It seems to come around faster and faster each year, and so once again it’s May 4th, which of course means Star Wars day. Fans love it and everyone else may loath it but the day is now part of geek culture whatever your stance. And when it comes to immersive Star Wars content there’s plenty to choose from, with deals going on as well as special one-day-only content.
So let’s start with the brand new stuff that’s arrived, and that’s getting fit in Supernatural on Meta Quest. The fitness app is hosting a special promotion with an exclusive Star Wars Day workout. Supernatural’s Coach Doc will take players on a heart-pumping workout featuring some of the franchise’s most famous tracks. These are; Main Title, Imperial Attack; Cantina Band, The Imperial March and The Throne Room & End Title.
Do be aware, however, that Supernatural is not only a subscription-based app ($19/month or $179/annually) but its also region locked to North America. So not all Star Wars fans worldwide can access the content.
If you do own a Meta Quest 1 or 2 then not to worry, there are still plenty of other ways to enjoy Star Wars Day. Until 11:59 pm PT on 5th May (7:59 am BST 6th May) there are a bunch of deals available via the Oculus Store, reducing prices by up to 50%.
Meta Quest will also be at Walt Disney World Resort until 21sy July where guests can preview ILMxLAB’s Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge and get free stuff!
As for the rest, here’s all the home Star Wars VR content gmw3 could find:
Love it or loathe it there’s no getting away from the sci-fi juggernaut that is Star Wars. Especially since the franchise highjacked May 4th thanks to its similarity with a famous phrase from the films. There are plenty of celebrations going on such as Steam’s limited-time deals but what about VR? Here VRFocus has complied how you can celebrate Star Wars Day using the latest immersive tech.
Gaming
Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series
If you own an Oculus Quest or Oculus Rift/Rift S then your first port of call should be Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series. Exclusive to the Oculus platform, the series isn’t a fully blown videogame, rather mixing interactive elements with cinematic scenes.
Nevertheless, the series is still treated as canon for those diehard Star Wars fans, with its storyline set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. You get to wield the force, test your lightsaber skills out in a dojo and fight Darth Vader, what more could you want?
Released back in 2017 and created by ILMxLAB, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay tasks you as an astromech technician for the rebels with repairing BB-8 and his droid friends.
With an official story linked to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the videogame is all about getting these droids ready back into the fight against the First Order.
Completely free, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay is available on Steam for Valve Index and HTC Vive, or if you have one laying around Samsung Gear VR.
Trials on Tatooine
Another freebie for HTC Vive and Valve Index owners, Star Wars: Trials on Tatooineis one of the earliest (if not the earliest) official titles for VR headsets.
Set on the desert world of Tatooine, you get to repair the iconic Millennium Falcon and defend droid hero R2-D2 from incoming stormtroopers using a lightsaber.
Star Wars: Project Porg
A title likely few will play due to its exclusivity to Magic Leap 1, Star Wars: Project Porg was a mixed reality (MR) experiment by ILMxLAB.
Centred around the fluffy little bird-like creatures called Porg which appeared in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, this is essentially a pet simulator where you have to keep the Porg’s healthy and entertained.
Star Wars: Jedi Challenges
Hailing back from 2017 when smartphones were still being used for VR purposes, Star Wars: Jedi Challenges was unusual in the fact that it was an augmented reality (AR) experience which required a headset specifically designed for the title, the Lenovo Mirage AR.
The original headset came with a replica lightsaber but you needed a compatible smartphone and a spare £250. The kit was relaunched last year with new controllers and MARVEL Dimension of Heroes but still tanked. No longer available on Lenovo’s website, the headset can still be found on Amazon’s US site for around $64 USD.
Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire
A location-based entertainment (LBE) experience from The VOID which certainly would’ve been packed today had it not been for COVID-19 lockdown measures, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire is worth a visit when restrictions ease.
A multiplayer title for up to four people, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire offers untethered VR gaming set on the molten planet of Mustafar. Providing what The VOID calls a ‘hyper-reality experience’ which involves heat, wind and other elements to increase immersion, you’re dressed as Stormtroopers infiltrating an Empire base. With puzzles to solve and blasters to shoot enemies, this is another title which is treated as canon, created in partnership with ILMxLAB.
Entertainment
Of course, you may want to spend today watching all the films, animation series and other Star Wars content. Unless you own any of it on DVD or BluRay then the only way to do this now is through streaming service Disney+.
Unlike Netflix which does have a VR app, Disney+ doesn’t, so you’ll need to use desktop mirroring services like Bigscreen Beta or Virtual Desktop. Disney+ currently offers a 7-day free trial, so sign-up online to start your week-long binge.
Either app makes it relatively easy to mirror your desktop into a VR headset like Oculus Rift, Valve Index or HTC Vive. VRFocus uses Bigscreen Beta in conjunction with Oculus Quest for example. While not as handy as a dedicated app, the method still offers a decent VR solution.
And that’s your lot. If VRFocus has missed any other content or ways of enjoying Star Wars in VR do let us know in the comments below.
In celebration of the launch of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, fans can now join the Force and step into the Star Wars universe with two virtual reality (VR) experiences at the newly launched IMAX VR Centre at the ODEON at intu Trafford Centre. Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay, the official VR experience for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine are both now available to all who visit the centre.
In Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay participants take on an important role as an astromech technician aboard General Leia’s ship to fix BB-8 and his droid friends. In Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine, users can repair the iconic Millennium Falcon and wield a lightsaber to defend R2-D2 from incoming stormtroopers.
Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine was originally revealed at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), San Francisco, last year, and has since been made available for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. VRFocus got hands-on with the experience at the time of its reveal, stating in a preview of Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine: “As Stormtroopers approach the player is told to keep R2-D2 out of danger. Any Star Wars fan worth their salt immediately translates this as deflect blaster shots using their newly equipped lightsaber.”
Other VR experiences currently available at the first IMAX VR Experience Centre in Europe include Justice League: An IMAX VR Exclusive, where users step into the shoes of the iconic DC Super Heroes including Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Flash and Aquaman; Space Flight, where you can experience the exhilarating feel of a space jet take off; Star Trek: Bridge Crew“Rescue at Perseph”, a multiplayer experience that takes place on board the Federation starship where you are responsible for firing phasers, plotting a course and bringing the ship to warp, and Eagle Flight a multiplayer experience offering the freedom of flight along with the thrill of aerial combat.
The IMAX VR Centre is located in the lobby of the ODEON at intu Trafford Centre, and consists of 10 “pods” to allow multiple players to enjoy interactive VR experiences in an extremely social environment. The content at the IMAX VR Centre will be updated regularly, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details.
It’s time to jump back into a galaxy far, far away once again with the latest Star Wars VR experience, released just in the nick of time to promote next week’s release of The Last Jedi. Whereas we’ve previously wielded lightsabers on Tatooine and piloted X-Wings, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay embraces the lighthearted side of this beloved universe, and it’s all the better for it.
Droid Repair Bay is another 10 minute VR experience that’s available for free on Steam with native HTC Vive support (though I ran it in Rift without a hitch). In it, you play as a droid onboard a resistance ship that, yes, repairs other droids. The adorable soccer ball robots from the new trilogy — including everyone’s favorite new addition, BB-8 — arrive one at a time in the bay and you have to pick them up with a crane, bring them over to your station and then replace their broken parts before taking them on a little test run.
Though it might sound simple, I found Droid Repair Bay to be a much more memorable Star Wars VR experience than what’s come before despite the lack of laser blasts and force powers. It packs one of the liveliest, most endearing worlds I’ve yet explored in VR; miniature robots busily scurry around your feet as you work while an assistant droid approvingly beeps and whirrs as he oversees your operations. Once you’ve fix a droid — which resembles looking at P-Body’s insides in Valve’s Portal VR experience from The Lab — you can use a laser pointer that they’ll chase around the room like a cat.
There’s nothing quite so charming in all of VR as to lean down next to a fully repaired BB-8 and give him a knowing pat on the back (if he technically has a back), and there’s playful fun to be had in getting him to chase the laser. I can imagine kids had endless fun with this.
Brilliantly, the end of the piece capitalizes on the connections you’ve grown with your robotic buddies in such a short amount of time, with a clumsy mishap worthy of R2-D2 and C3-PO. It brings the surprisingly busy cast of the piece together and ends on one of those amazing VR moments in which, just for a second, you feel like a real being is actually interacting with you, and then fades before the illusion can be broken.
Short as it may be, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay kept a huge smile on my face the entire time I was playing it. It’s a great exercise in VR scene-building, conjuring up a believably bustling environment that could have been taken straight out of the set of any of the movies. As a free experience, you shouldn’t miss this.
Whether you’re in the highest of high places or camped out in the dustiest of dustbowl planets in the back of some uncharted system technology will always fail you. It’s a great equaliser. And what are you going to need when it does go wrong? Someone to fix it all up. Whether you’re in the middle of a war (the sort involving clones and separatist robots), running the first Galactic Empire, a fledgling rebellion or some sort of new ‘order’ you’re all in the same situation when the aircon doesn’t work, the deathstick machine is busted or you have to dump your cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship because your hyperdrive has a transponder loose.
Not that you want to be selling anyone any deathsticks anyway. You should go home and rethink your life if so.
No, in all of these situations you’re going to need a mechanic – unless you and some Wookie are really going to fix that hyperdrive? Yeah, I’m sure that’ll work out great. For the Resistance there’s likewise always, always, a need for a good skilled mechanic. After all, those astromechs do have a tendency to blow a gasket over the most trivial of things. That or they get shot. They have been known to get shot. Particularly the brave ones.
In a new virtual reality (VR) game from ILMxLAB and Lucasfilm, Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay — Astro-Mechanic for the Resistance, you will take on the role of said mechanic (more specifically an astromech technician) as it attempts to fix the likes of everyone’s favourite spherical droid BB8 of various faults and maladies. The videogame, connected to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, (StarWars.com refers to it as “the official VR experience” connected to the film)is an immersive experience that will work on both the HTC Vive and the Samsung Gear VR. However, there is a catch.
Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay is made in partnership with car manufacturer Nissan and will be coming to “select dealerships” in North America (U.S, Mexico, Canada). No information was given regarding a general release or a release to any other markets such as Europe and Asia. You can see some screenshots below.
There’s more still to come with regards to this and VRFocus will bring you that informtaion as we get it.
