C-Smash VRS – the Dreamcast you never expected (Picture: RapidEyeMovers)

Forgotten Dreamcast game Cosmic Smash is reimagined as a sci-fi tennis sim for PSVR2, but do multiplayer games really work in VR?

Since Tron’s release in 1982, the idea that we would all one day play virtual sports in shiny, impossible-looking digital arenas, has been a persistent one. Sega’s Cosmic Smash was one early attempt to make that dream a reality. Originally released in arcades, before making its way to Dreamcast in 2001, its bat and ball action took place in what looked like a futuristic squash court.

The arrival of (relatively) inexpensive VR headsets gave virtual racquet sports a new lease of life. Sparc, for Oculus Rift and the first PlayStation VR, was perhaps the best example, as it let players interact by punching the ball at each other, while defending themselves using a small transparent shield. It artfully blended tennis with some sort of fast-moving ball-based martial art, or at least it did until its servers were turned off last year.

Although not actually made by Sega, C-Smash VRS is the spiritual successor to Cosmic Smash, bringing the concept into VR – which you can’t help thinking is where it really belongs. Looking down at your in-game avatar, you’ll discover you inhabit a transparent body complete with legs and feet, while your right hand grips something that looks like a racquetball racquet.

In line with its inspiration, you find yourself standing in a sci-fi squash court, its four walls punctuated by windows that let you see slow clapping, space suit-wearing audience members and the starry cosmos spread out behind them. Depending on the game mode, there are also stacks of opaque squares and rectangles that need to be hit with a ball to make them disappear.

Like tennis or squash, hitting the ball straight returns it towards the back of the court, but you can also add spin, giving shots an elegant curve as they fly through the air. That’s useful because as well as squares to hit, there are obstacles to avoid, which you can either curl the ball around, or use the floor and walls to rebound your way around.

While its physics model is consistent enough, it doesn’t quite feel like the real world. When the ball bounces off the floor or a wall, it comes back with a little bit more momentum than when it hit, like a pinball bouncing off a bumper. Also, unlike tennis or squash, C-Smash doesn’t care how often the ball bounces before you hit it, with multiple rebounds from the floor, walls or ceiling perfectly legal and with no reason to interrupt play.

Taking full advantage of PlayStation VR2’s room scale play area, you’ll need to stand up for this one, because as well as moving from side to side, using the left analogue stick, you’ll also need to reach for the ball on both the forehand and backhand sides. Like Creed: Rise To Glory, that means being careful where you stand, your aggressively swinging arms a very real threat to the integrity of your TV and anyone unlucky enough to be standing nearby.

Low hanging lighting fixtures are another potential hazard, the game’s frequent overhead smashes forcing you to adjust where you stand or risk giving them an inadvertent battering. Walls can be just as deleterious to hands and controllers, so those with cramped play spaces really need not apply. If you picture yourself wildly yet blindly swinging your arms at maximum reach you’ll have a good idea whether or not C-Smash is compatible with your sitting room.

In this weather the other problem is heat. With a plastic headset strapped tightly to your face and a game that involves fairly significant upper body exercise, a powerful fan is all but essential to avoid discomfort. Even with that we found we needed fairly frequent breaks for a glass of water and a sit down.

Graphically, it looks lovely. A common complaint levelled against VR games is their innate fuzziness, which the upgrade to PlayStation VR2 certainly doesn’t always eliminate, as those who’ve had the misfortune to play The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR will have discovered. C-Smash suffers from none of that; its sharp, clean lines give a sense of clarity and precision that’s entirely welcome in a game about nuanced ball physics.

Sadly, where it really falls down is its matchmaking. The game’s only just launched and over a weekend that offered free PlayStation Plus, letting all PlayStation owners play online without having to spring for the additional subscription, we couldn’t get a single online match, despite deliberately selecting every possible game mode in its ironically named Quick Match.

The minutes just tick by, and while it doesn’t force you to twiddle your thumbs in a lobby, but gives you a court and a bunch of squares to hit while you’re waiting, it’s to no avail, with not a single versus player turning up in any of our play sessions. It’s a shame, because even in single player C-Smash’s potential is obvious.

There’s a small amount of solo content, the game doing its level best to spice up the bat and ball action with its two game modes, moving obstacles and stacks of blocks to hit. But at its heart this is a game for two, and without the ability to play either co-op or versus modes it feels bereft of what should be its core gameplay element: a fellow human to pit yourself against.

It’s a problem that afflicts a lot of VR games, the installed user base proving too small for reliable online play, even when cross-play is enabled. The fact that even on its launch weekend, with the additional draw of free PlayStation Plus, there was nobody to play against does not bode well for its future and makes you question the viability of multiplayer VR games in general, at least until more people buy headsets.

Formats: PlayStation VR2 (reviewed) and PC
Price: £24.49
Publisher: RapidEyeMovers
Developer: Wolf & Wood
Release Date: 23rd June 2023
Age Rating: 3

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Forgotten Dreamcast game Cosmic Smash is reimagined as a sci-fi tennis sim for PSVR2, but do multiplayer games really work in VR?