Earlier this year, Google announced an upcoming AR game, Space Invaders: World Defense, which is built as a showcase of the company’s latest AR tool. Now you can jump in and shoot down some of the game’s iconic block-shaped aliens yourself.
Google and developer Taito have launched Space Invaders: World Defense, releasing both on Android and iOS devices. The game’s titular space invaders spawn from buildings and rooftops, hide behind structures and hover in the sky, so make sure to play outside.
The studios also tossed out a new launch video, embedded below this update.
Developer Taito has offered up a first real glimpse of Space Invaders: World Defense.
The game is now available for pre-registration on the Google Play Store (and “coming soon” to the Apple App Store), but still doesn’t offer too many details on exactly how the game will work beyond pointing and zapping floating enemies.
SPACE INVADERS have returned to conquer the world, this time from a different dimension. Join the World Defense team to find, and defeat SPACE INVADERS in your neighborhood. As a member of the elite pilot force, you’ll defend your area from invasion in a first-of-its-kind immersive game experience. Engage in missions across dimensions from Augmented Reality to the parallel Invader world. Success will earn you a spot on the High Scores as well as special bonuses and power ups.
To be fair, building compelling AR gameplay that happens through a phone screen is tough. But games like this will have the opportunity to really flourish as head-worn AR devices begin to proliferate.
The original article, which covers the initial announcement of the game, continues below.
Original Article (May 11th, 2023): Over the last few years Google has been steadily working on its AR developer toolset, ARCore. This week at Google IO 2023, the company added a brand new tool to its kit called Geospatial Creator.
Geospatial Creator gives developers the ability to create world-anchored digital content that will appear in the same location for all users. Built on a foundation of both ARCore and 3D data from Google Maps, it’s competes with Niantic’s Lightship AR platform, and is getting integrations for both Unity and Adobe Aero.
To showcase the latest capabilities of ARCore, Google has teamed up with Taito Corporation, the original developer of arcade hit Space Invaders (1978), to build a brand new city-scale AR game called Space Invaders: World Defense.
Planned to launch later this Summer—fittingly aligned with the 45 year anniversary of the original game—Space Invaders: World Defense will purportedly have players “defend the earth from Space Invaders in their neighborhood,” and will “combine AR and 3D gameplay to deliver a fully contextual and highly engaging immersive experience that connects multi-generations of players.”
Sadly we’ve yet to see a glimpse of any real gameplay, so it isn’t clear just how the game will work, but with any luck we’ll eventually find more information from the game’s official website.
35 years. It’s nuts to think that it has been that long since Puzzle Bobble – or Bust-a-Move depending on where you are in the world – is that old. Even more so considering its sole gameplay mechanic is popping coloured bubbles. Taito has kept the series alive with numerous sequels whilst the format has spawned countless clones. Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey, on the other hand, provides a notable break in the franchise with a more immersive (and physical) control scheme as well as a few extras to differentiate it. But how far can you really push a bubble popping videogame?
In the hands of virtual reality (VR) veterans Survios quite far it seems, taking that classic gameplay and (literally) adding some weight to the whole endeavour. Think you’re a bubble popping master in 2D, well think again when it comes to VR. That precision pointer of the originals is replaced with an intricately designed catapult – seriously, look at all the cogs and gears, it looks awesome – with which to fling those bobbles. If you’ve ever used a bow in VR then you know it can be tricky to aim yet one of the most immersive actions in VR, and that’s true here.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey presents you with three gameplay options, step into the Story Mode and try to complete the massive 100 levels; go for the Infinite Mode and face wave after wave of colour baubles or head online for some 1 vs 1 action. All of this ensures there’s no shortage of content as the main campaign alone provides a good few hours of entertainment depending on how successful you are with each level.
As this is 3D gone are the rows of bubbles. Instead, there’s a central core that needs to be destroyed by removing all the outer balls. Survios has added a further twist to the gameplay mechanic by having this floating collection of bubbles spin depending on where you hit it. So if you have a couple of shots planned the second could then become blocked as you’re presented with a new side. It’s an ingenious system to keep you thinking about each and every shot, even on those level where time is of the essence.
