Dragon Front Is The Oculus Rift's Take On A Yu-Gi-Oh VR Game

Collectible Card Games or CCG's aren't exactly new, both in the physical realm, like Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as in the digital world, like Hearthstone. But, unless you do actually play Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh in complete LARP gear, these don't exactly give the full feeling of really commanding your troops in a fantasy setting. Thanks to virtual reality, that will be a thing of the past. And thanks to Oculus, that's going to happen real soon. The makers of the Oculus Rift headset and its platform have finally revealed Dragon Front, probably the first, if not the biggest, virtual reality CCG to hit the market.

Last week, Oculus teased that it had a game in the works that could rival one fictional setting of the already fictional Yu-Gi-Oh anime universe. And just hours after that, it announced on its blog the title and setting of the game. Dragon Front, as it is called, mixes together traditional CCG mechanics and a high-fantasy setting with dieselpunk aesthetics. But more than the game itself, it will be the virtual reality experience that will truly set Dragon Front apart.

Here, you will be right down there (or actually up) with your cards on the battlefield. You also get to see your opponent right across you. Based on his or her representation, both of you are disembodied heads, or gigantic masks, floating above your respective fortresses. Cards look less like cards and more like enchanted and moving picture frames. They do break out of those flat, two-dimensional confines once placed on the "board" summoning their true forms in all their 3D glory.

Fans of CCGs will most probably wish they were one of the first to get an Oculus Rift, and fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime series might also be tickled pink though perhaps a bit disappointed. Perhaps due to gameplay and technology constraints, Dragon Front still looks pretty much like a conventional CCG video game, with a tiled game board and somewhat limited movement possibilities. We are also too far away from commercial VR gloves, so we'll have to make do with "look and click" controls for a while. But with the VR market expected to boom in the next two months or so, Dragon Front might only be the beginning of a new experience in VR CCGs.

SOURCE: Oculus