All-Star Fielding Challenge VR is a virtual reality game that feels like a mobile game optimized for your PC virtual headset. This game isn’t the best baseball game on the market, and it most certainly isn’t the best sports game in any measurement. It is made by 8-bit development, the same studio behind the gaming system and the popular mobile apps. This game doesn’t do anything that a mobile phone couldn’t do, and the graphics aren’t anything the oldest Nokia couldn’t process.
In this game, you have one single objective. You field the baseball coming at you. Throughout all of your fielding objectives, you will be seeing a number of different hits come at you. From fielding line drives to scooping up grounders, we will be touching on everything you need to know about it before you potentially spend $6 on it. This game can be found in Steam as well as Viveport, and it is a part of the Viveport Infinity subscription. Before you spend any money on this game, check out our review and see why you need to sign up today for the Viveport Infinity subscription.
Getting Up and Running
When you look at the download size of this game, you know it won’t be expansive at all. Coming into your files at only 220 MB, this game is just a fraction of what some of the titles are in memory size. This game will download fast than you can scroll to the top and bottom of the page if you have reasonable internet. If you don’t have good internet, this game could take a fast 3 minutes to download. There is no internet required to play this game though, so no worries there.
If you download this game from Viveport, it will be stored within the app and you will be able to launch virtual reality from the app. If you get this game through the Steam Store for the full $6, you will have to choose where it is saved. It will likely be done downloading before you can choose where to save it, but you will have the option to move it around on your computer. The longest part of the setup process is loading into the game.
Type of Game
This is a sports game, which is full of a simulation you are playing. Unlike most sports games in virtual reality, this game won’t have any wild turns. This is strictly sports, and isn’t a mix between baseball and zombie killing. If you are looking for a simple way to play the position of shortstop and field grounders, line drives, and pop flies, this game is for you.
Throughout the game you will be different numbers to field. For example, if there are 15 balls coming at you, you will need to field 9 to move onto the next level. This will continue to progress as some balls turn red. The red balls are moving much faster than others and harder to field, but they are worth almost 10x points throughout your gameplay.
You won’t find yourself fielding from any other spots on the field, and you won’t be seeing any major changes in gameplay, but you will be seeing some different balls come your way. We don’t think this game is worth the small price of $6, but we think you could enjoy the free download if you are a baseball fanatic.
Player Perspective
This game is played in the first-person perspective. The only thing you see in this game is the mitt you choose to field with. It would have been refreshing to see a little more than this, but you don’t. You don’t see an imaginary hand, arm, or even legs that are supposedly moving in this game. Just like most good VR games, the first-person perspective is the way to go. It is pretty hard to mess this one up.
Theme and Story – Score: 2/10
There is no story at all in this game and you don’t really have a theme either. You could argue the theme is baseball, but any game that is baseball is going to have a baseball theme. The developers didn’t put much time into this game, and especially the story aspect of it. You progress through the game as if it is a story, but you aren’t getting any context as you are moving forward. All you know is that your job is dependent on getting the baseballs in your mitt.
Controls – Score: 1/10
There are no controls in this game at all. All you do is move your mitt to where you expect the ball to be, and hope the sensors pick up the location of your controller. It would have been great to see the grip included in this game, as many know that to catch a ball you need to squeeze your hand a considerable amount. Even the menu was hard to find at times, so this game was hard to enjoy for more than a few minutes.
Music and Sound – Score: 1/10
There is no music in this game, and the only sound you heard was the baseball getting hit and caught. Not even the sound of a crowd, PA announcer, or moving dirt was to be heard inside of this game. Any music or sounds would have been appreciated, as this game made me feel like I was spending Thanksgiving alone. It turned into us playing background music on in our short stint playing All-Star Fielding Challenge.
Player Movement – Score: 8/10
This game can only be played at room scale, and that is one this game did right. Moving inside of this game was oddly refreshing, and gave a breath of fresh air when playing this game. There was no lag in the movements and the latency when moving your head was non-existent. If you are trying to find a bright in this game, here it is. Player movement in this game was nearly perfected, but it wasn’t enough to keep this game in our library for more than a short afternoon.
Kinetosis – Score: 8/10
This game was incredibly nice to our stomachs, as there was no motion sickness to be had in this game. It felt like you were actually grounding baseballs, and that is appreciated by all virtual users. If you found this game interesting enough, you would be able to stay in this game for hours without getting sick at all. When considering kinetosis, the developing studio, 8-bit, did a tremendous job.
Environment and Immersion – Score: 2/10
When playing a virtual reality game, you are always wanting to be fully immersed in the virtual world around you. There are many parts of the game the developer has to hit on to make this a possibility, and All-Star Fielding Challenge just didn’t hit on enough of them. From the terrible sound and music features, to the lack of controls in this game to interact with the field, there wasn’t anything about this game that made you want to stay in it. Unless you are a baseball junkie looking for something to fill your time during the 7th inning stretch, this game won’t have a wide outreach.
Overall – 3.3/10
This game is one of the cheaper virtual reality games on any platform, and it still feels incredibly overpriced at $6. If you have the Viveport Infinity subscription, and you are a huge baseball fan, this game might appeal to you. If not, we don’t recommend letting it take up the 220 MB on your computer. It doesn’t have a story to hold weight, and it doesn’t optimize the platform it is on. The game won’t be worth the play and you’ll wish you would’ve filled your time with some more Beat Saber.
