Lucky's Tale, VR's answer to Mario 64, to be included free with retail Oculus Rift

Lucky's Tale is a sort of virtual reality Mario 64, with the action following a platforming fox named Lucky who jumps on things, collects things and of course avoids things. The play itself is instantly recognizable to nearly anyone who has played a video game, but the game is played inside, and designed for, virtual reality. It will also be included for free with every retail Oculus Rift.

"We always believed there was an opportunity for platformers in VR, but it wasn’t until playing Lucky’s Tale and working with the Playful team that we truly realized its potential to change how people view this genre of gaming forever," Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stated in the official blog post. "Lucky’s Tale delivers on everything you want in a next-generation VR game — it’s thrilling, full of adventure, and incredibly fun to play."

Lucky's Tale is an impressive game that shows how well third-person games can work on the platform, and the act of moving your head around the environment to get a better look at each level and the challenges ahead for Lucky adds much to the experience. It's one of those virtual reality experiences that's very hard to describe verbally, but is immediately intuitive once you put on the Rift and begin to play.

Lucky's Tale isn't the only free game you'll be getting with your hardware; it was previously announced that Eve: Valkyrie will be a free download for customers who pre-order the headset. The Oculus Rift is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2016.