As a self-proclaimed “morning person,” I’m ready to jump out of bed and get going to moment I wake up. My wife is the total opposite, though, which means I often have some time to kill before she wakes up and we can start the day together. While I could lay in bed and play games on my phone, I’d rather not disturb her.
AC thVRsday
In his weekly column, Android Central Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and so much more.
It’s better to head out to the living room and play some games on my Steam Deck or Meta Quest 3, but I don’t like to play active games right away. Instead, I’d rather have a cup of tea and relax on the couch, which means the games I’m playing are all pretty chill. While people often think of VR games as being more active—many of the best Meta Quest games are, after all—plenty of games are designed to be played seated or even at a table.
For this week’s column, I’ve collected my four favorite casual games I love to play in the morning. My main criteria was that they not only had to be casual—meaning I can put them down at any time without worry—but they also can’t require the use of controllers. Hand tracking games only!
For maximum comfort, I use the Bobo M3 Pro headstrap in the morning and remove the facial interface for the Quest 3 entirely. That leaves things open so it’s easier to drink my tea and play without worrying about sloshing it on my headset. Some of the other best Meta Quest 3 accessories might also help, but I think it’s best to keep things simple for the morning.
Take the weight off your face and play for hours in comfort with the BoboVR M3 Pro, a headstrap replacement for the Meta Quest 3 that’s not just more comfortable, it also ships with a magnetically hot-swappable, rechargeable battery that’ll keep your headset powered for hours.
Words and shapes
Wordomi has been my new favorite morning game recently, combining everyone’s favorite word game, Wordle, with a little bit of Scrabble or crossword-type puzzles thrown in.
Each level begins by giving you a handful of letters and a word to solve. Easier levels are usually just three letters to solve a three-letter word—so you can take some time to wake up without immediately feeling super challenged—while the harder levels will present you with more complex words and leftover letters, making you think a bit more.
As you progress, the game starts to take on a Scrabble flavor with words building off each other in different directions. Wordomi takes great advantage of mixed reality and the spatial nature of VR by letting you grab and move around the “board,” or just getting up and walking around it if you so choose. You can even choose to play it on a table, with the word blocks falling and landing realistically on the table when you drop it.
Like Wordle, Wordomi’s words are randomized rather than being set levels that you can eventually complete. This is a game designed to be played regularly and the structure fits that very well.
But if you’re not a big fan of word games, I’ve got two shape puzzles that you might enjoy more. First up is Cubism, which made waves way back in March 2021 when it became one of the first hand tracking games on Quest.
Cubism is a clever, super casual play at your own pace puzzler that tasks you with building large shapes out of smaller ones. Each level gives you the outline of the large final shape, plus pieces that closely resemble Tetrominoes from the classic game Tetris. Unlike Tetris, however, you won’t be sweating bullets to get shapes in by a certain time.
Not only is Cubism the perfect pace for an early morning game, but it also gives you the freedom of playing it on a table like Wordomi. Cubism actually pioneered this design, and it feels just as magical now as it did when it launched alongside the Meta Quest 3 a year ago.
And if you enjoy even more complex puzzle shapes, Puzzling Places takes the concept of those expensive 3D puzzles and brings them into VR, complete with realistic rendering of 3D scanned buildings.
Puzzling Places lets you choose not only different real-life places and buildings to piece back together, but also gives you the option of changing the difficulty for each level to suit your tastes.
The game received a fantastic hand tracking and multiplayer update at the end of 2023, making it perfect for the category of casual morning games. If you’re fortunate enough to have multiple Meta Quest 3 headsets (or a Meta Quest Pro) around the house, you can even join up with housemates and solve puzzles together!
Morning in the city
If you’re looking for something a little more visually involved but still casual at heart, Little Cities is the perfect way to wake up and get your brain going. It’s a classic city-building simulator like Sim City, but with a far more relaxed tone. That means that while you’ll manage important things like water, power, and even cell phone towers, most mechanics are far more simplified than in that classic city builder.
Hand tracking in Little Cities works like a dream, too. It’s ultra simple to play without controllers thanks to the game’s clever UI, which gives you a smartwatch to check all your stats with, plus handy floating bubbles that you’ll pop to select each option.
While you’re totally immersed in the world instead of playing in mixed reality, there’s no reason to stand up and walk around thanks to an ingenious use of board game-like mechanics. Each city takes place in an island, and you’ll grab the island and move it around to reach every area. You can even “pinch and zoom” by grabbing with both hands and moving them closer or farther apart.
Since Little Cities autosave constantly, you don’t need to worry about when to stop playing. Just take the headset off and rest assured that you’ll find yourself right where you left off. Plus, several different save slots, a full campaign, and even a sandbox mode ensure that there’s plenty to do and lots of great ways to build the city of your dreams.
Waking up is more fun with VR, and since you don’t need controllers, you can still get that morning induction of caffeine while chilling on the couch.
Experience a new reality with the Meta Quest 3, featuring full-color passthrough vision that lets games place virtual objects in the real world. Plus, it’s even more comfortable with a BoboVR M3 Pro headstrap and no facial interface when playing certain games.