However, that can be complicated by how finicky the aiming can be at points. Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey tries to make this as easy as possible by showing exactly where the bubble is going to land. In doing so any connected bubbles will begin to flash to help build chains to pop. As the puzzles get more complicated it can be tricky telling which ones are connected, or worse you get that perfect placement and then because of the smallest of arm movements it’s lost. This is the first Puzzle Bobble where you can actually get fatigued trying to keep that catapult raised, a big step away from the franchise’s more casual roots. It would’ve been good if there was a fine-tune feature – zooming in for example – rather than the extended trial and error.
To make things a little easier are the power-ups. These help to clear larger quantities – great for those later story levels – where you can eat a hot pepper to breathe fire and light a bomb for some bubble destruction. Yet the power-ups are the most restrictive part of Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey because they’re so tedious to get. They cost coins, 100 to unlock then a smaller amount to buy, all earned by completing levels. The coins really do trickle in which kind of puts you off spending them, and should you use a power-up and fail the level then bad luck, it’s gone. And then there’s the pelican. This feathered friend will occasionally appear in levels for you to shoot, dropping a single coin in the process. Which isn’t always worth it, especially when chasing those three-star level clears.
That frustration aside Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey is a lovely world to be inside. It’s suitably vibrant like you’re on holiday plus bubble brothers Bub and Bob make their return. That kid-friendly, welcoming atmosphere extends to the comfort. There’s no locomotion here whatsoever, you’re permanently placed in one spot so you can easily play standing or seated.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey retains the series’ charm that makes its gameplay suitable for players of all ages and skill levels. Does it retain that same addictive quality the franchise is known for? Not so much. There’s no doubt Puzzle Bobble VR is fun with a great soundtrack to accompany the gameplay, it just doesn’t have that spark. Sure, once you’ve got through the single-player campaign the duelling mode keeps the experience going but it never quite got its hooks in, which is a shame.
Puzzle Bobble (1994), also known as Bust-a-Move in the West, pioneered the tile-matching puzzle genre, not only inspiring generations of mobile games like Candy Crush Saga, but also spawning uncountable clones throughout the decades. The 2D game is known for its simple but elegant gameplay, and Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odysseymakes a valiant effort at translating those time-tested ingredients into a 3D environment for the first time. Puzzle Bobble VR’s numerous and oftentimes simple levels may not hook you initially, although there’s something to this demure bubble-popping adaptation that makes it feel like it could really take flight in the future.
Puzzle Bobble VR Details:
Available On: Oculus Quest Release Date: May 20th, 2021 Price: $20 Developer: Survios Publisher: Survios, Taito Corporation Reviewed On: Quest 2
Gameplay
Walking in the footsteps of Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019), Puzzle Bobble VR puts a virtual spin on its arcade tile-matching forbear, and it changes up the format by placing a bubble cannon in your hands and transmogrifying the neat rows of bubbles into globular 3D masses.
The objective is to pop all the bubbles in each level by firing color-matching ammo and eventually destroying the puzzle’s core. Across most levels, you either have a time limit or a max bubble limit to worry about. Score as high as possible to earn coins, which you can use to unlock special abilities like bombs, a paint swatch that lets you change ammo color, and a mechanism that lets you physically turn the puzzles as you please. That last one is important, because all of the puzzles seem to have a mind of their own and the only other way to adjust them in 3D space is by shooting a bubble at them to turn them in the air on their core, which is also their main axis.
Image courtesy Survios
Just like Angry Birds, you only need a single star to continue to the next level, although in Puzzle Bobble VR it pays to get good and pick up extra coins where you can so you have a steady supply of power-ups. You’ll need them to get through particularly obstinate puzzles that rear their heads every so often.
On paper, all of this sounds like a great recipe for casual fun. And at some points it really delivers on this promise. Playing through the overwhelming number of easy puzzles on your way to get to that perfect concoction of strategic bubble-popping feels like drudgery though. It took me over an hour to get to a puzzle that actually required a game plan beyond simple color matching, which was about a third way through the story mode. For that hour of gameplay, it feels like you have to earn your fun slowly and methodically. As new bubble modifier pieces arrive, the game really starts to hit a better flow. If you’re looking for a challenge right away, you’ll have to work for it.
