Developers of the Eleven Table Tennis and Racket: NX are teaming up during Virtual Athletic League’s VR Fitness Summit and eligible participants have the opportunity to win a portion of the $500 collaborative prize pool while playing VR games for better fitness.
Both table tennis and racquetball are both popular sports in physical reality with benefits such as improved hand-eye coordination, quicker reflexes, increased cardio ability, reduced stress, and more. When people play these games in immersive reality with an HMD, they reap the same benefits.
Racket: NX
Dave Levy, Creative Director for One Hamsa, the development studio responsible for creating Racket: NX, says this game is more than a virtual version of traditional racquetball.
“Racket: NX is an actual new sport,” he states, “It develops a new motor skill, has clear and trackable progress, and engages your focus fully. And like any good sport, fitness is almost a side effect – it’s first and foremost fun. It captivates your attention and senses, puts you in a state of flow, and in the end it’s that fun that keeps you coming back. That not only makes fitness enjoyable and accessible through VR. It also naturally gets you to push yourself without even noticing.”
Many reviewers compare Racket: NX to being inside a pinball machine where you have a 360-degree field of vision and the pace of the game picks up as you progress, creating a great workout that gradually intensifies with your quick reactions in game.
Eleven Table Tennis
While Eleven Table Tennis is on the mid to lower end of the scale for workout intensity, there’s an active community so it’s easy to find opponents quickly and the game is a close approximation to the real sport. This means your time in game will be productive and intensity can vary depending on how hard you play.
Eleven Table Tennis came about as a merger between Pong Waves VR and Eleven Table Tennis Simulator. The developers were determined to create a realistic table tennis simulation and the overwhelming positive reviews of the game as well as community feedback on social media platforms that they’ve achieved their goal.
Roman Rekhler, Lead Developer for Eleven Table Tennis at For Fun Labs, says one of the benefits of the game is accessibility.
“Even in the best of times,” he states, referring to the current challenges of social distancing, “Eleven Table Tennis will always be significantly easier to start up and play than table tennis [in physical reality], especially since you can also play against anyone in the world.”
Over the past few years, people have become increasingly interested in using virtual reality games to lose weight, improve cardio, and have overall improved wellness. Games like Beat Saber, Echo Arena, and BoxVR have become part of the regular workout routine for many VR enthusiasts. In some cases it has completely replaced traditional workouts.
Rekhler points out that people can move a lot more aggressively in physical reality when playing table tennis because they don’t have the constraints of a headset, games like Eleven Table Tennis are great options to keep people moving.
In addition to the collaborative contest, which you can enter here, both Racket: NX and Eleven Table Tennis are currently running independent competitions. If you’re interested in participating in contests or tournaments, be sure to buy the games and join the communities.
VR Fitness Summit
Over 40 studios and groups are participating in the Virtual Athletics League’ VR Fitness Summit that will run through September 12. There are ongoing contests and tournaments and the week of September 3 will feature speakers and panels discussing topics related to virtual reality for better health and wellness. You can read more about the summit in this VR Fitness Insider article.
Racket: NX Links
- Purchase Racket: NX on Steam
- Purchase Racket: NX for Oculus Rift
- Purchase Racket: NX for Oculus Quest
- Discord server invite
- Facebook page
Eleven Table Tennis Links
- Purchase Eleven Table Tennis on Steam
- Purchase Eleven Table Tennis for Oculus Rift
- Purchase Eleven Table Tennis for Oculus Quest
- Discord server invite
- Facebook page
