The 5 Best Oculus Go Games

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Hi, I'm supersoup, a developer and occasional writer. I'm a game developer by passion, a web developer by practice, and a product of the 90s by tas... Read more

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Want to take virtual reality on the road? Facebook’s Oculus Go is the little VR headset that could. With accessible pricing, portable controllers, and an all-in-one design that doesn’t require a computer, Oculus Go is ready to play when you are. Anytime, anywhere. 

While its three-degrees-of-freedom design means not every VR game will translate well to the platform, there’s still a slew of quality titles clamoring for your time. The Go Store is the digital storefront you’ll be using to load your games and experiences. But why waste time browsing the store when you could jump straight to the cream of the crop? 

Today we’ll be highlighting the top 5 best Oculus Go games available on the Go Store. 

Top 5 Best Oculus Go Games

Without further ado, let’s jump right into the top Oculus titles.

5. Ocean Rift

• Genre: Exploration
• Developer: Llyr ap Cenydd
• Release: April 1, 2016

Explore the ocean from the comfort (and safety!) of your living room. Ocean Rift plunges you into the ocean’s depths for an up-close-and-personal look at the life teeming beneath the surface. Swim with whales, dance with dolphins, and bark at sea lions as you cruise through stunning undersea locales. You can even come face to face with extinct aquatic dinosaurs as you explore! 

The only objectives here are the ones you set for yourself. It’s the ideal game for relaxing and unwinding after a long day’s work. And it leans into the educational aspect with plenty of narrated info about the ocean and its creatures — so you might even learn a thing or two in the process.

The environments are gorgeous, and contribute powerfully to the “sense of place” that VR is so effective at evoking. Be advised if you have a fear of the ocean — you may want a friend or two on hand for your first dive. Or you could make them go first…

4. Wander

• Genre: Exploration
• Developer: Parkline Interactive
• Release: July 26, 2018

Wander is a Google Street View powered tool for exploration. The whole world is your oyster as you rediscover the places that mean the most to you — and find new locales you haven’t seen before! Thanks to the Oculus Go and the magic of VR, you’ll feel like you’re really there. 

When you can go anywhere, where do you start? At home, of course! Check out your old neighborhood as it changed (or didn’t) through the years. Spread your wings a bit and explore sides of your hometown you may not have seen before. In short order, you’ll be zipping around major cities in your country and visiting awe-inspiring Wonders of the World. And if you find something you’d like to learn more about, you can leverage the cumulative knowledge of mankind with the handy Wikipedia integration.

It may not sound like much of a “game,” but it is, without a doubt, an unrivaled experience. You can even roam the Earth with a party of friends! Share your favorite spots with your squad and find new ones together. It doesn’t get much better than that. 

3. ElectroBeats

• Genre: Action / Music
• Developer: MirrorVR
• Release: March 27, 2017

Get ready to use your head in ElectroBeats: the lightsword-free music and rhythm game. Instead of waving your arms around like one of those blow-up dancing advertisements, you’ll be controlling all of the action by turning your head to navigate the neon highway. Headbanging even serves a purpose besides grooving with the music, as certain notes demand a little extra “oomph” to net you points. 

The input method may take some getting used to — turning your head instead of waving your arms is less intuitive than it sounds — but it’s worth it for the best rhythm gaming on Oculus Go. Just remember to stretch your neck out a little before going to town. Especially if you’ve got a few gray hairs like myself. 

For Oculus Go users, this is the Beat Saber alternative you’ve been searching for. The legendary NoCopyrightSounds label provides the music here, so you’re guaranteed to find a track that gets you moving. 

EVE: GUNJACK

• Genre: Shooter
• Developer: CCP Games
• Release: November 19, 2015

Set in the same legendary universe as the EVE Online MMO, GUNJACK tasks you with defending yourself from the hotseat of a gun turret. Can you keep your cool as hostile ships swarm your position? GUNJACK demands quick reflexes and steady aim, but rewards players with solid gameplay and a familiar yet refined gameplay loop. 

There’s plenty of sci-fi flavored thrills on tap — lasers crisscross the void of space seeking targets, and enemy ships blossom into gorgeous explosions spewing fire and twisted metal into the black. Fans of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon turret sequence, take note. It’s most commonly compared to the classic arcade game Galaga, so if that’s your cup of tea, you’ll be right at home here. 

This is easily one of the most beautiful, immersive experiences available on the Oculus Go to date. If you want to get your gunslingin’ on, GUNJACK is the space-based shooter of choice. 

1. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

• Genre: Puzzle
• Developer: Steel Crate Games
• Release: July 16, 2015

One of the early pioneers in the VR space, Steel Crate Games’ Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is hard to miss. It’s available on nearly every platform and compatible with almost every VR setup there is. And whether this is your first experience with the game or your hundredth, you’re bound to have an explosively good time. 

This is the poster child for the “asynchronous VR” gameplay subgenre — which is to say, it’s a multiplayer experience that brings together a team of players where only one is in the headset. The rest have access to the bomb defusal manual, and communication is key to ensure the whole thing doesn’t blow up in your face. Only the player in VR can see the bomb, so it’s up to them to explain the strange modules and arcane symbols well enough for the external players to find the trick to disable them. 

It’s a simple gameplay loop that’s incredibly effective. And involving players who may not be comfortable yet with VR or already had their fill was a brilliant move. Gather friends and/or family around for an evening of defusal. You may find that it eats up all the VR time you meant to spend with other titles. And you won’t regret a minute of it.

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