Image courtesy Survios
Ok, the difficulty thing isn’t entirely true: there are harder levels interspersed all throughout the game, not just the last half where things pick up. That difficulty though is often tied to the fact that some puzzles move about the sky on their own topsy turvy routes. It’s a pretty cheap mechanic to make an easy puzzle more difficult, but I found it mostly frustrating because the two-handed manual bubble launcher doesn’t offer a great shooting experience.
Because aiming is based on aligning your hands like a bow and arrow, and you have multiple potential targets to hit, shooting can feel fiddly as the preview of your bubble dances around wildly, provisionally clicking into place where it may not belong. I would have liked a more solid and tactile shooting experience that didn’t feel so shaky, and maybe a canon that didn’t take up so much precious FOV real estate. It’s big.
Image courtesy Survios
It’s not like there isn’t fun to be had; the game is dotted with some truly interesting puzzles in the first half that are complex and require foresight and strategy to pass. These were pretty few and far between, and like I said, you’ll just have to grin and bare it until you start hitting those true gems in the latter half of the game.
Once you’re done with story mode, you can keep playing via ‘Infinite Mode’, which lets you attack a never-ending wave of bubbles slowly floating up to a black hole. There’s also an online 1v1 mode that pits you against an opponent in a race to reach the core of identical puzzles. I imagined this would have been more of the same, like with the infinite mode, except against another person by your side. I really wanted to include this bit in my review, but even after launch I wasn’t able to find a match. I would suspect this will be true for many people looking to play the game, since the focus on single-player content is the real attraction here.
Immersion
Puzzle Bobble VR is bright, low poly, and totally on-brand for the franchise. The music is also a joy to listen to, which is no wonder considering it’s from TAITO’s in-house band, Zuntata. Stepping into the world feels a bit unceremonious—you’re just thrown into a screen to pick a game mode—but it’s not like I was expecting much more.
Image courtesy Survios
In the story mode you’re shuttled from level to level in a linear fashion across a map with different islands. Environments can look a little flat looking at times and lower resolution than they ought to be, but are overall well made and work as simple backgrounds to the main task at hand. They help give you some context too, as the bubble puzzles all essentially start to look alike after a while. After you play, you may not remember a specific puzzle’s architecture, but you may remember you had a hard time on the lava island with a puzzle with too many poison bubbles.
Because the game uses a slingshot mechanic, you have to be really cognizant that you’re not drawing back too far past your head, or bringing it too close to your chest. Otherwise you’ll partially lose tracking, making aiming even more difficult.
Comfort
The game’s auto calibration detects the user’s height, making it play equally well in both seated and standing mode. You’ll need very little room to shoot bubbles, although you might not want to play in front of a monitor or TV so you don’t accidentally tap it with your non-dominant shooting hand.
Puzzles are splayed out in front of you at a comfortable height, so the risk of neck strain is very minimal. There’s no artificial locomotion, as you’re always standing in one spot in each level, making it a very comfortable game.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey from Survios and Taito brings the iconic bubble popping series to VR for the first time next month on May 20. It’ll release for both Oculus Quest and Quest 2.
Puzzle Bobble VR
This new entry in the long-running puzzle game series celebrates the 35th anniversary of the franchise with an all-new entry that takes place entirely from a first-person perspective. Puzzle Bobble VR will feature 100 levels for you to aim, match, and burst bubbles. We’ve seen other big puzzle games make the leap to VR with great results, like Angry Birds VR or Fruit Ninja VR, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for similar success this time around.
Puzzle Bobble VR will feature a Story Mode with the 100 aforementioned levels that each contain 3-star ratings at the end, an Infinite Mode to try and get the highest score possible against never-ending waves, and an Online Duel Mode to pit your skills against an opponent in a 1v1 battle.
“We are excited to bring Puzzle Bobble to virtual reality through our partnership with Survios in Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey,” said Tetsu Yamada, President of TAITO Corp. “VR allows us to deliver a new approach to bubble-popping, allowing long-time fans and new players to experience Puzzle Bobble like never before and just in time for Bubble Bobble’s 35th anniversary.”
