Best 7 iPhone VR apps and games
INTRODUCTION
If you have a recent iPhone and you're interested in experiencing Virtual Reality, then you have pretty much everything you need to get started.
The phones' high-resolution displays, gyroscopes and motion sensors form the most important parts of a VR headset: all you need is a pair of goggles to physically strap it to your head.
Recently, a slew of headsets have hit the market that support these iPhones -- the Carl Zeiss VR One, the super-cheap Archos VR Glasses, and the even cheaper (if you make your own), Google Cardboard.
We used the Homido Virtual Reality Headset, which works with iPhones 5 and up, to check out the best VR experiences on iOS.
Don't expect the same sort of VR quality that you'd get from a dedicated headset such as Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus, but these apps and games will at least give you an idea of what the fuss over VR is all about.
Virtual Kaiju 3D
If you're familiar with the original Godzilla films or the more recent Guillermo del Toro flick Pacific Rim, then you'll know that "kaiju" is Japanese for "giant beast". In Virtual Kaiju 3D, you play as one of these giant beasts who must do what giant beasts do best: destroy a city and take down helicopters with their fiery breath.
You control your direction of movement by looking around, and when you want to spew hot breath at helicopters, you simply roar like Godzilla. It's not the most advanced VR game, but Virtual Kaiju 3D is aware of its own silliness, and it's the sort of game kids will love.
InMind VR
Have you ever wanted to shrink yourself down to the size of a blood cell, enter someone's brain and fix their broken neurons? No, neither have we, but that doesn't stop InMind VR from being a fun little VR game. You travel through the patient's mind looking for red neurons, and when you focus your sight for a couple of seconds, they turn green.
InMind VR is short and repetitive, but its simple control scheme, fair difficulty and lack of nausea-inducing movement make it a great game for beginners.
VR Tank Training for Google Cardboard
The popularity of World of Tanks is a testament to how much people love their tank battles. VR Tank Training for Google Cardboard isn't anywhere near as sophisticated as WoT, but it still gives aspiring tank commanders a feel of the battlefield.
You have to lead your battalion across the desert and destroy as many enemy tanks as you can, which are automatically fired on when you look at them. It's a paid app, but one that thankfully doesn't have in-app purchases, while developer Digital World Studio promises future updates which will include new levels, tanks and planes.
Froggy VR
Nowadays, most games are about being as realistic as possible, but Froggy VR harks back to a simpler time when a game could be no more complicated than a frog crossing a road. Froggy VR sees you experiencing life as a frog, hopping around a garden and eating flies.
You hop around by aiming a green reticule at the place you want to go to, be it a tree, a pond, or strangely, your froggy home. You can also eat bugs, chase down other animals and go for a swim. The graphics are incredibly basic and the gameplay is even simpler, but there's something charmingly retro about playing a game where you're an amphibian. And hey, it's free.
VRSE
VR offers huge potential for storytelling, and VRSE is the best attempt so far at wrestling with this exciting new medium. The VRSE group itself shares ideas and technology with VR filmmakers, and then goes around showcasing their work at film festivals such as Sundance. The app then showcases this content for others to view if they have a VR headset.
It's the brainchild of Chris Milk, who directed Kanye West's famous "Touch the Sky" music video, and his Evolution of Verse short film is one of the highlights of VRSE. Also check out Clouds Over Sidra, which charts the life of a 12-year-old girl caught in a Syrian refugee camp for one-and-a- half years.
Sisters: A Virtual Reality Ghost Story
Horror games have had a resurgence in the last few years, with titles such as Slender, Outlast and Amnesia scaring a new generation of teenagers, who then inevitably post their reaction videos to YouTube.
Sisters: A Virtual Reality Ghost Story isn't quite as frightening as those horror masterpieces, but VR definitely adds to the tension. You find yourself alone in a haunted mansion, and it's down to you to find out what happened to the sisters who once lived there. Dark rooms, TVs showing static, creepy dolls -- this game has all the horror staples, but it's subtly unnerving.
Fractal Combat X
Fractal Combat X is an aerial combat game like many others such as Ace Combat, Top Gun or After Burner. It's an arcade game rather than a sim, so the auto-targeting system is overly helpful, while the easy AI doesn't really offer any sort of challenge.
However, there's something exciting about playing a fast-paced action game like this in VR, where following your targets using the headset feels liberating. Buying upgrades for your planes can be a bit of a grind, but one you can avoid by purchasing in-game credits with real money.
