The king of pitting celebrities against each other in bizarre games just took it to a whole new level.
When it comes to finding and concocting ridiculous party games, there’s no one craftier than Jimmy Fallon. So it was only a matter of time till he started using the latest party-starter, virtual reality, to blow the minds of his Tonight Show audience as well as his guests. Jaws were definitely dropping Friday night as the host introduced the latest addition to his neverending list of crazy segments, Virtual Reality Pictionary. Using the popular VR title Tiltbrush via HTC Vive, featured guests Michael Che of SNL’s Weekend Update and Andrew Rannells of Girls went head-to-head in a game of futuristic Pictionary. Wait, Pictionary in VR? Why does this sound so familiar? Huh, nevermind…
After selecting a random number hung on a wooden board, the players were tasked with drawing their chosen subject in a 3D space via Tiltbrush. It was then up to their partners to guess the correct answer within the allotted time. For the sake of simplicity, the ‘artists’ held only the painting brush and not the palette controller that’s used to switch through different colors, textures, etc. The segment was a perfect example of how virtual reality can be as much a social experience as it can an isolated one. Sure the game happened in front of a live studio audience laughing at every word that came out of Jimmy’s mouth, but the excitement and enjoyment displayed by the guests as they played were genuine.
Hopefully this isn’t the last use of virtual reality we see on a late night show. After all, there are dozens of fantastic VR games that would be perfect for the live audience format. I mean how cool would it be to see Bryan Cranston frantically feeding data to a head-strapped Ryan Gosling in a thrilling round of Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes VR? Or how about watching Will Ferrell shoot billiards and throw bottles at Mark Wahlberg in a live game of Pool Nation VR? Come on, NBC! I’m handing you gold here!
Have any other ideas for some good VR games for a party or live audience? Shoot us a tweet or leave us a message below! Maybe we’ll try it out ourselves!
