The first thing that interested me about this PR blurb was the idea of VR fitness. I like VR, but still often suffer from some terrible motion sickness when playing too long. Which led me to wonder, could VR fitness help? Or would it just put me into a cocoon of horror? BoxVR positioned itself as being my chance to discover the truth of the matter. The press release says it is "the only game co-designed by pro fitness instructors" and the marketing material raves with testimonials of weight loss from playing the game. But reading deeper, it's basically Beat Saber or Audioshield with boxing gloves. That's not a bad thing at all. That's great company to be in. But a boxing game where you stick but don't really move is only half a boxing game and certainly not a fitness regime.
So taking aside the claims about fitness and health, what do we have? Well that's the second thing that struck me about the news blurb, we have a rather uninspiring YouTube video, posted below. The first 3/4 of the video is basically the same lille half dozen punch and duck sequence replayed over an again from a slightly different angle interposed with eye roll worthy claims about "getting ripped" from a punch and duck sequence. Then the background changes for the final act of basically the same sequence repeated some more, but with that different background. I link to this video because it was the one in the PR blurb, but YouTube is full of them. Just search for 'BoxVR' and you will be treated to an array of options touting the game's ability to get you "ripped" and about its "intensity" all the while watching very un-intense people not looking very ripped, people playing BoxVR and looking rather silly.
The thing is that this is just not a game that lends itself well to watching someone else play, but BoxVR by all accounts seems to actually be a good game. It's a take on the VR rhythm series which is inherently a lot of fun, by all accounts on reviews and sales charts in places like Steam it is highly praised. And it's ready to leave Early Access on April 30th and not only get a full release on the high-end VR platforms like Vive, Rift and Windows MR, but also on PSVR. If you really want to see what BoxVR has to offer. Click on the Steam link and check out the video there. If you want to just have a chuckle at a video that really doesn't sell it but does get a bit real about what people actually look like when they play in VR, then I present, for your viewing pleasure:
