Can you give a thumbs up with one hand and pinch with the other? If so, you have what you need for standard platformer controls in Crossy Road Castle on Apple Vision Pro.
The game from Hipster Whale sees left-right movement and the jump button adopted for standalone VR and AR. My left hand gestures as if it is holding a joystick, tilting left-right, while my right thumb pinch-jumps with my index finger. The pinch provides a great self-haptic effect to simulate a single button press for jumping. This is enough to dodge standard platformer obstacles and move panel by panel through the Crossy Road Castle.
We’ve gone from Mario Bros in the 1980s full circle back to the young Frodo Baggins’ in Back To The Future Part II: “You mean you have to use your hands?”
Crossy Road Castle also supports gamepad input and up to four player multiplayer with local support across Apple devices. Like Doodle Jump and even the original Crossy Road before it, the input implementation here is both familiar and easy to grasp, so there’s potential here to really sell the idea of hand tracked gaming with new gestures. Notably, the game is played in passthrough mode and doesn’t multitask with other apps on Vision Pro.
Crossy Road Castle is on Apple Arcade with support listed including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS.
Maria Malik is your guide to the immersive world of Virtual Reality (VR). With a passion for VR technology, she explores the latest VR headsets, applications, and experiences, providing readers with in-depth reviews, industry insights, and a glimpse into the future of virtual experiences.
