In his weekly column, Android Central Senior Content Producer Nick Sutrich delves into all things VR, from new hardware to new games, upcoming technologies, and so much more.
Anyone my age will likely recall seeing Toy Story for the first time. I had just celebrated my 10th birthday a few weeks before its release, and to say I was thrilled to see toys come to life in fancy new CG animation was an understatement. It also helped that Pixar was a master at storytelling.
But the idea of toys themselves moving around and playing was a concept that stuck with me. Toy Commander, a 1999 Dreamcast release, remains one of the most memorable games of my childhood because it shares that same theme, and now some recent Meta Quest 3 games have caught my attention in the same way.
Recently, Plastic Battlegrounds has been trending on TikTok, racking up millions of views with shorts that perfectly recreate those moments when you played with plastic army men as a kid. The difference is that now you're not just moving the little guys around, you're actually fighting alongside them, commanding them, or just seeing what it's like to pretend to be Sid.
Plastic Battlegrounds
Plastic Battlegrounds debuted on the Meta Quest platform on October 14, 2024. While it's a sandbox game still very much in development, the classic theme and the impulse buy price of $9.99 quickly rocketed it to success. The game describes itself as "the newly commissioned sandbox toy-based battle simulator where your plastic soldiers engage in intense set piece battles of your imagination."
That last part is key. Plastic Battlegrounds isn't going to blow anyone's minds with its advanced AI or cutting-edge graphics. The game looks fine enough on a Meta Quest 3S, but the real joy is recreating scenes from your childhood and, maybe even more relevant today, making content from those ideas.
Because, let's face it, there's something fun about making your own version of Toy Story with your own ideas at the helm. Since you can choose either to embody a toy soldier or get a kids-eye view of the scene and command them, there are plenty of ways to work the angles and come up with a creative story along the way.
The video above embodies the true spirit of the game and what I think is the real fun in playing it: pretending. There's something truly amazing about seeing plastic soldiers come to life. Being able to spawn them and command them just adds a cherry on top, and the game's different levels all help realize a childhood fantasy of being a tiny toy in a giant room.
The developers specifically note that Plastic Battlegrounds was designed as a sandbox game, but two other modes are currently available and in active development. "Sandbox would be the optimal game mode to get the most out of the Plastic Battlegrounds experience," they note, and it's clear from social media posts that people love playing this way.
In this mode, you embody a plastic soldier and can spawn, command, and fight your own way through an unlimited number of enemies and scenarios. A bunch of different maps — kitchen, basement, hallway, backyard, etc. — give you different parts of the house to play in, and each of the two alternative modes gives you additional options.
Spawning in units is simple, but you'll want to be careful not to spam that spawn button too many times. While a Quest 3 or 3S can handle lots of units just fine, a Quest 2 will have a tougher time managing a decent framerate. I look forward to seeing where this game's development takes it, especially if the developers can get a good multiplayer mode going.
Toy Trains
Plastic Battlegrounds might be trending right now, but it was Toy Trains VR that gave me the first "Toy Story" feelings more than a year ago. Toy Trains VR is an absolutely brilliant puzzle game that's polished in a way most Meta Quest games wish they could be. The goal is to assemble a toy train track to connect all the towns in an area, helping to transport goods between each location.
The game sports a uniquely toy-like quality with excellent graphics — complete with a fur-shaded carpet — all of which takes place in your grandfather's attic. I can remember venturing up to my grandparent's attic when I was a kid and finding similar sets of trains, so this one immediately evoked a sense of nostalgia for me.
What I love about Toy Trains VR is that it's not just a sandbox game, although there is a sandbox mode if you love that sort of thing. Rather, the main single player mode follows a heartwarming story that's well put together AND well voiced, something that adds a rather intriguing bit of character to what would otherwise be "just a puzzle game."
And that brings me to the mechanics. The available tracks are cleverly laid out for you to grab, letting you know exactly how many, and what type, of pieces are available for you to finish each puzzle. The introductory levels are quite easy and give you a good idea of what to expect, while the later levels will provide sufficient challenges for even hardcore puzzle fans (that is a thing, right?).
L'Eggo my LEGO
Before both of these other games, though, was LEGO Bricktales. This brilliant puzzle platformer puts a life-sized LEGO diorama in front of players' faces, letting you control a LEGO character that traverses each area as you build the missing pieces.
It was originally shown off as one of the premier mixed reality titles when the Meta Quest 3 was first announced, and the result was even better than I had hoped. While some might have just wanted a plain sandbox LEGO game, I far prefer this style of storytelling that melds nicely with LEGO construction.
While most LEGO games are the same — third-person action games with lots of combat and collection but little brain usage — LEGO Bricktales rewards players who enjoy exploration and puzzle solving. It's particularly amazing being able to fully walk around these life-sized dioramas and find the secrets hidden within.
There's a serious childlike wonderment that bubbles up inside me while playing this game, and it made me freshly appreciate the spatial nature of VR games. It's even nicer that you can have the whole game hover in front of you no matter where you stand (or sit), giving you the freedom to fully explore or build each piece as if it were real.
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