Nearly a year ago a debilitating software error occurred that rendered every Rift on Earth basically inoperable for about a day. As recompense, Oculus handed out $15 in Store credit (or regional equivalent) to pretty much anyone that used Rift in the month of February in 2018 leading up to the service outage.
If you sat back and forgot about the credit though (and haven’t checked your email recently), this is your last chance to spend whatever remains before it expires.
Tomorrow, March 13th, is the last day for many users, so here’s a few suggestions to help you drain those $15.
Remember: you can purchase Rift (and Go/Gear VR) apps through the Oculus Mobile app for Android & iOS, so you don’t need your gaming rig in front of you to spend whatever credit is left. Of course, you can always use the credit to offset some of the expense on higher-price apps too, but this piece is focused entirely on Rift games at or below the free $15 store credit.
$11 – $15
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
You’ll need some buddies, a couple printed-out sheets of instructions and plenty of communication to help one chosen VR user disarm a complex bomb before everyone explodes (hence the name). It’s one of the best VR party games so far since it gets everyone involved.
Price: $15 – Oculus Store Link
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs
It’s Angry Birds in VR! It’s a bit more than that though, since the game is now entirely in three dimensions, forcing you to solve the piggy-laden puzzles with a little more spatial finesse than its 2D counterparts.
Price: $15 – Oculus Store Link
Pinball FX 2 VR
Pinball machines are few and far between these days, and besides being able to pop in and play a number of pinball cabinets in Pinball FX 2 VR, you’ll also be treated to some freaky special effects when you start rocking the scoreboard.
Price: $15 – Oculus Store Link
A Fisherman’s Tale
Vertigo Games’ A Fisherman’s Tale (2018) is a cute adventure game that puts you into a wild world of varying proportions, tasking you with solving puzzles in an infinitely recursive world. It’s pretty short, a little on the childish side, but it’s a steal at exactly $0.
Price: $15 – Oculus Store Link
Pixel Ripped 1989
Nostalgia turned up to 11: Pixel Ripped 1989 (2018) throws you into the time of 8-bit handhelds and school-time mischief. It’s a bit of a ‘game within a game’, as you try to defeat the 8-bit Cyblin Lord who tries to break through to the real world.
Price: $13 – Oculus Store Link
FORM
Inside the mind of a genius sits a dark world filled with intriguing puzzles. Everything in Charm Games’ FORM (2017) makes you feel a little more clever than you really are, as you solve music puzzles and increasingly complex object-based puzzles.
Price: $15 – Oculus Store Link
Virtual Virtual Reality
Virtual Virtual Reality (2017) is a narrative-driven comedy game, and it contains some of the best meta-weirdness out there. Search through 50+ virtual virtual realities to find out what lies behind the curtain of AI company Activitude.
Price: $15 – Oculus Store Link
$10 and Below
Esper: The Collection
It’s a double whammy, folks: Esper and Esper 2 in one convenient, low-priced bundle. Here you use your mind (aka gaze) to levitate puzzle pieces into place, all in the engrossing retro-50s style world reimagined to help train mutants – I mean gifted individuals – who possess telekenetic powers.
Price: $10 – Oculus Store Link
Please, Don’t Touch Anything
Originally a hit 2D game, Please, Don’t Touch Anything seems to have found a home in VR with its successive number of buttons that could blow up the entire Earth at any moment. It’s up to you to find clues and open up a complex control desk to reveal the button to prevent the impending nuclear holocaust.
Price: $10 – Oculus Store Link
Apollo 11 HD
Now you get to experience this historic event through the eyes of those who lived through it, which includes a mix of original archive audio and video together with accurate recreations of the spacecraft and locations, all set to inspirational music, get set for an experience that will not only educate you but will also leave a lasting impression and deep respect for the people who worked on the Apollo program during NASA’s golden era.
Price: $10 – Oculus Store Link
BlazeRush
BlazeRush is an oldie but a goodie. It works on even the most modest of VR systems and provides plenty of racing fun. You and four other players race HotWheel-size vehicles around a track, blowing the ever-living crap out of each other.
Price: $10 – Oculus Store Link
Torn (on sale)
Torn pretty much nails the fun, Doctor Who-ish atmosphere of landing in an enchanted mansion with plenty of puzzles to solve. It’s not the most difficult puzzler out there, and the story is a bit on the limp side, but it’s a visual feast that at less than a third of the launch price is certainly worth considering.
Price: $8.99 (discounted from $30) – Oculus Store Link
Drops: Rhythm Garden (on sale)
Drops is a musical sandbox where you construct a sort of musical sculpture piece by piece, each of them emitting a different tone when a little dropping ball strikes them. The effort you put in can truly be enjoyed as you sit back and listen to the rhythmic beat of your own creation.
Price: $5 (discounted from $7) – Oculus Store Link
Didn’t see a game that interests you? Make sure to check out the full list of All Entertainment, All Games, and All Apps, and filter by price to reveal the glut of low-priced content out there. Don’t forget to check out the sales section!
