 I know Kung Fu. Okay, virtual reality Kung Fu, how does it work? Does it work? For those of you who've watched this channel a little bit, you know that sometimes we like to explore some unorthodox methods of training, whether it be virtual reality or upticks in technology. You know, we recently got out of a pandemic. There's a lot of reasons why people might not be able to go to a dojo or go to dojo of their choice. So we like to look at a bunch of different ways that people can supplement their training using technology or just creative thinking. And virtual reality, I definitely feel, is a dojo in the box in a lot of cases. And we've covered that before. So today I wanna cover a brand new game called Dragon Fist VR Kung Fu. And we're gonna judge this game on five basic criteria. The first is level of immersion, just how immersive is this game? Then play control slash ease of use. Bottom line, is it fun? Is it a viable training tool? And overall, what I recommend it. So let's talk a little bit about what this game is and what it has to offer. So when you first turn on the game, you're met with a pretty cool title screen. I mean, larger than life, Dragon Fist VR Kung Fu is right there above your head and here you are floating above a courtyard. The game offers a lot of menu settings. You know, a lot of calibration tools, a lot of motion control tools, some on screen guides, some practice modes and actually a pretty comprehensive tutorial because right off the bat, before you can do anything or really get anywhere in this game, you really need to learn to play control. And they're a little bit complicated. If you just try to jump into it, you might have trouble figuring out because each button does something a little bit different depending on how you hold down your trigger buttons. You might have a closed fist, a spear hand, a finger poke or you might be able to grab. So it's best to run through tutorial mode before you start and it's got a pretty comprehensive tutorial mode. It's a good little tutorial. It takes about like five minutes just to run through it and as simple as the graphics are they are pretty enjoyable. Like it doesn't take away from any of the immersion. It's a nice little setting and it kind of puts you in the mood for the game. The Oculus Quest headset and a lot of VR headsets they don't do feet tracking. So the game has included a kick feature which you have to use with the remote which is not too bad. It's kind of interesting. At least it has a kick. A lot of fighting games do not. So anyway, as a tutorial I think it's a pretty good way to get your feel of the game right off the bat and within a few minutes you'll be ready to start playing. Now when it comes to settings I want to say this, you've got the option of physically turning your body around. So if you're playing this while you're standing up you can physically turn your body around or you can use remote to kind of snap your view and you can make smooth rotations or you can do snap rotations. What I definitely recommend is one, there's a setting for a circle, like a guide circle. I would turn that off. I didn't really care for that in my first play through. It was very awkward and it's assuming that you're sitting down and you have to turn the remote the face right way and if you turn the wrong way these red circles come up and spin. So I recommend turning that feature off. However, especially if you do that I recommend giving yourself plenty of room to play this one. These headsets have a feature where you start to get close to your edge and a grid comes up or it starts to bleed through the real world. So you don't run into walls or furniture or anything but the game like this, I actually found myself getting a little too immersed into it and you start swinging, you start getting excited. It's very, very easy to step out of your play area. The first time I tried it, I actually punched a shelf. I didn't even realize I was that close. So you get sucked up in the moment in this game because the characters are moving around you and you find yourself repositioning. So just give yourself plenty of space, just be safe about it, follow the guides. The red circle is optional. I didn't care for it. I turned it off, but that's gonna be up to you but definitely if anything major disclaimer, give yourself a big open area as much as you can to play this just to ensure you don't hit anything or knock anything over or hurt yourself or anyone else. When it comes to play control, there's a little bit of a learning curve. They're pretty smooth. They're extremely responsive but you've got a lot of different options. Switching and trying to remember the switch between close fists, finger spears or finger pokes. It takes some getting used to and especially when you've got the characters coming at you. So I would recommend doing the training mode again. There's also a practice mode where you can practice with an NPC character who will stand there, let you try a combination, so that's definitely worth it. Now when it comes to the fight mechanics, we have a little bit of a mixed bag. First of all, this game has a pretty big roster. There's a lot of characters to choose from that you can be. Each one's got their own special moves and their own slightly different fighting styles. They're all unique characters so you can definitely tell that they draw a lot of their influences from real life martial artists but it's still kind of fun to interact with them in this world. There's a little bit of ragdoll physics too which means if you strike the person hard enough sometimes they won't just step back. Del Karine back maybe 10, 15 feet. There's a little bit of rubberiness to it which again adds to the gameplay. The ragdoll physics do allow parrying and shoving guards down which I like. There's a lot of fighting games in VR don't do that yet where you really can't, you can block but as far as parrying and redirecting hands, this is one of the few games I've played that can do that. So that was definitely a nice feature. So that gets you some possibilities to try to do some combinations and traps and pushing the guard down and going in for a punch. So that was some fun things to experiment with. Again, they've got the training mode, practice mode. So just kind of get used to your hand motions. And then the environments are pretty cool too. They're not very interactive but they're pretty immersive in their own right. Some of them are small like a little courtyard so there's like in a restaurant you've got a little more