Note: The process of sideloading from SideQuest is completely safe (we have a guide on how to do it right here), and there are no weird legal things to worry about with it even though the selection of stuff it offers sometimes seems too good to be true! Do note that many of SideQuest’s games are now link to the Oculus Store, so unlike in the good old days you now have to pay for some of them. The majority however, are free.
1. Gorilla Tag
Price: Free It doesn’t get much simpler than this, but amid all the increasingly impressive VR games that are cropping up these days, there’s something refreshing about this multiplayer tag game. Tag is a game as old as time: one person is ‘it’ and tries to catch one of their fellow players and pass it on. There’s also the ‘Infection’ mode for four or more players that sees more and more players become ‘it’ until eventually everyone’s chasing the one remaining player! The unique hook of Gorilla Tag is that you move around using momentum from your arms (you know, like a gorilla). It’s a neat little mechanic that give the game a bit of a learning curve.
2. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Price: Free The great DrBeef has done it again. The guy who brought us VR versions of games like Doom and Half-life has now gone and done it with another stone-cold classic: paranormal Nazis-and-zombies shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein. As is always the case with the incredible work of DrBeef, the game has full motion controls, dynamic aiming, and all the features you’d expect in a fully-fledged VR game. The only thing missing here is the game’s incredible multiplayer mode, but hey, can’t have it all!
3. Ultras Fighter
Price: Free There are few gaming experiences as cathartic as smashing your way through virtual enemies in VR – you need to have done it yourself to understand. Ultras Fighter plays right into that joyous feeling, throwing you into an arena where you’re smashing you’re beating up baddies with your bare hands. There are plenty of fun touches, like Bullet Time, boss fights and a number of brutal weapons like swords, grappling hooks and artillery. For now it’s just a prototype, so expect imperfections at this point, but for a freebie it’s an absolute riot.
4. Descent Alps
Price: $10 There’s a strange lack of really good skiing games in VR at the moment. Sure, there have been various attempts, but many just aren’t that good, or a bit too nauseating to enjoy. Descent Alps addresses a lot of the problems with VR skiing. It’s an exhilarating downhill ski racer that’s currently available through the Oculus App Lab via SideQuest for $10. It actually encourages you to lean into your turns and keep your centre of gravity low, much like real skiing, making for a deceptively rigorous workout.
5. Duck Hunt VR
Price: Free To this day, our minds boggle at how Duck Hunt for the original NES actually worked – so… you just point your gun at the screen and it shoots at that point on the screen? But… how does the screen know where I’m pointing? Is it… watching me?!?’ Duck Hunt was not only ingenious, but a really good time too, as you simply shot ducks flying out of the grass on your screen after your trusty hound jumps in there to startle them. The VR version offers full 360-degree hunting, and you even get to see your hand holding the original NES light gun in the game! It’s very simple, much like the original, but being fully surrounded by the blue skies and green grasses from your childhood is a wonderfully nostalgic trip.
6. Seeker VR
Price: Free Have you fantasized about riding a broomstick around Hogwarts ever since reading the books or seeing Daniel Radcliffe whizzing around in Quidditch the best part of 20 years ago? Well, now’s your chance. This unofficial Harry Potter game, Seeker VR, lets you open up a chest with the quaffle, the snitch, and… was there a third ball? While you don’t compete in actual matches, it’s still great fun to wizz around the Quidditch pitch with Hogwarts looming in the background. You can even leave the pitch and fly around the surrounding forests and around the grounds of Hogwarts itself! It’s all accurately laid out too.
7. Battle Talent: Fighter Training Simulator
Price: Free VR has always been great at making you feel like a skilled armsman – whether it’s swinging a sword around your head, chucking spears or lining up that perfect bow-and-arrow shot. Battle Talent pits you against hordes of skeletons, giving you a range of medieval weapons to take them on with. It’s extremely satisfying to slash the legs out from under your foe then finish them on the ground, or blocking a lethal attack with your sword then countering to lop their head off! It’s a rigorous workout too, and the roguelite game structure is very well suited to those snappy VR sessions.
