Pixel Ripped 1989 was the only VR game I got the chance to see at PAX East, but I’ll say I was psyched to see there were a ton on display, many of which were being independently developed, just like Pixel Ripped, which made up for all the VR games I missed with how delightful it was. The demo I had took me on an adventure into the world of video games in a way that few have, which is to say, it kind of literally took me into the video games world.
In Pixel Ripped 1989 you play as a video game character playing a video game in their pixelated, GameBoy-like living room. They are then sequestered to stopping the Cyblin Lord, very specifically not a Goblin, which you are sent into by literally having your character, Dot, which is to reference an actual pixel, or dot, pushed into the real world mind of Nicola, a young schoolgirl in London, England in the year 1989. You, as the player, play Dot, who then possesses and “plays” Nicola, who, in turn, is playing a video game handheld in her real-world setting.
There is a whole lot of meta going on.
What’s cool is how you are basically controlling someone who is both trying to pay attention to their handheld video game console, and also not get caught by folks across multiple scenarios. My one demo put me in a classroom with obnoxious other students cheering me on from the sidelines, and a very angry teacher who did not want me playing video games in her classroom.
Part of the experience is the actual game you’re playing on the “Game Kid” handheld system, which is a 2D action platformer that’s actually reminiscent of a MegaMan. You collect pixels to make your character go from a single big pixel, to more, and more complex, and with each upgrade your in-game-in-handheld character becomes more colorful and has a bigger sprite, that then slowly gets stronger and stronger. But just like a Sonic the Hedgehog game, if you get hit, you’ll lose all your pixels are revert to your very basic, pixelated self.
The game in VR around this handheld is very much using your environment to keep distractions at bay and continue your jolly gaming adventure. What was present in my demo was a spitball gun I could use to shoot spitballs and knock things over in the classroom setting I was in, and that would keep the angry old teacher distracted for long enough so I could make progress in my platforming level.
After a long enough time, I caught up with the Cyblin Lord who, in an act of completely shattering the fourth wall, tore himself from the game console with your character Dot, and created a platforming gauntlet in the actual classroom I was in in VR for me to traverse with my platformer character. What’s cool was this demanded not only my platforming skills, but also the use of my VR-based spitball gun to clear obstructions for my character, and allow me to progress. While I’m sure the best way would be to manage both at the same time, I had to shift my mental processing from one game to the other, so to speak, which was super interesting and unlike anything I’ve seen in VR to date. A true game within a game.
Pixel Ripped was so cool and so much fun, I can’t wait to see it come to not only Oculus Rift, which is what I played it on, but also HTC Vive and PlayStation VR on May 22nd. It’s gorgeous and stylish and it coming to all VR platforms means if you have access to any, you should check it out upon release.