area to move. Sometimes you've got obstacles to move around. You can even pick up dishes and strike the opponent with them. The environments kind of feel like a mix too of different movie influences. You know, you've got very Mortal Kombat-esque settings and you've got a dojo that feels very much like it's from The Matrix. You also have the restaurant scene which kind of gives me shades of Kill Bill. So it's kind of cool too. So you're in these environments that give you these little tiny tidbits of nostalgia which I think maybe helps with the visual appeal of the game and the immersion. But I like the selection. There's a good selection of environments to choose from. Now as far as pulling off techniques. So you've got your basic strikes. You've got the kick, you know, using the dojoistic button. You have palm heel strikes. You've got spear hands, finger pokes, punches, slaps and you've got all sorts of different parries and redirects. A lot to work with. And again, most VR games don't give you that level of control. This one does. And but it does take some getting used to especially when the characters come at you with all sorts of flying chops. You kind of get your bearings that you want to block. You want to block in this game too because if you don't, you know, your character gets dizzy and gets knocked back and you're disadvantaged but you're gonna find yourself moving around a lot which I liked. It's not just a face-off one-on-one where it's just, he punched, you punched, he punched, you punched. You actually have to move around to circle your opponent and I kind of liked that redirect function and added something to the fighting. The fighting mechanics are pretty cool. The techniques are, they're a little wonky at first. Like I said, when you first start playing the game it almost kind of feels like you're learning how to walk. It's very jarring until you get used to it but it doesn't take that long to get used to it. So as long as you've got plenty of room and you spend a few minutes doing the practice rounds and tutorial I think you're gonna get immersed into the fighting pretty quick but overall I'd say the techniques are pretty cool. The fighting mechanics are decent enough and it's immersive enough to really kind of get into the moment of the game. So the judges' game based on our criteria. Number one is the immersive. I would definitely say yes because even though the graphics are simple they are appealing and they just work. For some reason they kind of feel like the simplicity of a fighting game, you're in the setting and being VR you actually feel like you're in the setting because you can look around. It's incredibly responsive. The weather elements are nice. Having to move around objects is nice. And like I said, you have to give yourself plenty of space because this is the first game I've ever played in VR where I struck an object outside of my play zone just because I was so wrapped up in the moment and moved around my opponent that I felt like I really had to move around my opponent. So I would definitely say that it's got a level of immersion that's gonna get you involved and keep you busy for a bit. Play control is of use. If I had to mark this from one to five I'm gonna give this probably a three and a half at first only because when you first put it on and you first try it, it's very jarring. It feels different than other fighting games but once you play around with it I would actually say it bumps up to level four. Once you get used to the controls once you really get a feel of what you can do it helps with the possibilities. So play control takes a little bit of getting used to but it definitely improves as you play it. Is it fun? Yes, I actually found this game pretty fun. I played this for an hour easily and I actually worked up a sweat so you get a workout out of it too. So if you're a fan of like the old Kung Fu movies and if you're a fan of Mortal Kombat and fighting games and virtual reality in general I think you're gonna have a blast with this one. There's definitely enough there to keep you busy. It's fun interaction. It makes it and it's a great workout. So speaking of workout, how viable is this as a training tool? To be a hundred percent honest, a little bit lower on its scale. If your interest is in serious martial arts training and actually really improving your Kung Fu technique or just in general martial arts technique this is probably not the best tool to use. There's definitely some benefits you can get out of it. I like the 360 feel of it. There are characters that will go behind you and sometimes you have to fight more than one character and they're on other sides of you so you definitely have to be spatially aware. It makes you use your feet a lot. I like that. It's a lot of VR games I've played in the fighting games. It's just kind of you stay in a position and you trade blows. This one makes you circle around and use it for footwork and I like how you have to strategize. It puts you on the spot. So it's one of the things that you go into sparring for the first time. If somebody taught you 10 techniques and they threw you in a sparring ring your brain goes, which one do I want to use first? You kind of feel that way in this. So you get that on the spot, not panic, but you get put on the spot with this pressure and you have to read your opponent and you have to decide which techniques you're gonna use. As far as legitimately training and learning techniques there's other apps that are better for that. This is really more of a game setting. You can draw some benefit from training out of it but it's definitely more of a fun experience. And finally, what I recommend this game? I would say yes, I would definitely recommend this game. So if you're a fan of VR and you like Mortal Kombat or Tekken and you've always wanted to be inside of your own fighting game then I definitely recommend this as an experience. I think you'll definitely like Dragon Fist VR Kung Fu and you will find a link to the website down in the description where you can learn more about it and hope you guys give it a try. And if you do and if you've played this before let me know what you think. Put your comments down below and I'd love to know what your feedback is. Now, if you wanna talk about how to actually improve your real life sparring using Virtual Reality then check out this video right here. We go in depth on that and the experiments I tried. So give that a shot, give that a watch. Let me know right now. I'm gonna go fight some ninjas. Bring it on.