Based on my time with it, I do not recommend playing Sugar Mess - Let's Play Jolly Battle on the PSVR2 despite liking some parts of overall game. It is a collection of arcade games presented in the format of an adventure game where you move the Sugar Prince figurine on a diorama map to select each story level as you progress. Each of these starts with a story using paper cutout art style that look hand drawn / painted and then the level that you play can be an arena shooter (3:45 & 33:09), on-rails track shooter (10:47), solve single puzzle which allows skip (17:00), complete rhythm game song without failing (27:40) or boss battle which involve teleporting (20:10). The game is very short having just two of each type of level that it features. The game also has an arcade (by going to Store) you can visit after completing first level that lets you play one simulated arcade game (7:36) using giant control stick and giant buttons. You can jump or shoot, but the scoring is only from picking up candy pieces and you have to avoid getting touched by the sugar enemies. The Store is also where you can shop for and buy / equip 2 other weapons available (31:50). The game allows you to use any weapon you have unlocked for any of the levels that feature shooting (arena, track or boss). The starting weapon is like a pistol where each projectile shot requires separate trigger pull and can be tiring to use. The next weapon I unlocked allows holding fire to keep firing projectiles, but you do have to hold it with both hands to keep the recoil / aim in control. I haven't unlocked the third weapon which would require some replaying of levels to have enough credits to unlock. The weapons I tried feel different, but clearly the unlocked weapon is better / easier. Whichever weapon you use has potential to level up based on your scoring from Level 1 up to Level 3 so there is some incentive to try and upgrade all weapons by using them enough. The game doesn't have Platinum where 3 of the trophies you will get if you complete game, a few you will get if you replay enough to unlock & upgrade all weapons, and couple that will likely prove frustrating. Specifically 25 points in Arcade mini-game or S rank all levels including the rhythm game levels because unlike rest of game the controls aren't good for those two. The arcade mini-game you can completely ignore, but you will need to pass the 2 rhythm games that just feel off in the detection / feedback to be able to complete game. Lastly, there are hidden gears to shoot in some levels for one of the trophies as well. The game is made for "all ages" but definitely skews to younger player appeal / expectation with its art style / tone / aesthetics. The game isn't crisp so probably not very high-res, but it is clear with no signs of reprojection. The soundtrack and sound effects are also fine except the rhythm game levels where I feel some audio feedback is missing for when you are hitting notes as part of gameplay. The game is using haptic feedback in the controllers but it is not utilizing headset haptics nor resistive triggers of the PSVR2. I doubt any are needed for most players, but there are no VR comfort options offered. The only levels with any motion are the on-rail track levels. The best part of the game are the two boss levels. They actually exceed expectations going through rest of game leading up to them. The shooting levels are fine and I think in each case (arena vs track) the 2nd iteration is better than the first, but I can think of better games for arena or track shooting than this. The highlight for this game are the boss battles. If they had more of these, I would have leaned towards recommending. The puzzles levels are very simple and can be skipped. The worst part of the game are the two rhythm levels because there is something not quite right about the controls or feedback playing through those and this is from someone that has played a lot of rhythm games in VR. I know these should feel a lot better to play than they are feeling in this game. These are the main reason I lean against recommending this game. I don't like to knock a game for length (especially if there is replay value) if quality of experience is good, but it is worth mentioning here that total content if you don't get stuck on anything is < 1 hour. There is replay value for some of the levels where you can use different weapons or try to find all the hidden gears or get S ranks, but it is a very short game.
Big Cus! A like and a comment as a pittance for my questions: (1) do you have a master list of all the games that can be played coop psvr1 to psvr2? My “use case” is a game like beat saber where I’d have a friend play on my alt account on ps4 pro/psvr1 and I play from ps5/psvr2 (as if I’ll not have the better headset) (2) I updated my ps4 pro this week finally and all sorts of games were crashing and failing to launch properly like swordsman and others - everything is updated - does this sound like it’s maybe been so long I’ve updated my ps4 pro that I need to delete save games because they might be incompatible with these recent versions/causing crashes? Thanks!
I think there is very limited games that will run crossplay between PSVR1 and PSVR2. It is much more likely that they have crossplay with Steam or Meta Quest than the PSVR1 version of game. I don't know of a good resource I could refer you to for this. Maybe After the Fall or Alvo or Crisis Brigade 2 or Cave Digger 2? It won't be a long list. Save files should be fine in more cases than not, but if you want to test, you can backup your save file (USB or Cloud) and then delete to see if the game works properly with freshly created save file.
