Trip the Light is a VR dancing game that recently entered early access on Quest.

Developed by Dark Arts Software, Trip the Light is a dancing game that uses both fully immersive VR environments and mixed reality passthrough to see your own surroundings. First appearing last month on the wider Quest platform, the game lets you work with a digital partner to learn new dance routines, complete challenges, score points, and gradually build up combos.

In its current early access build, Trip the Light aims to teach you Salsa using virtual instructors that the studio states are based on real-life professionals. There's also a 'Rhythm Challenge' mode that tests you to follow solo dance styles like hip-hop, line dancing, and club moves.

More dance styles are promised to be coming soon, and buying the early access release grants you the 'First Dance Edition.' It's not clear what further features can be expected for the full release, though Dark Arts Software confirmed that early adopters will receive “all of the basic modes, features, and assets that we build between now [and] then.”

Trip the Light is out now on the wider Meta Quest platform.

Free-to-play multiplayer racer Boom Karts VR is out now on Quest, supporting crossplay with the mobile edition.

Originally launched on iOS and Android, free-to-play racing game Boom Karts has now received a VR edition from Finnish developer Zaibatsu Interactive. This arcade racer sees you try to secure the race wins using power-ups while avoiding obstacles and traps, racing friends and sabotaging rivals along the way. Now, it's come to Quest 2, Pro, 3, and 3S.

Featuring ranked leagues and ranked matches, Boom Karts VR also comes with an adventure mode and quests. Cars and characters can be customized alike through both cosmetic items and unlocking additional upgrades. Compared to the mobile edition, the VR edition of Boom Karts contains various new features like playing in a theater mode.

Game-specific friend lists are also available, as is a 'Teams' option that sees your group unlocking rewards, upgrades, and new items to upgrade your kart. One and two-handed control schemes are supported for the Meta Quest's Touch controllers, as are USB controllers.

Boom Karts is out now on Quest, Android, and iOS.

Transmission: Shortwave, a casual VR delivery driving sim set in a retro-futuristic Great Britain, is now available on Quest.

Marking the debut VR game from British indie studio Cardboard Sword, you may recall Transmission: Shortwave recently appeared in the UploadVR Winter Showcase. Taking place in an alternative 1990s Great Britain, you're tasked with delivering parcels across these UK-inspired landscapes at your own pace as a member of ParcelPal.

Detailing this further, Cardboard Sword calls Transmission: Shortwave a reflection of the team's “tongue-in-cheek humour and nostalgia.” Leaning into the retro aesthetic, Transmission: Shortwave comes with an original soundtrack that's inspired by early electronic dance music.

The developer states you can simulate driving “as much or as little” as you'd like, letting you use optional shifters, handbrakes, and turn signals. As you progress across the game, you can customize your courier by gradually unlocking different car models and colors.

Transmission: Shortwave is out now as a Meta Quest exclusive for $4.99.

Pocket Lands, a mixed reality sandbox game where you can create miniature worlds, is out now in early access on Quest.

Originally announced at last month's VR Games Showcase, Pocket Lands is a tabletop voxel sandbox game from Thomas van den Berge (Vermillion) through Mountainborn Studios. You can create diorama-like worlds across different biomes in mixed reality with support for both Touch controllers and hand tracking, then explore them in first person with fully immersive VR.

In its current early access release, Pocket Lands features various biomes and the ability to create worlds of different sizes. The game also supports a day and night cycle, empty dioramas for building without distractions, quick construction tools, and a virtual camera to record and share your different builds.

For the full release, Thomas van den Berge previously advised Pocket Lands will launch in “the second half of 2026”. The store page's “coming soon” section lists planned features such as multiplayer, cave systems, underground biomes, new surface biomes, creatures that roam these lands, and more. However, it's unclear if each feature will arrive at full release or across incremental updates.

Pocket Lands is out now in early access on the Meta Quest platform. We'll bring you our full impressions soon.

Dimensional Double Shift is out now on Samsung Galaxy XR, coinciding with the game's “largest update ever.”

Previously released on Quest in early access, Dimensional Double Shift is a hand tracking party game where you serve food orders and fix motor vehicles for the locals of each dimension you visit. Following October's New Joysey DLC, it's now available on Samsung Galaxy XR headsets and offers cross-platform multiplayer support with Meta Quest headsets.

