Meta Quest 3’s newest game feels like psychedelic Fruit Ninja

While the high-level sales pitch for virtual reality often involves transporting players to another world, I’ve never found those to be the best VR games. In my experience, my favorite experiences are very esoteric, colorful, and weird. They’re more like hallucinatory episodes rather than gateways to another world. That’s why Beat Saber still stands as one of the most popular VR games and why one of my favorite VR games is Rez Infinite.

Thrasher, the newest game from Thumper composer and artist Brian Gibson, is the latest VR game of that ilk. It’s also one of my favorite games I’ve played in VR to date thanks to its simple but mesmerizing gameplay. Thrasher is flying a bit under the radar ahead of release, but anyone with a Meta Quest headset should pick this game up now that it’s available.

In Thrasher, players guide a space eel around cosmic, abstract environments. There’s not much to worry about in the way of a narrative, just trippy visuals to take in as players make their way through each level and face off against cosmic beings. Gibson’s soundtrack is excellent and sounds just as ethereal as Thrasher’s levels look. This isn’t a rhythm game outright, but the sounds and sights of each stage are what make the experience feel whole.

Playing Thrasher is a very straightforward experience, which could actually make it a good first VR game for those new to the tech. With their hand or a Meta Quest controller, players just have to guide the eel through white shapes moving around the screen. These come in waves, and however much time players have left at the end of a level serves as their final score that’s placed on a leaderboard.

The simplicity of the controls makes it easy to enter a flow state while playing Thrasher. The eel moves like a ribbon on a dance streamer. It’s mesmerizing to just move it around the screen while not much is going on. When shapes appeared around me, I got the same rush as a game likeFruit Ninja as