To The Top VR Game Review – Arm Intense Coordination Courses

If you like rock climbing, scaling up and down walls, and bounding through obstacle courses as fast as you can, To The Top is a VR game you’ll really enjoy playing. The VR climbing and obstacle course game is available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets on Steam and also for PS VR at the PlayStation Store for $19.99.

To The Top – Game Overview

To The Top is a singleplayer and multiplayer climbing and racing game for VR. Players become a Super Bot with superhuman abilities. Use your mechanical paws (hands) to grab a hold of blue and green surfaces, look in the direction for where you want to go, and then leap your way to the finish line.

Climb horizontally and vertically, and jump onto platforms, balls, onto tethers and checkpoints. Collect hidden crystals called geoms and earn medals. At higher levels, this game has flying, skating, and has 35 unlockable levels.

Tip: The faster you race through the more points you’ll get. A Bronze run through is 1 point, Silver is 2 points, Gold gets 3 points. Finding all geoms gets you 1 point and the special hidden geoms are worth 1 point. Fill up the points for each course, go onto the next one, and then unlock more Medium, Hard, and Bonus levels.

As a music nerd, To The Top’s playlist gets a 10/10. Songs from bands like Future Islands, Mirror Mask, and more play in the background as you climb and race around the courses. There are also customizable avatars so you can change your head, body, and hands.

Preparation

To prepare, I used my Fitbit Blaze to track my 34-minute To The Top workout. I used a VR Cover and a headband so my sweat would get absorbed by those instead of my Oculus headset. I also mentally prepared myself for all the jumping, hopping, scaling, and falling I’d be doing since I’m sensitive to motion in VR. There will be lots of this, so know that going in.

I played To The Top in Campaign Mode and Easy difficulty. Although, you could race around in Multiplayer if that’s what gets you geared up for fitness.

  • Calories Burned: 130
  • Average Heart Rate: 103
  • Max Heart Rate: 136
  • Active Minutes: 34 minutes

Intensity 7/10

To The Top singleplayer style, gameplay is mid-range intense because of the timed obstacle courses and hard to reach spots. The intensity gets increased when you bound around looking for geoms, miss a grabber, fall, and have to return back to your last checkpoint until you get it right. All while trying to beat your best times. Multiplayer elevates the intensity of the race because winning and beating your friend’s high score are high stakes!

Arms 7/10

The movement system for TTT relies on the arms and the intensity level will depend on how you play it. Players online who’ve played this game all the way through don’t really move their arms past the mid-way between their elbows and chest are. They kind of localize it to that area and go through it casually, which isn’t going to elevate the heart rate or calorie burn.

If you want to ante up the intensity to the arm workout, you’ll need to move them higher than your elbows are at rest when you’re jumping and climbing. The game has small grabbers placed on walls, floors, and ceilings that you can hop onto with two hands or one at a time. To get a decent workout don’t just click the trigger button, look, and then move onto each grabber. Extend out your arms and really do the work. There are no shortcuts in fitness!

Legs 0/10

There’s no leg workout here, sorry. This is an arm and upper body game. Your legs will hold your body up and that’s it. If the game had tubes that forced you to squat through as you climb through them, that would trigger a leg workout.

If you want great leg games for VR, try BOXVR, Hot Squat, and Beat Saber. Those games are gonna make those legs simmer.

Core and Balance 5/10

While I was reaching, climbing, and doing monkey bar motions overhead I felt my core engage a bit. My midsection extended as I reached above me and as I maneuvered to change my direction.

My balance was consistently tested as the environment is constantly changing because of leaps, falls, and climbing onto walls, spheres, and floating platforms. There are also slides that are going to throw you for balance and vestibular system for a loop, which is another test of balance as your brain is telling you you’re falling or flying but your two feet are on the ground.

Time Perception 10/10

I played To The Top in Campaign Mode for 34 minutes and felt like time had fast-forwarded by the end of my workout. In my first intro session, the game felt like it took a little longer to get used to because of all the falling and learning how to reach and grab geoms. After that, time zipped by.

Replayability 10/10

Credit to: Electric Hat Games

TTT is replayable for various reasons. For starters, it has 30+ Campaign and Multiplayer modes that fit different playstyles. Players can hop into Campaign and race against their own times or head into Multiplayer to compete against a friend or other player online. Beating personal high scores is motivating to me, so I’ll definitely play it again in the future for a great arm workout.

Fitness Scalability 7/10

To The Top is an arm-heavy fitness game if you play it with intensity as you climb and jump around courses. I want to compare it as a cross between Climbey and Sprint Vector-ish arm movement, just not as complex.

This game also gets fitness points for relying heavily on coordination. Double and single arm movement as well as looking and planning where you’re going to move and land next is where the fitness potential comes in. Notice I said fitness potential. Remember, it’s how you play this game that’s going to make it a decent fitness title.

Lack of Nausea 7/10

At first, I was a little nervous to play this game. I typically can’t play games with floating or falling involved like Echo VR for instance. My apprehension came from hearing there would be lots of drops from missing jumps and hard to reach grabbers, and seeing players online aiming wrong and falling off of slides.  

However, I’m giving To The Top a 7/10 for nausea because I did get queasy, but it was reduced by shutting my eyes mid-fall and a quick click of the button to send me back to my last checkpoint. Remember to click those checkpoints because they’ll save your butt when you fall!

At higher levels, there’s flying but I haven’t reached that point yet. If you’ve got a grounding solution so fit gamers can play this game with less motion sickness, leave a tip down in the comments or tag us on social media.

Social Competition  10/10

Credit to: Electric Hat Games

To The Top has Multiplayer Mode where you can race friends or race players online by hitting Quick Join. The TTT website says, “Work together and build shortcuts with other players to beat the CO-OP challenge time goal.” Players gain AP points after each race that go towards unlockable items like shortcuts and boosts.

The CO-OP challenge makes players work as a team to achieve a better time overall. Players use their AP points to purchase items so each teammate can place movement platforms and boost bubbles to travel around the course faster. Tip: Place these items on points in between where you are and platforms that lead to hard to reach places. Doing so will get you to the finish line faster.

VRFI Fit Score 7/10

The Good

  • Great upper body game as long as you put power behind climbing, flinging yourself onto grabbers and platforms.
  • The soundtrack is great music for exercise without being too intense or distracting.
  • This game has 35 unlockable stages that range from Easy, Medium, and Hard play difficulties. It also has Multiplayer and Campaign modes for a variety of gameplay.

The Bad

  • The falling was something I had to get used to and was tolerable throughout when I closed my eyes and got sent back to the last checkpoint. If you are sensitive to motion sickness this game is still worth a try.  
  • The game could have used tunnels that you have to squat down to climb through to get the legs involved more. But alas, this is an upper body game.

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