Today's Samsung Galaxy XR launch is also joined by Dimensional Double Shift's free Winter Update. Developer Owlchemy Labs confirmed that this includes Solo Practice Experiment, its first single-player mode for the former co-op only experience, which teaches you the game's core systems.

Other new features include rotating weekend Boosters, starting with a limited-time 'Midas Touch' modifier where everything you touch turns to gold. Other Boosters include turning your mouth into a flamethrower, stretching your arms further, and more. Finally, the game's celebrating 'Snow-vertime Fest' from December 18 until January 5, adding a festive hub alongside winter-themed avatar cosmetics and new interactions.

Dimensional Double Shift is out now in early access on the Meta Quest platform and Samsung Galaxy XR.

Among Giants is an open world VR adventure from a solo developer that's heading to Quest 3 and 3S next year.

Created by K Monkey Games, Among Giants takes direct inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Playing as Erya across a world filled with ancient giants, you're tasked with exploring the remnants of this lost civilization as you decode its mysterious alien language. Hunting down these giants lets you extract their final memories, as you discover what happened to humanity.

Featuring a 25 km² environment, you're accompanied on this journey by a tiny robot companion called R-011, and a rideable horse you can summon from anywhere using a horn. Over 10 types of enemies are promised, ranging from droids to the “colossal death worm.” Erya comes armed with a bow and arrow, and other non-reloadable weapons can also be found.

Other forms of traversal include gliding through the air, using grappling hooks to navigate cliffs, and swimming underwater. Among Giants also features a dynamic weather system alongside a day and night cycle, where you'll need to carefully navigate heavy rain, blizzards, and scorching deserts alike across this journey.

K Monkey Games informed UploadVR that Among Giants targets a Q1 2026 launch on Quest 3 and 3S. Other platforms are currently unconfirmed, though the Meta Horizon Store presently lists Quest Pro support too.

Beat Saber gets a Coldplay Music Pack next week, and the band's hosting a free concert event on Meta Horizon later this month.

Revealed earlier today, Meta confirmed it's partnering with iHeartMedia to bring Coldplay's worldwide concert tour, Music of the Spheres, to Meta Horizon with a free immersive experience. Kicking off on December 30 at 11am PT, it's using stereoscopic 180-degree VR and that's based on the band's stint at Wembley Stadium.

While the full track list hasn't been revealed yet for Music of the Spheres: An Immersive Experience, Meta confirmed that featured songs include 'Yellow', 'Fix You', 'Viva La Vida', 'A Sky Full Of Stars', and 'feelslikeimfallinginlove'. Free Coldplay avatar merchandise has also been promised, and that's now available via the Avatar editor in VR or the concert pages on iOS and Android.

As for Beat Saber, today's blog post also revealed that the rhythm game's receiving a Coldplay Music Pack on December 18. This includes 12 new songs for $14.99 or $1.99 for individual tracks.

While this introduces a new environment “inspired by the band’s live shows,” it's unclear whether this shares the same track list from the upcoming immersive experience or uses different songs.

Finally, following its original appearance in 2022, Coldplay is also returning to fitness app Supernatural in the US and Canada with three new workouts. Starting on December 29, this includes two multi-intensity Boxing and Flow workouts, which Meta states will blend older singles like 'Fix You' and 'Viva La Vida' with more recent releases like 'feelslikeimfallinginlove' and 'WE PRAY'.

Guardians Planetfall looks like VR's answer to Helldivers 2, bringing a new squad-based shooter to Quest 3 and PC VR next year in early access.

Revealed during the UploadVR Winter Showcase, Guardians Planetfall is a follow-up to 2023's Guardians Frontline by VirtualAge. Set in an ongoing galaxy-wide war, this supports up to four players per squad as you defeat alien threats, soldiers, and war machines across different planets, battlefields, and more. You can see the reveal trailer below.

While Frontline actively mixes FPS and RTS mechanics, Guardians Planetfall takes a different approach while remaining in that same universe. The upcoming game involves team-based PvE and extraction missions as you fend off two different factions: the Void Empire, and an evolved Bugs race. You can customize your strike ship, suits and weapons, choosing where to deploy your squad for missions.