It’s amazing to think that Puzzle Bobble (a.k.a. Bust-a-Move) is now 35 years old, providing decades of addictive puzzling across almost every videogame platform imaginable. Soon it’ll be the turn of virtual reality (VR), with Taito and Survios announcing that Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey will be making its way to Oculus Quest next month.
Since the initial reveal of the VR edition last summer, no other details have been released until now, where you can see the gameplay in action for the first time. Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey mixes the original bubble popping gameplay with immersive VR interaction, so rather than having a normal gun to aim and shoot, you’re provided with a weapon more akin to a high tech catapult, popping in colourful balls to then fling at the floating collection of bubbles.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey will provide players with 100 levels of bubble popping madness, with the aim to score a perfect three-stars on each level. As levels are completed players will earn coins to spend on unique power-ups with their own particular VR interactions.
The videogame will be split across three gameplay modes to offer players a nice mixture:
Story Mode: Make your way through 100 progressively challenging levels and achieve three-star mastery
Infinite Mode: Shoot and match to achieve a high score as a never-ending wave of bubbles take over the screen
Online Duel Mode: Challenge online opponents and send jammer bubbles to a rival’s board in this fast-paced 1v1 mode
Survios and Taito will be launching Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey on 20th May for Oculus Quest. Check out the launch trailer below and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey is a 3D version of the bubble-matching arcade puzzle game Puzzle Bobble (1994), and it’s finally slated to leave Quest exclusivity when it launches on PSVR, PS4, and PS5 later this year.
Update (June 3rd, 2021): TAITO and Survios today announced (with a slightly altered name) Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey is heading out of Quest exclusivity, where it will land on PSVR sometime later this year. This also includes flatscreen versions for PS4 and PS5, hence the ‘3D’ in the name. You can read our full review to find out why we gave it a middling score of [6/10].
The studios haven’t mentioned a specific launch date, but considering the game has already been optimized for Quest and Quest 2, it’s likely we’ll see it sometime soon. The original article announcing the original Quest launch date follows below:
Original Article (April 16th, 2021): Puzzle Bobble VR is being developed by Survios, the studio behind Creed: Rise to Glory (2018) and Raw Data (2017), and published by the series’ original creator TAITO.
The first-person game is said to include 100 levels in story mode, letting you physically take aim with hand-held slingshots, match colors, and burst 3D bubble clusters to progress through the island environments. Outside of trying to get a perfect three-star score, Survios says you can also unlock power-ups with “clever VR interactions” by earning coins.
There’s also set to be an ‘Infinite Mode’ which lets you battle against a never-ending wave of bubbles, and ‘Online Duel Mode’ which lets you go head-to-head in 1v1 multiplayer.
The game’s soundtrack is being created by Taito ‘house band’ Zuntata, which the studio says will include “well-known Puzzle Bobble classics plus new songs composed specifically for Vacation Odyssey.”
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey is launching exclusively on Oculus Quest on May 20th. You can wishlist it on the Oculus Store here.
The Square Enix Presents event took place today and one of the most surprising reveals saw an augmented reality (AR) videogame revealed. Not just any old IP either, Square Enix Montréal and TAITO are collaborating on a Space Invaders title, bringing the classic shooter into the immersive gaming era.
A single image and and a teaser trailer don’t reveal what it’ll look like or if there will be an official name beyond Space Invaders. So what is known? Well, it’ll be a mobile videogame with AR features utilising “proprietary AR technology” with a “modern art style.”
Hopefully, some of those classic designs will be retained in some way whilst still allowing you to run around a field shooting the invaders and saving the planet. VRFocus expects that like most AR-enabled titles, players will be able to choose whether to have the feature switched on or not.
“We are extremely inspired by our collaboration with TAITO to re-imagine the Space Invaders franchise in a contemporary way while shaping it to our ambitious vision of what it can be on mobile,” said Patrick Naud, Head of Studio of Square Enix Montréal in a statement. “At Square Enix Montréal we are huge fans of the franchise and the team has risen to the challenge of showing how all-new technology can breathe fresh energy into a game as timeless as Space Invaders.”
