11 Virtual Reality Fighting Games That Could Actually Help You Master Combat Skills

Thrill of the Fight sets the benchmark for virtual reality combat training. This boxing game strips away typical video game elements and focuses on delivering a realistic experience. Surprisingly, it works, as evidenced by real fighters who have tried it out and shared their experiences on YouTube. They agree that it feels like an actual fight, offering players a foundational understanding of counter-punching, defense, head movement, positioning, and timing. It’s also an intense workout. While you won’t win any local boxing tournaments after a few rounds with Thrill of the Fight’s virtual opponents, combining this game with real-world training might just make you a slightly better boxer.

Les Mills, a four-time Olympian, launched his first gym in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1968, and his fitness techniques have since gained worldwide recognition. Bodycombat brings his philosophy into the virtual realm with a workout regimen that incorporates combat techniques from MMA, boxing, Taekwondo, and other disciplines. You’ll master jabs, hooks, hammer punches, and uppercuts, practice squats and evasive maneuvers, and, crucially, learn how to deliver a knee strike to an opponent’s face. While Bodycombat is designed for fitness rather than combat training, it emphasizes punching power, and dedicating countless hours to this game could undoubtedly enhance your physical fitness and punching strength—both valuable in real-world fighting scenarios.

If medieval weaponry appeals to you more than hand-to-hand combat, Blades and Sorcery is the game for you. This fantasy combat simulator allows you to arm yourself with rapiers, claymores, battle-axes, and a variety of other historical weapons to face an endless stream of virtual foes. It’s hailed as the most realistic medieval combat game in VR, though it might not be much help if you suddenly find yourself in the year 1281. Real weapons are heavy, for starters. The primary takeaway from Blades and Sorcery is that melee weapon combat is gruesome, bloody, and intensely visceral—something few games capture accurately. For a glimpse of its intensity, check out this graphic gameplay video. (Warning: It’s extremely violent.)

Set in the Rocky universe, this boxing game chronicles Apollo Creed’s journey to fame. Unlike Thrill of the Fight, it leans more toward traditional gaming with enhanced visuals, refined mechanics, and a narrative woven between matches. The boxing mechanics include game-like features such as artificial stamina and punch animations. Still, the core gameplay involves shadowboxing—throwing punches, dodging, and blocking—with a beginner-friendly training mode to help newcomers grasp the fundamentals.

Playing Drunkn Bar Fight won’t prepare you for a real-life bar brawl, unless you’re avoiding rowdy patrons by staying home with your VR headset. This chaotic and absurd game lets you battle opponents using unconventional weapons like gumball machines and defibrillators. While Drunkn Bar Fight is intentionally over-the-top and nonsensical, it captures the unpredictable nature of drunken scuffles.

Supernatural, a premium subscription-based fitness program, offers a sleek and professional workout experience with a soundtrack that’s genuinely enjoyable. It transforms exercise into an engaging activity. While its cardio-boxing routines won’t turn you into a professional fighter, they certainly won’t hinder your progress. You’ll practice punches, dodges, and ducks, and its friendly trainers will guide you on proper boxing techniques. Additionally, its Beat Saber-inspired “flow” workouts might just prepare you to fend off imaginary balloons in scenic virtual landscapes.

This fantasy combat game immerses you in battles against hordes of ghouls using swords, axes, and other medieval weapons. Unlike Blades and Sorcery, your adversaries in Hellsplit: Arena are monstrous creatures, which makes the brutal violence slightly less unsettling—though you can still tear out their zombie hearts and consume them. In terms of combat training, the game offers only the most fundamental sword techniques. As demonstrated in this video of a real fencer trying the game, a single realistic move is often enough to defeat every enemy.

In our pre-collapse world, physical combat isn’t the norm—instead, we battle societal systems with our intellect. Job Simulator humorously prepares you for this by placing you in various VR parodies of “work” and letting you navigate the absurdities of modern employment.

(If you believe Job Simulator doesn’t belong on a list of combat games, feel free to confront me directly. I’ll gladly take you outside and settle this the old-fashioned way.)

This VR sword-fighting game boasts impressive visuals, strategic gameplay, and the opportunity to duel real players instead of predictable AI opponents. But will Ironlights prepare you for an actual rapier duel? Perhaps marginally. Its unique turn-based combat system emphasizes tactics over brute force, which might slightly improve your real-world fencing skills. While it’s a bit of a stretch, Ironlights remains an engaging sword-fighting experience, and that’s more than enough for me.

Initially launched as BoxXR in 2017, FitXR is a subscription-based fitness app offering cardio-boxing, dance, and HIIT workouts. Similar to Supernatural, it’s more affordable but lacks recognizable music. Like its counterpart, FitXR’s contribution to real-life combat training is primarily about keeping you fit and throwing countless air punches at virtual targets. That said, if I’m ever ambushed by flying targets, I’ll be ready to punch them with all my might.

This whimsical fighting game won’t equip you with any practical combat skills, but it immerses you in an arena filled with monsters to slay, making you feel like a seasoned gladiator—minus the real-world injuries and fatalities. Perhaps the true takeaway from these VR combat games is that simulated battles are far more enjoyable than actual face-punching. And maybe, just maybe, the real treasure was the virtual foes we defeated along the way.