Splatsplasm Impressions: A Fun But Uneven Swat-a-Thon

Splatsplasm is a frantic VR rhythm game that puts you in the role of an astronaut fending off flying aliens.

It’s the first VR game developed by PRPVFX, a renowned New Zealand-based special effects company known for its work on shows like Xena: Warrior Princess, Power Rangers, and Spartacus – on top of numerous movies such as 30 Days of Night and Bridge To Terabithia.

Splatsplasm was initially released for Meta Quest headsets back in 2024, and has recently launched for Steam VR. The game puts you in the role of an astronaut who discovers an abandoned space ship that has been overrun by flying aliens. To fend them off, you have to knock them away with color-coded bats, paddles, and other blunt instruments in time to music, like Beat Saber if it was set in the far reaches of space.

When you hit the aliens with the right weapon, they are sent flying toward the walls of the space station and leave a large, green splatter behind. The object is to cover the walls with alien viscera and fill a gauge in the center of the screen up to a certain percentage. Be careful though, as there are also yellow sponges that can set your progress back if you hit them. Once you complete a level, the game gives you a tally of how many points you gained and lost, then the wall in front of you dissolves and the process begins again.

Each weapon gives the round a different feel, like hockey sticks and tennis rackets requiring you to aim lower or higher in order to strike the speeding aliens. My personal favorite is the boxing gloves, which allow you to punch the aliens like you would in Creed: Rise To Glory or Knockout League. Meanwhile, my least favorite is the hockey sticks, which require you to invert the usual gameplay approach.

The controls are mostly 1-to-1, but I did encounter some framerate and collision detection issues. This can make it hard to land hits, especially given how many aliens can be flying at the screen at one time. Due to this and the large hit requirements to advance, some campaign levels can last surprisingly long and overstay their welcome at higher difficulty settings. Prepare for sore arms if you plan on playing this for longer stretches of time.

After you’re finished with Splatsplasm’s short campaign, there is Fun Mode, which lets you pick your own stage and weapons to play through songs from the game. There is also a wide selection of layouts featuring real-life music, ensuring that you’ll never run out of tunes to smack space creatures to.

Splatsplasm’s in-game tracks cover a wide range of genres, from techno, soft rock, and even country. Many of these tracks are surprisingly subdued for the game’s frantic action, but there are a few of them that will have you on the ropes should you pick them at one of the higher difficulty settings.

The game’s art style is quite basic, though there is plenty of variety in the level environments that can be easy to miss at first due to how fast everything moves. Such environments include ship halls, tennis courts, and hockey rinks, with the campaign levels matching up with the weapon used. The aliens and sponge creatures also have some character to them, and as I noted before a lot of them can fill the screen at one time.

Splatsplasm might be a little uneven at times, but I did find its rhythm gameplay enjoyable in the long run. It also makes for a decent workout for your arms at higher difficulty levels, making this an interesting option for fans of Beat Saber and other music-based VR titles.