Based on my time with it, I do not recommend playing Sugar Mess - Let's Play Jolly Battle on the PSVR2 despite liking some parts of overall game.
It is a collection of arcade games presented in the format of an adventure game where you move the Sugar Prince figurine on a diorama map to select each story level as you progress. Each of these starts with a story using paper cutout art style that look hand drawn / painted and then the level that you play can be an arena shooter (3:45 & 33:09), on-rails track shooter (10:47), solve single puzzle which allows skip (17:00), complete rhythm game song without failing (27:40) or boss battle which involve teleporting (20:10). The game is very short having just two of each type of level that it features.
The game also has an arcade (by going to Store) you can visit after completing first level that lets you play one simulated arcade game (7:36) using giant control stick and giant buttons. You can jump or shoot, but the scoring is only from picking up candy pieces and you have to avoid getting touched by the sugar enemies. The Store is also where you can shop for and buy / equip 2 other weapons available (31:50).
The game allows you to use any weapon you have unlocked for any of the levels that feature shooting (arena, track or boss). The starting weapon is like a pistol where each projectile shot requires separate trigger pull and can be tiring to use. The next weapon I unlocked allows holding fire to keep firing projectiles, but you do have to hold it with both hands to keep the recoil / aim in control. I haven't unlocked the third weapon which would require some replaying of levels to have enough credits to unlock. The weapons I tried feel different, but clearly the unlocked weapon is better / easier. Whichever weapon you use has potential to level up based on your scoring from Level 1 up to Level 3 so there is some incentive to try and upgrade all weapons by using them enough.
The game doesn't have Platinum where 3 of the trophies you will get if you complete game, a few you will get if you replay enough to unlock & upgrade all weapons, and couple that will likely prove frustrating. Specifically 25 points in Arcade mini-game or S rank all levels including the rhythm game levels because unlike rest of game the controls aren't good for those two. The arcade mini-game you can completely ignore, but you will need to pass the 2 rhythm games that just feel off in the detection / feedback to be able to complete game. Lastly, there are hidden gears to shoot in some levels for one of the trophies as well.
The game is made for "all ages" but definitely skews to younger player appeal / expectation with its art style / tone / aesthetics. The game isn't crisp so probably not very high-res, but it is clear with no signs of reprojection. The soundtrack and sound effects are also fine except the rhythm game levels where I feel some audio feedback is missing for when you are hitting notes as part of gameplay. The game is using haptic feedback in the controllers but it is not utilizing headset haptics nor resistive triggers of the PSVR2.
I doubt any are needed for most players, but there are no VR comfort options offered. The only levels with any motion are the on-rail track levels.
The best part of the game are the two boss levels. They actually exceed expectations going through rest of game leading up to them. The shooting levels are fine and I think in each case (arena vs track) the 2nd iteration is better than the first, but I can think of better games for arena or track shooting than this. The highlight for this game are the boss battles. If they had more of these, I would have leaned towards recommending.
The puzzles levels are very simple and can be skipped.
The worst part of the game are the two rhythm levels because there is something not quite right about the controls or feedback playing through those and this is from someone that has played a lot of rhythm games in VR. I know these should feel a lot better to play than they are feeling in this game. These are the main reason I lean against recommending this game.
I don't like to knock a game for length (especially if there is replay value) if quality of experience is good, but it is worth mentioning here that total content if you don't get stuck on anything is < 1 hour. There is replay value for some of the levels where you can use different weapons or try to find all the hidden gears or get S ranks, but it is a very short game.
Big Cus! A like and a comment as a pittance for my questions:
(1) do you have a master list of all the games that can be played coop psvr1 to psvr2? My “use case” is a game like beat saber where I’d have a friend play on my alt account on ps4 pro/psvr1 and I play from ps5/psvr2 (as if I’ll not have the better headset)
(2) I updated my ps4 pro this week finally and all sorts of games were crashing and failing to launch properly like swordsman and others - everything is updated - does this sound like it’s maybe been so long I’ve updated my ps4 pro that I need to delete save games because they might be incompatible with these recent versions/causing crashes?
Thanks!
I think there is very limited games that will run crossplay between PSVR1 and PSVR2. It is much more likely that they have crossplay with Steam or Meta Quest than the PSVR1 version of game. I don't know of a good resource I could refer you to for this.
Maybe After the Fall or Alvo or Crisis Brigade 2 or Cave Digger 2? It won't be a long list.
Save files should be fine in more cases than not, but if you want to test, you can backup your save file (USB or Cloud) and then delete to see if the game works properly with freshly created save file.