VRog review (PSVR)

Another conversion from a game previously released on Steam, the aptly titled VRog is a new Playstation VR title that puts you in control of a frog hungry for insects.

When I first heard about VRog, I thought it was going to be a VR adaptation of the classic arcade game Frogger. Crossing roads and traversing other obstacles in VR as they zoom right by you… I can see that working. VRog is different though, and much more like a casual title you might expect to find on the Gear VR platform based on the basic gameplay premise, its simplified controls and the cartoon graphics that don’t exactly push the boundaries of VR.

Instead, VRog goes for an easily accessible casual experience in which you turn your head to look around and hit a button to shoot out your tongue at insects and move around the landscape by jumping from lily pad to lily pad. You can either do this in arcade mode, grabbing as many insects as you can in a limited amount of time, or in survival mode. Survival mode is not time-limited, but you face the danger of running out of energy and meeting your frog maker.

That’s really all there is to it – hence the comparison to a Gear VR/mobile title. It’s one of the most basic PSVR games we’ve played so far, and although the core mechanics work fine you have to wonder who the intended target audience is for the game. Its cartoony graphics suggest that it’s aimed at younger gamers, but with Sony’s official age requirement for Playstation VR being 12 that is going to be a tough sell. More mature gamers will certainly expect more from their VR experience than what VRog offers, and for them this would best qualify as a silly party game where people take turns and try to beat each other’s score. It’s accessible, there’s little to learn in terms of game dynamics, so it’s a decent enough choice for VR novices. That doesn’t make it a particularly good game though, so unless you can grab it in a sale I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s just too much like a mobile game to impress amidst the current PSVR lineup.

Score: 4.6/10