Indie Bin: Racket Fury, Super Volley Blast, The Videokid

From the embers of the Push Square Podcast rises Indie Bin – a feature that draws attention to some of the smaller games in PlayStation's busy release schedule. Once the Indie Bin is full, we'll put it out for collection in these consolidated articles featuring several pint-sized reviews. The metric here is simple: games we don't like stay Indie Bin and games we do like get taken Outdie Bin. Without further ado, let's crack on.

Racket Fury (PSVR)

Sports Champions proved that Sony’s PlayStation Move wands are more than capable of delivering excellent table tennis simulations, but Racket Fury may just be the best yet. Despite being relatively barebones – you can unlock cosmetics for your characters and partake in tournaments – this title succeeds on the strength of its core physics, which are borderline perfect. Virtual reality gives depth to the table allowing you to judge shots perfectly, while the motion tracking enables you to cut through and over the ball to apply slice and top-spin. It’s the closest you’re going to get to real-world table tennis without taking a trip to the local youth centre, the key difference being that there’s a cosmic backdrop here as opposed to empty bottles of WKD and last week’s lamb bhuna. SB

Verdict: Outdie Bin

Super Volley Blast (PS4)

It's not often you see volley ball in game form, and Super Volley Blast is an okay attempt. It's a casual, multiplayer focused take on the sport that keeps things simple, in all respects. Gameplay is kept very straightforward, making it easy to have fun from the off. There are various modes, including quick matches, a story mode, tournaments, and super blast mode, which allows you to apply some silly modifiers. Unfortunately, the latter doesn't quite save the game from becoming pretty repetitive rather quickly. The best party games are able to keep everyone playing for hours at a time, and sadly, this title lacks that compelling edge. At under a tenner, it could be worth a punt, but there are countless other multiplayer titles that are far more worthy of your time. ST

Verdict: Indie Bin

The Videokid (PS4)

The Videokid is Paper Boy with VHS cassettes as opposed to fake news. This very obvious smartphone port flirts with the legal teams of much larger companies, as your skateboarding avatar ollies over Big Bird from Sesame Street and Herbie from, y’know, Herbie. The gameplay is unfairly difficult but loading times are so quick it’s almost too easy to waste time with one more run. That said, despite there being an array of cosmetics to unlock, this 80s-inspired novelty runs out of steam faster than an Over 30s disco night. SB

Verdict: Indie Bin

Track Lab (PSVR)

You may say that music was better in the old days, but creating thumping tunes ain’t as easy as it looks – and Track Lab attempts to make the process that teensy bit more difficult. A mixture of puzzle game and digital audio work station, this PSVR exclusive has you bouncing around light beams in order construct killer beats. It’s pretty cool when the game peels back the curtain and shows you how its patterns work, but getting even a basic melody up and running requires a musical brain more impressive than Mozart. SB

Verdict: Indie Bin

Guns'n'Stories: Bulletproof VR (PSVR)

Someone played Call of Juarez: The Cartel and really liked it. Guns’n’Stories: Bulletproof VR is effectively a waves-based shooter set in the Wild West, with the twist being that there’s narration from a grumpy grandpa who’s three shades to the wind. This means that elements of the world are susceptible to sudden change, like the fact that your revolvers may be replaced with a rocket launcher at a moment’s notice. It’s a neat trick but it’s been done before and the action is so mind-numbingly dull that it does nothing to rescue another by-the-numbers PSVR affair. SB

Verdict: Indie Bin

Words: Sammy Barker, Stephen Tailby