These Are the Crazy-Looking Games for Microsoft HoloLens

Let there be no doubt: The first batch of games for Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset looks pretty weird.

Games for beta platforms rarely motivate folks to reach for their wallets, so no surprises here. Nor is it a surprise that you’ll need a hefty money-stuffed pocketbook to lay hands on a pair of these funky goggles, because Redmond revealed Feb. 29 it’ll charge $3,000 for the privilege.

While you can certainly empty your bank account to snag one, this version of HoloLens isn’t for you. It’s the work-in-progress version developers are going to use to figure out how to convince us the mixed reality headset is worth picking up down the road. Microsoft hasn’t said where that road ends, but with development kits only now up for preorder, I wouldn’t bet on 2016.

What can you play if you’re determined to pull the trigger anyway? Three games: Fragments, RoboRaid and Young Conker.

Fragments is a creepy-looking “high-tech crime thriller” about solving mysteries that key off puzzles—imagine a thumbprint on a matchbook HoloLens “hides” behind your coffee table—folded into the real world.

With RoboRaid, imagine the little thing you can do with your thumb and forefinger where you pretend to crush someone’s head, only here it prompts a laser bolt to dispatch flying robots.

And Young Conker (see the video up top) takes the already surreal Conker video games franchise somewhere even stranger, turning its profane squirrel into a strangely bug-eyed rodent who will run and jump and clamber all over your room.