Developer RapidEyeMovers announced that it is reimagining the Sega arcade game Cosmic Smash for PlayStation VR2. The game, titled C-Smash VRS, will also receive a demo next month, but does not have a solid release window.
It will be based on the 2001 title that originally came to Sega NAOMI arcade systems before being ported to the Dreamcast. And while the arcade version did at least come to Europe, the Dreamcast port never made its way out of Japan. Cosmic Smash acts as a sort of combination between the sport squash and the video game Breakout, and has players trying to clear tiles in various levels by hitting a ball back and forth against them.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Director Jörg Tittel said that the “VRS” in C-Smash VRS stands for both “VR” and “versus,” and players will get the chance to try out both when the demo launches on March 23. This demo will include both online play and a solo training mode, yet it isn’t clear if it will also contain co-op, which will be in the full release. C-Smash VRS is also only playable inside of VR and is available to wishlist now on the PlayStation Store.
According to Tittel, the idea to reimagine the obscure Sega game came during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, he teamed up with VR pioneers Wolf & Wood — which has developed a handful of VR projects, most notably 2017’s The Exorcist: Legion VR — as well as designers Cory Schmitz (Rez Infinite, Sound Shapes) and Arkotype (Polytron), musicians Ken Ishii (Rez Infinite) and Danalogue (The Comet is Coming, Soccer 96), art director Rob Davis (The Motherless Oven), and sound designer Dan Pugsley (Alba: A Wildlife Adventure).