When VR hit the mainstream a decade ago, long before Quest 3, music and rhythm games were at the forefront of the offering. VR music games capture the feeling of crazy games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero and could transport you there. If you wanted, you could play guitar on a stage in front of thousands of people, even if you actually stayed in your bedroom.
But have they been coming in all this time? Now we have question 3: What are the best rhythm and music games available today? We’ve already talked about how to get fitter with your Quest 3, and there’s an overlap here: these are the games you’re actively doing without even realizing it. Fortnite doesn’t do that. Here we take a look at four of the music games we play, and in some cases still play, even after all these years.
Best Quest 3 rhythm and music games
Beat Saber
Beat Saber has sold a lot of VR headsets and definitely a lot of quests. This was the first game to truly bring music gaming into VR. It transported you to a different place – this sort of Tron-esque electrozone where all that mattered was cutting cubes in very specific directions with your lightsabers.
Even though the law doesn’t allow them to call them lightsabers, they aren’t, right? Swinging them and hearing them hiss and thrash around as you touch them remains one of the most exciting virtual reality experiences you can have.
As you get better with practice, you can think about adding new song packs from artists like Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, and Queen. You can already imagine We Will Rock You, right? Great stuff.
Ragnarok
This is one of my favorite VR games right now and as rhythm games go, it’s great. The premise is different from most: you are in charge of a Viking longship and every beat of your drums with your massive hammers causes the Vikings to make an oar stroke. The idea is to win races by banging the drums on time. Sounds a bit crazy. It is, but it just works.
The music is very much an acquired taste, as it’s largely a variety of metal formats, but there’s also pirate metal and sea shanties galore, and even if you’re not interested in the style of music (and I am definitely not!), everything just fits together Well, you will definitely have fun and go for another round.
Piano vision
We mentioned this in our best experiences with Quest 3 and here it is, fittingly in the music games roundup.
Pianovision is a game that actually teaches you how to play the piano even if you don’t have one, by placing a virtual keyboard on your desktop where you have to hit the notes as they fly towards you, a bit like in Beat Saber, but more similar to Mozart than Daft Punk.
It’s very well put together and really relaxing fun, and strangely enough, just by repeating it you actually start to learn how to play on a real keyboard that you can actually use.
Pistol whip
Pistol Whip is a popular game and it’s easy to see why. Think Superhot VR but with a fast beat Saber vibe with dodging and shooting to the beat of the music.
The old gamer in me wants to say that it’s a bit like Virtua Cop meets Space Channel 5 (also one of my favorite rhythm games and available on the Quest), but it’s much cooler.
This is another game that pushes you to try again, and then suddenly you realize you’re sweating and your battery is dead.
Paradiddle
The strangely named Paraddle is more of a percussion simulator than a rhythm game as such. You can create your own instrument palette, similar to Virtuoso, and choose your surroundings – you can sit in a smoky old jazz racket if you wish and watch guests sip espresso martinis while soaking up the atmosphere.
Any percussion is allowed here, from xylophones to steel drums, you can try everything out and it’s a lot of fun. You can also easily convert Paradiddle into mixed reality so you can have the drums in your own living room and stay friendly with your neighbors.
Diploma
There are many more options for Quest 3 in this genre, and you may have your own favorites, but if you haven’t tried any of the above, they’re definitely worth a look.