What's Hot and What's Not in the World of VR Sports Gaming

While I was dishing on MLB The Show 26 earlier this week, we’re still kind of in a dead zone for sports games. We have the Super Bowl and the Olympics coming up in real life, but sports games don’t have that same big event on the horizon.

With that in mind, I’m handing today’s newsletter over to Kevin Scott so he can talk about VR sports games. At a time when there are not a ton of new “normal” experiences, are you maybe missing out on something elsewhere?

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VR is an area that is unquestionably helping out real athletes these days, but that’s with people using it for skill improvement not for fun. Kevin is here to give us an update on what (if anything) is worth playing for enjoyment in the sports game space.

So let me hand it off to him…

Because of established series like Madden and NBA 2K and MLB The Show garnering so much attention year after year, there isn't a ton of space for new games to break through. Sure, a title like Rocket League takes the world by storm every once in a while but these kind of phenomena are few and far between.

If you venture outside the realm of flat gaming though and explore what's happening within virtual reality sports gaming, you'll find some innovative titles that are picking up steam and building a growing audience. By recreating the feel of putting a ball or a club or a racket in your hand and getting you closer to the action of the sport, these games take immersion to another impressive level.

Free from the established bullies that monopolize the conversation in console gaming, developers of VR games are vying for consideration in a format that still feels very much like the Wild West. In fact, with so many VR sports games available in the Meta Quest store, it can be a tad overwhelming trying to find what's really worth your time.

With that in mind, here are some quick takes on a handful of noteworthy VR sports games for the Quest VR headset that could be just what you're seeking when you strap in to escape our reality.

What's Hot

Golf+

Golf+ is pretty much the cream of the crop when it comes to VR sports gaming, standing out from the pack with not only its realistic yet accessible gameplay but also with its breadth of features. For starters, you'll find many different ways to play to suit your needs, whether you're looking to just hit some balls at the driving range or compete against others online in a variety of scoring options.

You'll also be able to experience a nice assortment of courses, including a selection of legendary ones that allow you to see how you'd fare against their formidable challenges without requiring you to shell out the exorbitant costs to travel there in person.

Of course, you will need to purchase these real courses from the game's store for a small fee, but the game does come with a few satisfactory fictional courses to test your mettle. You can also sample 9 holes of a random course in the game's handy Quick Play mode.

So will the game actually make you a better golfer in real life? Yes and no. There are plenty of testimonials online from people that will tell you it made their real-life game worse when they eventually touched grass.

This is largely due to the fact that, for all of the game's faithful renderings of physics, the one thing that it can't accurately depict is the compression of the ball when your club strikes it. That's why you'll never see any of the usual real-life flubs from your game crop up in Golf+ — like thin shots that top the ball or fat ones that have you hitting more ground than ball.

For better immersion though, it's worth investing in a golf club attachment for your Quest controller that can be weighted to make it feel pretty similar to holding a real club. There are also some aspects of golf that the game could legitimately help you to improve, such as correcting your swing plane or managing a course from shot to shot. Oh, and putting. You can never work enough on putting.

Walkabout Mini Golf

Speaking of never working enough on your putting. If you find a full round of golf intimidating, you can leave all of your clubs except one at home in Walkabout Mini Golf and focus on that putting.

Showcasing a much more relaxed vibe than Golf+, this mini-putt simulator boasts a bunch of creative courses that can be tailored to your preferred difficulty. You'll find that holes range from more basic ones that involve reading slopes and dodging obstacles to some insane ones where you'll need to launch your ball off ramps with some real velocity if you hope to be able to reach the hole.

The virtual reality element even removes some of the more annoying aspects of real mini golf. For instance, you'll no longer need to worry about your ball hugging awkwardly against a wall since your putter can pass right through that wall without it hindering your swing. There's even a fun scavenger hunt built in that will have you searching the courses for hidden balls throughout a round.

Eleven Table Tennis

For anyone who's ever fantasized about having a ping pong table in their home but lacked either the space or funds to make that a reality, here's a game for you. In fact, thanks to the game's mixed reality mode, you can actually create the illusion that there really is a ping pong table in your actual home.

You won't need to worry about finding an opponent either, as the game's highly customizable AI competition is always up for a game whenever you're ready to play. You can even have that opponent appear as an adorable cat on the other side of the table if you like, but be warned that they won't seem so adorable when they're demolishing you with a killer backhand.

The physics are impressively realistic too, giving you free rein to smash the ball with power, precision, and even put some nasty spin on your shots. When you've become skilled enough to start winning matches regularly against your formidable AI cat opponent, you can take your talents online to see how you fare against the game's active community — which does have an ELO system (and some real menaces who will destroy you).

What's Not

NFL Pro Era 2025

Not to mix sports metaphors or anything, but this game should have been such a slam dunk (perhaps Tush Push is the more apt football equivalent).

It has the NFL licensing you want in a football game so you can line up as quarterback for a real NFL team alongside real NFL players to see if you have what it takes to be a pro quarterback. There's naturally some enjoyment to be found, however limited that might be, in slinging dimes that hit receivers in stride for big gains.

It's even appreciated that the game has a franchise mode that has you seeking consistency over the course of a season.

But the more you play, the more the game's shortcomings become apparent, like a scrub trying to fit in with players at the highest level. You'll find that your passes don't always have the touch and target you intended, the limited animations result in stilted movements that especially hinder the ground game, and the addition of playing on defense for this second release in the series is underwhelming.

Maybe we should just be happy that we got that last feature at all though. For months after the game's release, developer StatusPRO touted the impending reveal of a highly-anticipated multiplayer mode that would allow you to play games against others in the community.

After teasing people for what felt like ages, StatusPRO eventually released a statement confirming what many had already feared: the multiplayer mode wouldn't be coming at all. Since then, it's been pretty much radio silence from them as far as updates.

That doesn't exactly inspire a whole lot of confidence from a series that once showed a fair amount of promise. It's hard not to view the whole enterprise at this point as a tantalizing prospect that was never quite developed to its full potential.

Thanks as always to Kevin for this.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase