Viveport Review: Puppet Fever

This family-friendly party game lets you create puppet stories that are fun and safe for the whole family.

By Joshua Hawkins, Greenlit Content

Giving you access to a host of virtual puppets and stages, Puppet Fever  is a modern-day, 21st century, virtual and interactive take on charades.

Coastalbyte Games came up with their initial idea for Puppet Fever after an intense hackathon. It's one of those ideas that's so brilliantly simple it's surprising no-one else has done it yet: one player puts on the Vive headset and creates a story using virtual puppets and props, which is then played out for others on your connected PC monitor. With hundreds of puppets, acting tips, bots for solo players (or practice) and the ability to stream your creation, there's an almost unlimited potential playtime here.

To really test out Puppet Fever I had a few friends over. As a local multiplayer game, one person puts on the Vive headset to tell their story, while others watch. Puppet Fever prompts you when you need to pass the headset to someone else. On my turn, my task was to get my friends to guess my story's genre - and as it was mystery, well, it was tricky. Jumping around, manipulating puppets and trying to communicate without cheating made me feel like I was playing Pictionary, but with puppets rather than bad drawings!

One of my friends decided to tell more of a comedic story, and it was really fun to sit back and watch him try! It was his first time in virtual reality, and although Puzzle Fever was a little overwhelming at first, he quickly picked up on the process and was able to start telling cohesive stories very quickly.

That’s the nice thing about Puppet Fever; it makes transitioning into virtual reality very easy, and while there are a ton of options available, once the initial feeling of being overwhelmed wears off, you’re able to just keep going and get better with things. It’s a smooth experience that never hits any big hiccups, and that’s definitely something for Coastalbyte Games to be proud of.

I’d really love to see Puppet Fever expand, though. I’d love to see new items, props, and even characters. The game has a way to go before we may see new content, but there's a little gold mine of potential here. Of course, what’s available right now is a perfectly good starting point. If you’re looking for a great place to tell stories and share the beauty of virtual reality with your friends, then Puppet Fever is a fantastic place to start.

Coastalbyte Games (and Coffee Stain Publishing) have created a fun, family-friendly game that you can really dive into and enjoy without having to worry about inappropriate content - well, as long as it's not created by anyone playing! Puppet Fever is a really creative game that allows you to interact with all of your friends and family, while also giving you an outlet for your inner storyteller.

Puppet Fever is available on Viveport and as part of Viveport Subscription.