“Collaborating with Square Enix Montréal on their bold vision for Space Invaders has been an incredible endeavour,” said Tetsu Yamada, President and Representative Director, Taito Corporation. “As fans of our classic series, they are treating Space Invaders with the utmost care and respect. We are thrilled that the game is coming out with new technology and fresh taste and will further expand the universe of the Space Invaders franchise.”
Square Enix Montréal and TAITO haven’t said when Space Invaders AR will be landing but you can head to the official website to signup for a chance to participate in playtests when they occur. For further updates on the title, keep reading VRFocus.
Survios, the studio behind Creed: Rise to Glory (2018) and Raw Data (2017), announced its currently developing a VR version of the ’90s tile-matching arcade puzzle game Puzzle Bobble (1994).
Also known as Bust-a-Move in some regions, the game is being developed in partnership with Taito, the Japan-based creators of the original franchise.
“You’ll be able to enjoy the familiar, lovable world of Puzzle Bobble in 3D,” Taito’s Yuichi Toyoma says in a video announcement.
There’s no gameplay video yet, however a concept image shows that the VR adaptation of Puzzle Bobble will involve a hand-held slingshot, challenging users to match-up a colored 3D cluster of bubbles.
Taito also intends on putting all new tracks created by the studio’s in-house sound team, Zuntata.
There’s no release date yet, although we’ll have our slingshots ready when Survios and Taito release word.
Much like Tetris, Taito’s Puzzle Bobble is a classic which has graced many a videogame platform over the years due to its simple yet addictive gameplay style. Today, Taito Corporation has announced that virtual reality (VR) specialist Survios is currently developing a Puzzle Bobble version for Oculus Quest.
Few details have so far been revealed other than the project’s existence and the single image (seen above). You’ll be able to use a catapult to fire those coloured orbs at a floating selection, trying to score as many points as possible by building combos.
In a YouTube presentation Taito’s Yuichi Toyama said: “This new title will star Bub, [the] main character of Bubble Bobble, in a new VR version of the puzzle game, Puzzle Bobble (a.k.a. Bust-a-Move). We’re currently developing this with Survios. You’ll be able to enjoy the familiar, lovable world of Puzzle Bobble in 3D. This title is scheduled to feature new tracks from Taito’s sound team, Zuntata.”
When the videogame will be released as well as gameplay modes have yet to be announced.
Currently, the major title everyone’s awaiting form Survios is The Walking Dead Onslaught which the studio is developing in collaboration with AMC. Originally due for release at the end of 2019, the project was pushed back to an unspecified point in 2020. This month saw a video from Norman Reedus appear, the actor revealing he had just finished his voice recordings. A new gameplay reveal is expected this summer.
Attack On Titan is one of the biggest successes in Anime in recent years, attracting large audiences all over the world, as it depicts a world where humankind is forced to live in cities protected by huge walls to protect them from the huge man-eating humanoid creatures known as titans. Now the bleak and brutal world of Attack On Titan is coming to virtual reality (VR).
Sony Music Communications and Taito are working on a VR attractions called VR Attack on Titan: The Human Race that will let up to four players take the roles of Squad Levi against the Female Titan.
It is based on a chapter of the original manga called ‘Female Titan Capture Operation’, which features Levi, Eren and other major characters riding on horseback as they attempt to make an escape by dodging various obstacles.
The mission is considered to be complete once a certain number of players reach the goal, which involves players avoiding not only obstacles but also the attacks of the Female Titan, who will kill your character if you get caught.
The Attack on Titan manga was first published in Bessatu Shonen Magazine in September 2009, subsequently adapted into an Anime series in April 2013. The story initially centered on Eren Yeager and his childhood friends as they join the military to fight the titans after their hometown is invaded.
Attack on Titan in both manga and anime form has been noted for the emotional impact is has had on its fans, and its very dark storylines, with some people coming to refer to it as ‘The Games of Thrones of Anime’.
VR Attack on Titan: The Human Race will be getting a location test in Tokyo from 19th-26th October at 10am-8pm JST at Ginza Sony Park. Those who participate in the location test will be given exclusive stickers.
For future coverage on new and upcoming VR experiences, keep checking back with VRFocus.
