Who needs hands when you can have baseball bats?
That opening line from the launch trailer, embedded below, pretty much sums up What the Bat? perfectly. Available today on Quest headsets and PC VR via Steam, this new VR release from indie studio Triband is a hectic follow-up to What the Golf? from 2019.
However, while What the Golf? was a strictly flatscreen affair, What the Bat? is the complete opposite – it’s a VR exclusive release. You’ll play through a series of “absurd” minigames, with 100 levels across approximately four hours of playtime. The developers describe it as a game that “challenges you to live as a modern day bat-girl, shooting, cooking, smashing, swinging, parking, painting, pickling, and even petting (there’s a dog).”
We tried out a small portion of the game earlier this year at Gamescom. It was a barrel of laughs featuring a many amusing minigames with truly wacky premises. It was also quite accessible for VR newcomers, with great diegetic VR design that puts the focus on immersive interactions as opposed to relying on controller mappings and buttons. Here’s an excerpt from our hands-on:
Anything goes in What the Bat, and all of it is fun. The developers know exactly what kind of game this is and aren’t afraid to double down on the concept to make it as amusing as possible. After my demo at Gamescom, I’m hopeful that the full release will be able to put a smile on anyone’s face, whether it’s their first or hundredth time in VR.
We’re looking forward to jumping into What the Bat? this weekend. Our full review is already in the works – keep an eye out for that in the coming days. What the Bat? is available now for Quest, Quest 2 and Quest Pro, alongside PC VR headsets via Steam.
