Squido Studio announced its first-person platformer No More Rainbows is coming to Quest 2 and PC VR headsets next month, offering up a VR take on classic platforming action.
Update (May 22nd, 2023): Squido announced that No More Rainbows is heading to Meta Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets on June 1st. The original article follows below:
Original Article (April 26th, 2023): No More Rainbows has been available in open beta on Quest’s App Lab for a year now, and it’s almost time for it to graduate to the main Quest Store and Steam too. Exactly when, we don’t know, but Squido and its partner Robot Teddy say it’s coming “very soon.”
Here’s the studio’s description of the first-person VR platformer:
In No More Rainbows, you are The Beast, who must spring forth into a fantastical virtual reality world to reclaim your home from the beings of infinite happiness that have infested the Underworld! Bizou and their merry band of minions plan to take over your sanctuary of screams and turn it into a bountiful paradise where cries of pain and torment are replaced by kisses and rainbows… what a nightmare! Use arm-based locomotion mechanics to run, jump, claw, and climb using only your hands and arms to engage with tight platformer mechanics.
In the full release, the game is set to include four unique campaign worlds, environmental storytelling, multiplayer modes, beast personalization, leaderboards, and boss encounters. Squido says the full game has around five hours of gameplay.
The open beta on Quest will be removed from App Lab on May 2nd, which follows a Dev Day on May 1st where players can hang out with the game’s developers. In the meantime, you can also wishlist it on Steam here.
Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.
This week we’re solving puzzles and causing carnage!
Unblocking Demo
To say Unblocking is a Tetris-style clone does it a bit of a disservice. There are definitely Tetris elements at play; you’re presented with Tetris shapes and you must use them to solve puzzles or clear lines from a board. However, they don’t fall from the sky, they’re selected purposely.
In the puzzle mode, you’re tasked with clearing all of the blocks from the playing area. To do this, you must select a shape and overlap it against the blocks, making them disappear. Sometimes it’s as simple as using a cross over a cross-shape, other times you must clear one shape in order for the blocks above them to fall and create a new shape to erase.
In the arcade mode, things feel a bit more Tetris-y. Only again, you’re placing the blocks wherever you like. Here you are presented with four shapes, of different colours and the goal is to create horizontal lines to erase those blocks. You can chop and change the shapes and colours you place in the hopes of creating the perfect lines, but often you’ll need to overlap colours, blocking progress.
Unblocking is a devious little puzzler. On the surface, it appears simple, and the opening puzzle levels are exactly that. However, as you progress things become rather taxing. Sadly, as this is only a demo, there’s not much to experience, but what’s here is certainly an enticing opportunity for the developers to bring us a great puzzle game. The virtual reality doesn’t lend much to the game beyond playing in a fancy room, but it’s hard to complain when the puzzling is as good as this.
No More Rainbows Beta
I’m going to get this out of the way. I love this game.
At first, when No More Rainbows informed me I would need to use my arms to scoot along the floor I rolled my eyes and gave a sigh of exasperation. So many of the App Lab games recently have used the same technique. Whether you’re pretending to be a baby, a squid or a dog, there’s a game that wants to mimic crawling forward, and so far, I’ve hated each one.
But this? This works. You play as a snarling gorilla monster who seemingly hates happiness (much like myself). You wake up, smash the alarm clock and discover the land has been taken over by unicorns, fruity cute gumballs and bright colours. The tutorial tells you that you can take small leaps forward by swinging your arms. Then, if you do that with more force, you’ll kind of ‘Incredible Hulk leap’ all over the place.
What transpires from here is a literal assault on joy. You get to explore these bubblegum worlds leaping around, climbing vertical surfaces, bounding over bottomless chasms to smash anything cute you can see. Busting open the gumball creatures causes their soul to vanish inside of you, which then opens new worlds for more smashing.
I played this on a day where I was a little aggravated, which may have helped. However, the locomotion controls and the concept itself would have stood out to me anyway. Who doesn’t want to smash the smug happiness out of something so saccharine? As with Unblocking above, this is only a demo/beta, but it’s a generous one. Still, I reached the end and found myself craving more. I’ve never felt so happy destroying the happiness of others.