8. Deisim
Price: $7.99 Those of us who have been gaming since the turn of the millennium will remember the golden age of God sims. Games like Populous and Black & White put you in control of an omnipotent deity, managing your worshipers, keeping them in line and helping them flourish for the undying reverence to you. Deisim is a great follow-up on those, and shows just how well the genre is suited to VR. You control a kind of giant god-hand, capable of throwing down houses, erupting volcanoes, throwing down lightning and even throwing your little worshipers around. It’s great fun, and a perfect way to mess around in VR.
9. Doom 3 VR (Doom3Quest)
Price: Free The latest in the barrage of old-school online shooters getting the VR makeover is Doom 3, the controversial but groundbreaking 2004 entry in the series that took things in a more moody, horror-oriented direction. Again, you’ll need to own the original Doom 3 (NOT Doom 3: BFG Edition) and move some files over to your headset, but once you’ve done that, you can dive into this labyrinth of moody lighting, dark metallic corridors and imps jumping out at you from inexplicably hidden compartments. It’s amazing how well this FPS classic holds up today.
10. Pavlov: Shack
Price: Free A simplified and streamlined version of the excellent Pavlov VR game for PC, Pavlov: Shack condenses the legendary Counter-Strike formula into an excellent VR game. There are many neat little mechanics, like holding assault rifles with two hands to stabilize the reticule, manually grabbing ammo from your vest, and pulling pins out of grenades before lobbing them. It’s a great terrorists-vs.-counter-terrorists simulator, with all the bombs, balaclavas and Berettas you could ask for.
11. Ancient Dungeon
Price: Free It’s a strange oversight within VR that there are very few roguelike or roguelite games. The genre’s a perfect fit, based as it is around permadeath, which means runs on the game tend to be fairly short but satisfying. And Ancient Dungeon understands that. As per roguelites, dungeons and item pickups are randomly generated, so each time you jump into the game, it’s going to be a wholly different and unique experience. There’s loot aplenty, nice visual variety, and a voxel-based art style that’s functional rather than flashy, that ensures that the game runs smoothly.
12. Half-Life 1 VR (LambdaVR)
Price: Free You can keep all your fancy first-person shooters designed for VR – being able to inhabit the familiar spaces of classic shooters like Half-life is one of the greatest VR experiences you can have. And it comes in the form of LambdaVR. You need to own the original Half-life on PC and transfer certain core files from that over to your headset, but once you’ve done that, you get to fully throw yourself into the world of Black Mesa. Weapons like the crowbar are completely dynamic, and you can get texture packs to really make those graphics pop.
13. Doom VR (QuestZDoom)
Price: Free Another golden oldie whose VR conversion really puts into perspective how timeless the classics are. QuestZDoom is actually a launcher for a VR version of ZDoom, the legendary source port that’s home to wonderful projects like Brutal Doom (which you can also play through this). It’s amazing how good Doom feels in VR, and basic quality-of-life things like snap-looking make it feel playable for hours. Again, you’ll need core files for whichever Doom game you want to play. (You can also play Hexen and Heretic, but there are less mods to make those look the part.)
14. Virtual Desktop VR Patch
Price: Free (main Virtual Desktop costs $15 on Oculus Store) Virtual Desktop is pretty much an essential app for Quest owners, letting you stream your PC desktop to your headset without having to connect it via a cable. You’ll need a very strong 5GHz Internet connection, but if you have one, then you’re in for a pretty seamless wireless desktop experience. And an essential part of Virtual Desktop is VR patch, which lets you play PC VR games wirelessly on your Quest. We’re talking fully-fledged SteamVR games like Half-Life: Alyx being streamed wirelessly from your PC to your headset! It works very well, too, supporting high resolutions and up to 120Hz refresh rate. Again, you’ll really need a good Internet connection to get the most out of this patch. If our list of the best SideQuest games doesn’t satisfy you, check out the best Virtual World games you can play, as well as our guide on SNES emulation through Retroarch.
