Pixel Ripped 1989

A piece offers an adventure where the player plays an 8-bit game within a VR game. The player impersonates a computer gaming addict Nicola and plays her favorite mobile gate “Pixel Ripped”. The scene begins in a classroom in 1989, where Nicola must complete “Pixel Ripped” while worrying, even in VR, not to be found by the teacher. To save the heroine of the mobile game Dot and her friends, Nicola must fight against Cyblin Lord who can break out of the game console and tries to open a portal between real world and games from different generations to control the population. The player will enjoy the unique world where 8-bit 2D world and colorful 3D world merge.

In the history of video games, there comes from time to time a meta title that reexamines the very state of games in a self-critical way: by including a retro take on generations past while remaining an expression of fresh new media. This indie game, which takes the player into 1989, has a catchy way of embodying that monumentality in today’s VR era. Its superb eye for design results in a skillful medley of a game-within-a-game that pays homage to famous Japanese titles of yore and the phenomenon of “reality” as seen from the player’s perspective. The developer’s intense fourth-wall-breaking presentation—in full costume!—stood out as well.
(NAKAGAWA Daichi)