VR REVIEWS: Pixel Ripped 1989

This game has been on my radar since I got my Oculus Rift, yet with the vast number of apps and games I had already acquired, it kept getting put on the backburner.

Yesterday I was in a nostalgic mood and even went in and replayed (or at least started to replay) a few old classic PC games. I then remembered Pixel Ripped, which I heard great things about. Without much hesitation I decided to grab this off of the Oculus Store and booted it up.

My immediate reaction upon entering the Pixel Ripped-iverse was, 'Wow, this is going to be awesome,' and for the most part, yes, yes it is.

The basic premise is simple, you play as a pixelated dot in an old school side-scrolling platformer
game, jumping about, collecting 'pixels', shooting enemies which eventually leads to a boss battle. But wait, there's more... you also play as a girl sitting in school, playing these games on her game-boy type device, avoiding harassment from the teacher as you cause distractions in class.
In the game she's playing you have to defeat more enemies and the main villain, who as it were, has taken control of a magical stone and is now combining the game world and the girl's real world (all while you are playing this in a virtual world... it gets a tad confusing.)

The gameplay absolutely transports you back to the 80s/90s and the games you play in the game have a perfect (albeit generic) mechanic and give you the feeling of playing an actual game-boy game of the time.

There are moments you are transported either deeper into the game itself, or times when the game is transported into the girl's real world, or a combination of both. To avoid spoilers, I will just say you get immersed in many different ways when playing Pixel Ripped and there is a lot of jumping around between the different dimensions.

The main gripe I have thus far is the length of the game. I started this game last night, and (unless I'm missing something) it appears to only have 3 main levels. I had almost gotten to the end of level 2 after an hour or two (if that) and it will probably only take another hour tonight to complete it. For the price-tag ($25) it is a hard pill to swallow, but the overall experience of the game is definitely one to try for any VR enthusiast who either remembers or wants to get a taste of gaming in the late 80s/early 90s.

On my scale of Almond to Filet Mignon... this game comes in at a clear Chicken Pot-Pie.