties deserve the VR treatment?

Question: What game or franchise would you like to see come to VR?

Pokemon Snap - Ozzie Mejia, Virtual Senior Editor

This is all purely for hypotheticals since VR sickness is a real thing for me. Having said that, I'm looking over at that Nintendo Labo thing that seems to be collecting dust over at the Nintendo offices and thinking, "Well, there's one thing you can do with it."

We've had pseudo-VR experiences with games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, but I wish Nintendo wouldn't do a few of these bits and then just... you know... stop. There's real potential for even the most rudimentary of hardware like the Nintendo Labo VR Kit, so why not use it for something like... I don't know... Pokemon Snap? It's already an on-rails experience, so just imagine being about to control the camera with your head and getting a first-person perspective.

Give me Charizard right in the face, please.

Jurassic Park/World - Donovan Erskine, Raptor Editor

I feel like the Jurassic Park franchise is an untapped gold mine for video game potential. The series would particularly excel in a VR format. Imagine getting to sit in the iconic jeep and tour through the park, checking out the T-Rex paddock, or the Brontosauruses grazing in the fields. You could capture that magic without actually putting my life in danger.

Even if you take it off rails, a VR Jurassic Park game could be excellent survival horror. Creeping through the jungle, shivering at the sound of leaves crunching nearby or a roar in the distance. Knowing that a T-Rex might come barreling in and devour me out of nowhere is far scarier than any ghost or zombie.

Jumping Flash! - Blake Morse, Wants more Jumping Flash games

I feel like I’ve said this before, but how great would this classic PS1 series be in VR? The game features a lot of big vertical jumps that would probably freak out your brain in a setting like VR, but it would also be quite the rush, I’d imagine. I myself am not a big fan of heights and you’d never find me doing something like jumping out of a plane, so I feel like this would be a nice compromise where I get the freak-out sensation of free-falling without the chance of pulling a Peggy Hill and breaking all my bones when my parachute doesn’t open. Jumpin Flash! also happens to be a great FPS with a lot of colorful cartoonish characters and environments that could actually get a facelift in a new VR version. It’s also just a series that I love and feel doesn’t get enough credit for how fantastic it is and I feel like the VR medium could give it the revitalization it deserves.

Halo - Sam Chandler, I am the Master Chief

Halo has evolved (hah!) from being a purely first-person shooter experience. It’s been adapted into the RTS genre with the actually pretty-great Halo Wars franchise. There’s even a rather enjoyable arcade game, a twin-stick shooter, and now Halo Infinite has shown that the game works as an open-world experience. But I think there could be some thoroughly awesome stories to tell in the VR space. Give me an intense and horrifying Halo experience like Half-Life: Alyx. I want to be a marine exploring a Halo ring where the Flood is found, or a civilian during the invasion of Earth. Microsoft has already paved the way with Halo Recruit. But I think it can do better.

The next big city builder - Chris Jarrard, Head is too big for VR

By this point, most of the things I want to see in VR have already made the journey or have been announced in production (racing sims, flight cockpit stuff, etc). Because of this, I’d opt for something that I would eventually have an interest in exploring like a virtual tourist. While Cities: Skylines is the building sim I have the most hours in over the last decade, it is getting long in the tooth. Whatever the next genre-defining city builder game to release should get full VR support so I can stroll down the boulevards and parks that I built myself.

NHL Franchise - Bill Lavoy, Co-EIC

I know we’ve had hockey experiences in VR before, but I’d love to see a larger studio with a large resource pool take a crack at it. I’d love to see NHL 23 come with some VR modes, like the shootout, being a goalie, or even some skills drills. I’m not sure how well you could do the full experience in VR, or if anyone has tried, but there are some cool things you could do with VR and hockey.

Pathfinder or Baldur’s Gate - TJ Denzer, Senior News Editor

One aspect of VR that I have enjoyed the heck out of lately is the idea of living board games. Demeo is really excellent in that way as a virtual tabletop board game complete with dice-rolling and hands of cards. That said, I would like to see a full-on isometric RPG do this. I’d love to be able to enjoy a game of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous or Baldur’s Gate 3 through the spectacle of VR where I’m looming overhead watching the action play out. I want to be able to look around my adventurers and see the environments they’re exploring and the opportunities available to me on the map from a headset where I can get closer, back away, rotate the environment, and more. It feels like we’re so close to a solid VR top-down RPG spectacle. Someone just needs to be brave enough to go all the way.

Mega Man - Steve Tyminski, Stevetendo show host, Super Fighting Robot!

What franchise would I like to see come to the virtual reality field? Now stay with me on this one but I think Mega Man would make for a kickass VR game. There are plenty of first-person games in VR so why wouldn’t a first-person shooter work? You could traverse through the different Mega Man stages and aim with your Mega Buster, all in stunning three dimensions. It would be cool being able to slide under things in 3D as well as getting the timing down on the hidden blocks that Mega Man is known for. I think the neatest aspect would be getting the timing down for Mega Buster shots in 3D when the robot masters can move in multiple directions and you have to match that movement with precise timing. If Mega Man came out in VR, it would show that Capcom still loves the super-fighting robot and not just wheeling him out here and there.

Dead Space - Dennis White, Community Manager

With a full-blown Dead Space game in development right now, I think the franchise would be perfect for a VR port. The original franchise was known for its atmosphere, immersion, and excellent sound design. All these things lend well to VR. Also, since the emphasis is put on having to dismember limbs on the necromorphs to kill them, there are tons of ways to make using each weapon feel unique and interesting while giving the player control of the action. The ripper sawing through enemies would be so much fun! I would love to be able to look inside some of those vents that nasties always crawl out of or walk through the steam rising from the floor and see something terrifying hiding behind it. The games also functioned without a traditional HUD so it would be cool to see how they integrate that into Isaac’s helmet. So many terrifying possibilities!

Those are the video game series that we would love to see get VR renditions. We're sure you've got some ideas yourself, so fire off in the Chatty!

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.