With winter coming soon, I have been looking for a good way to train indoors using VR. Afterall, there are a variety of workout apps now available on VR and the games coming out have been very worthwhile for workout or training purposes. While not better than the real thing, certain games come darn close to being impressive, especially with the physics and gameplay, as well as better graphics.
With the popularity of table tennis on VR (and tennis slowly being developed on VR), I have been actually been keeping my eyes out on pickleball, the sport that grew from the pandemic and now has become so huge that Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Tom Brady and other celebrities are wanting in.
While still in its infancy in terms of VR development, a few are now on AppLab. Which is a way for people to try the games at its current state, not yet finalized. So, the games are not perfect, they can be glitchy, but they should be available inexpensively.e
There are three Pickleball VR games available on AppLab, two which are appropriately priced under $10 and one under $20.
I have had a chance to try “Pickleball VR” and compare them with the other apps. And for now as an AppLab Pickleball trainer from Pickleball VR LLC (which is still under development and not finalized), it has a lot of potential but there are a few things I hope developers consider in forthcoming updates (which I am hoping there are plans for updates).
a) With most training simulators, there is a video or instructions that make it easier for different players to understand on what to do. This would be good to see that.
b) An easy selection menu of quitting/restarting while pausing would be nice.
c) While the better of the VR Pickleball games in terms of physics, there is always room for improvement, especially in serving. Certain mid-strength hits go far over the fence, certain heavy-strength hits are mid.
d) While I like the ball sounds and bird chirps, custom music accessibility would be a great option, as some will use this trainer as a work out.
e) Wall Mode – Heading to the cold season, would be great to have a wall mode to hit balls freely.
f) Quick Reaction/Return Mode; Volley mode, Volley return mode
g) Mini Games – Hit bowling pins, cones, balloons, targets, etc. (similar to tennis game training modes/mini-games)
h) Achievement mode – Earn achievements, utilize different racquet faces/colors
i) Different venues and locations, scenery
j) Now this is just more of a dream request but similar to a popular table tennis game on VR, a ghost opponent or bot would be great. I know this is an app more for training, but to have a ghost opponent would be nice.
There is no doubt that “Pickleball VR” has a lot of potential. Considering it’s made from a bigger company, compared to the other games, this could really be something much bigger and better if they want. Hopefully more updates are forthcoming. I like what I see so far!
Also, it’s unusual but this app shows up on the mobile version of the store app, but not on the desktop version when keyword, “pickleball” is searched.
But I do see a lot of potential with “Pickleball VR”. They are on the front seat as of right now of Pickleball for VR, but whether or not they take advantage of this potential is up to the developers, because as of right now, it’s OK. Knocking on wood, they do intend to release updates for this game.