VirtualAge states mission locations will range across all extremes such as deserts, jungles, frozen outposts and “lava scarred” strongholds. Beacons can be deployed to call in orbital support for air strikes and various tools, while antigravity gloves let you climb most surfaces. Jetpacks can help reach higher ground, each mission has optional secondary objectives for earning greater rewards, while items placed into your backpack are only rescued if you successfully evacuate.

Completing these procedural missions then allows you to upgrade your ship, using blueprints and resources to upgrade its offensive, defensive, supply, and support systems. This unlocks new orbital abilities, and you'll travel between different star systems and planets across this campaign. Missions change who controls a specific planet and once you've cleared a campaign, the galaxy resets.

Much like Frontline, Guardians Planetfall also features an in-game map editor where you build missions in VR. This allows you to alter terrain, structures, enemy encounters, objectives and more, which can then be shared with the community and edited in co-op too.

We recommended Planetfall's predecessor in our 2023 review, calling Guardians Frontline an “ambitious attempt to combine the best elements of two disparate genres” and giving it our recommendation. Further post-launch updates later followed that included adding a large enemy known as 'The Queen', while 'Update 1.5' introduced a revised editor mode.

Guardians Planetfall will launch in early access on Quest 3/3S and Steam in 2026.

UploadVR is celebrating our Winter Showcase with a new Humble Bundle, featuring nine SteamVR games for $17.

Available for the next three weeks, the UploadVR Winter 2025 Showcase Bundle is now live following today's showcase. This time around, it's split between two separate tiers, with the games individually costing a combined total of $219.

The $10 tier comes with four games: After The Fall: Deluxe Edition, Guardians: Frontline, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and A Fisherman's Tale 2 (previously known as Another Fisherman's Tale). Choosing the $17 tier then adds the remaining five: Z.O.N.A: Origin, Metal: Hellsinger VR, I Expect You To Die 3: Cog in the Machine, Ghosts of Tabor, and Hellsweeper VR.

Charity proceeds will support the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you can adjust the revenue split between publishers, Humble and its chosen charities. While the above prices are the minimum you can spend on each tier, you can select how much you pay if you're looking to donate more.

The UploadVR Winter 2025 Showcase Bundle ends on December 26 at 6pm PT.

Birdseed VR targets a March 2026 launch for the free-to-play birdwatching sim on Quest and Steam.

Currently available in early access on Quest for solo play, Birdseed VR by Buffalo Buffalo (Fresh Tracks VR) sees you aim to get the best possible camera shots, giving your pictures a star rating. As seen in today's UploadVR Winter Showcase, the Vancouver-based studio confirmed Birdseed's full release is coming this March on both Quest and PC VR.

The game aims to mimic real-life avian behavior like movement, appearance, flight patterns and distinctive calls, equipping you with binoculars and different camera lenses to capture these moments. Daily challenges are available and online multiplayer will be supported at full release, letting you share photos with friends and hang out across the forests in online co-op.

Other changes in Version 1.0 include the launch of Scout’s Shop, which comes with premium cosmetics and tools. This will add vintage camera skins, charms for your viewfinder, and more. The developer states that premium items won't directly impact gameplay, calling this “completely optional” for players.

Following October's early access launch, Birdseed VR released a quality-of-life update two weeks ago. That introduced the Field Guide for tracking challenges, and completing these tasks awards bottle caps that “can be exchanged for future goods and tools.” More observable birds were also added, alongside a new scoring system and real-time feedback system to track your challenge progress.

Birdseed VR is out now in Early Access on Quest 3 and 3S, with the full release coming in March 2026 on Quest and Steam.

Mixed reality tactical roguelite Banners & Bastions is out now on Quest.

Created by Not Suspicious (Airspace Defender, Tablecraft), Banners & Bastions is a tabletop roguelite with hand-tracking controls that's been available in early access. The recent UploadVR Winter Showcase revealed that it's entering full release on December 15, with the 1.0 Update adding new hero units with unique special abilities, a new bestiary, an autumn battlefield biome, and more.

Version 1.0 follows a continuing series of updates across early access. Following October's addition of controller support, last month's content expansion added a new dragon boss battle and more foes. The latter update introduced a new playable Minefield card and two new enemy types - the Witch (ranged) and the Elite Swordsman (melee).

