STAR CHILD

Developer Playful Corp Publisher GameTrust Format PS4, PSVR Release TBA

While Rift launch title Lucky’s Tale had plenty of problems, its use of VR was not among them. Viewing the action from a shifting thirdperson perspective helped elevate it from a bland cartoon platformer to – well, a bland cartoon platformer that felt somewhat novel because it was in VR. Developer Playful is hoping to repeat the trick with Star Child. It’s a galaxy apart from Lucky’s Tale, but its inspirations are similarly obvious, despite the sci-fi set dressing. Rather than call back to the ‘90s, here it’s the new breed of 2.5D platformers, and particularly

Inside, that lays the foundation. Unimaginative, perhaps, but the pedigree’s there: director Kynan Pearson has credits on the likes of Metroid Prime, Halo and the Shadow Of The Colossus remake. We’re hardly expecting a classic, but the side-on view offers up scope for plenty of perspective-based trickery in VR – although an option to play without a headset means the designers may have to rein themselves in. Still, at least there’s no sign of that stupid fox.