If you’ve never playedUmurangi Generationbefore, change that. It’s a heavily stylised photography game set in a dystopian Aotearoa. I won’t spoil anything more than that because it’s one of thoseDoki Doki Literature Clubsituations where you just need to experience it firsthand, but it’s dripping in neonJet Set Radio Futurestyle and nails every element of photography from composition to post-processing.
Except, maybe don’t go and play Umurangi Generation just yet. Developer Origame Digital revealed that a VR version of the game is coming to Meta Quest and PS VR2 next year. That’s odd, you may think, seeing as the regular game isn’t available on PlayStation. Well guess what, buddy?
Umurangi Generation feels made for VR. Bringing up your hands to your face to take a picture, using your actual head and hand positions in selfies, and exploring the varied terrain with your own feet will take the game to a whole new level.
Best of all is the graffiti. While you’re able to apply some simple tags to your surroundings in the base game, the VR port offers complete freedom to make your mark on Aotearoa. With full hand tracking, you’re able to draw whatever you want, wherever you want. You could even put on some roller skates and pretend you’re in Jet Set Radio Future. I just want a new Jet Set Radio game, okay?
“The detail you can get in graffiti now is essentially only limited by your imagination,” says the developer. While the sentiment is nice, you do need an artistic streak too, because I already know my drawings will look like your nan’s attempts at Christmas Pictionary rather than the effortlessly cool portraits scrawled across the trailer.
This is more than just a VR port, Umurangi Generation has been fully rebuilt from the ground up. There’s a fully functional MP3 player that allows you to skip or repeat tracks, wrist-mounted menus to eliminate pausing, and plenty more that has only been hinted at thus far.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it works on my original Meta Quest (from the days when it was still called Oculus, remember that?), which has largely been made redundant in recent months. It shouldn’t be too taxing on the four year old hardware, but you never know with VR games these days.
Umurangi Generation surprised me at every turn. The developer tells an incredibly rich story through photographs and level design, realising a dystopian future better and more easily than games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Ghostrunner. I wanted Nintendo Labo functionality when it was ported to the Switch (the same for Pokemon Snap would have also been a no-brainer), but a VR version with a host of updates is even better.
If you’ve never played this game, it’s time to finally take the plunge. And if you’ve played until you know each level better than your hometown like me, well we’ll just have to do it all over again, won’t we?
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