Battles occur across procedurally generated maps as you defend your kingdom, with tougher foes gradually emerging across fresh waves. You can continue investing in your local economy or fortifications, while your troops range from spearmen, knights, archers, and more.

Banners & Bastions is out now on the Meta Quest platform.

Upcoming VR horror game Dread Meridian is getting a multiplayer mode alongside its solo campaign with next month's launch.

Developed by KUKRGAME, Dread Meridian is an atmospheric VR survival horror game set across the island of Oglanbyen. Focused on a researcher called Daniella, we arrive at this remote arctic island searching for her lost twin sister, Isabella, solving puzzles and fending off strange creatures. As seen in today's UploadVR Winter Showcase, it's now confirmed multiplayer support, with a playtest coming before the end of the year.

While today's trailer didn't reveal much else about the upcoming multiplayer mode, the Dread Meridian development team revealed more to UploadVR in a written Q&A. The studio tells me it's considered multiplayer since the beginning, though focusing on Daniella's story was the priority before exploring how multiplayer could work across Oglanbyen.

“We wanted to make sure that we brought something new to the table with the elements that made Dread Meridian unique. Once we knew we were on the right path with our single player, then we started to experiment with how we could bring the exciting features of the world, the setting and especially the creepier elements to multiplayer.”

Dread Meridian has one multiplayer gameplay mode that supports four players per match, splitting your group into two teams. Cross-platform multiplayer support isn't available at launch, “but it's an important feature we plan to add in the future.”

You play as either the human survivors trying to escape Oglanbyen, or the monsters looking to hunt them down using special abilities. The developers confirmed that a full match takes place over multiple rounds, and you take turns playing between the humans and monsters.

“When playing as the humans, your goal is to destroy the monster's nests and escape through the extraction point. You must search for ammo and resources in order to survive the constant threat of the monster team. As a monster, you play as one of the unique twisted creatures with their own special abilities that are used to hunt, trap and defeat the human team.”

Asked about its long-term plans for supporting multiplayer, the studio states that it first plans to gauge the community's reaction and develop this mode further based on feedback. Calling this “such a different type of game mode from what's commonly seen in VR,” the studio says this means there aren't any best practices in place right now.

“We want our game to stand out, and not just build towards what is popular right now.”

Finally, I queried how the team plans to address feedback following mixed reception to Dread Meridian's previous playtests. Our own PC VR demo impressions praised the Lovecraftian adventure's body horror and unsettling mood, though we encountered numerous glitches that hampered our experience.

The developers highlighted positive responses to the game's immersion, art, and environments. However, they conceded that “we had several bugs that we had overlooked that caused negative experiences for our playtesters,” sometimes causing crashes. The studio advised it's since identified and resolved key issues behind these problems, stating it's now “dramatically improved” overall stability.

Dread Meridian will launch this January on PC VR and Quest, with pre-order skins available as a bonus.

Dread Meridian Demo Hands-On: Body Horror Thrills In Spades

Dread Meridian released a demo for Steam Next Fest, but is it a worthy VR survival horror to look out for?

UploadVRLuis Aviles

VR puzzle adventure Tin Hearts will bring its first act to Quest in February.

Developed by Rogue Sun and IPHIGAMES, Tin Hearts is a Lemmings-style game that explores the story of a fictional Victorian inventor, Albert Butterworth. Guiding toy soldiers through this Dickensian world with block-based puzzles, VR support arrived in a post-launch update on PS VR2 and Steam last year. Originally targeting a December 11 launch, that's now been delayed to February 12, 2026.

Detailed in a press release, publisher Wired Productions calls Act 1 a standalone episode where these tiny soldiers are appropriately dressed for the festive season in an attic filled with toys. Costing $5.99 for the first part, the publisher previously stated Acts 2, 3, and 4 will follow “in the coming weeks” on Quest. No specific release dates have been confirmed yet.

Originally released through a now delisted PC VR prologue on PC VR in 2018, we had positive impressions in our Tin Hearts VR preview two years ago. Stating it offers “some well-considered mechanics” that caught our attention, we believed it provides “enjoyable puzzles and an intriguing whimsical setting.”

Tin Hearts is out now in full on flatscreen platforms, PS VR2, and PC VR. Act 1 arrives on the Meta Quest platform on February 12, 2026.