A Game Within A Game In VR – Pixel Ripped 1989

Have you ever tried sneaking in some handheld gaming at school, or maybe brought your Vita or Switch to work to squeeze in a few minutes while the boss wasn’t looking?

Pixel Ripped 1989 taps directly into that feeling. You’re playing on a handheld that looks like a mash‑up between a Game Boy and a Game Gear (called the Gear Kid), all while trying to distract your teacher — and later, a few other authority figures — just enough so you don’t get caught gaming in class.

The game you’re playing on the Gear Kid is actually a pretty solid little platformer — a classic jump‑and‑run that starts out looking like a simple, generic pixel title. But as you progress, the visuals evolve in clever ways, gradually transforming into something far more impressive than you’d expect from that chunky monochrome screen.

Even though the Gear Kid sticks to its old‑school, single‑colour look, the game constantly throws in new twists and visual tricks that keep things fresh. It never feels static or stale; instead, it keeps surprising you with how much it can do within those retro limitations.

Now imagine trying to play a tough old‑school platformer on a handheld — dodging enemies, timing jumps, and focusing hard — while also having to distract your teacher so you don’t get caught. That’s the core chaos of Pixel Ripped 1989. To keep the people around you busy, you’ve only got one tool: your trusty straw shooter. Every classroom has different objects you can hit with spitballs to create just enough distraction to stay under the radar.

Firing spitballs is done through head‑tracking, while playing on the Gear Kid, which uses the analogue sticks and the Sixaxis motion tracking. The game treats the DualShock like a real handheld, so when you move your hands, the Gear Kid moves with them. You’ll be glancing down at your controller a lot, but thankfully, you can reposition your hands in a comfortable way so it doesn’t turn into one of those neck‑destroying “look‑down VR” experiences.

Shooting spitballs at things like a radio, TV, trash can, or whatever else is lying around creates noise and distracts the teacher — or whoever is watching you at that level. It gets surprisingly stressful because you need to cause real‑world distractions to make progress on the Gear Kid. That means you’ll push as far as you can in the platformer before quickly firing off another spitball to buy yourself a few more seconds of gaming time.

What really makes Pixel Ripped 1989 shine is the immersion. The Gear Kid itself will never feel truly “real,” but the world around you absolutely does.

Kids wander over to comment on how well (or badly) you’re playing. Things are constantly happening around you. There’s always something to prepare, some object to line up for your next distraction. And as you get deeper into the game, you’ll find yourself playing in a completely different rhythm than you did during your first attempts.

Pixel Ripped 1989 is one of those games that just works incredibly well from start to finish. It’s packed with small, clever details scattered everywhere, and more importantly, it dares to try something genuinely different — both in its gameplay mechanics and in its overall concept.

There’s also plenty of tongue‑in‑cheek humour sprinkled throughout, which makes your “school day” a whole lot more entertaining than it ever was in real life.

Some of the best moments in Pixel Ripped 1989 are without a doubt the boss fights. They blend the Gear Kid world with the real classroom in brilliant ways — you’ll see the action happening on the handheld, and then suddenly it bursts into your surroundings, like the dragon that comes crashing straight through the roof.

When a boss battle starts, the game shifts into this clever hybrid of 2D and 3D, and it works incredibly well. You still play the platformer as normal, but during these fights you also need to use your straw and spitballs to clear paths, trigger events, or open up opportunities for your Gear Kid hero. It’s chaotic, creative, and easily some of the most memorable stuff in the entire game.

There are a lot of crazy ideas packed into Pixel Ripped 1989, but they’re always executed in a way that feels right — both for the immersion and for the fun factor. Some sections will stress you out far more than they should, and yes, there were moments where I wanted to smash the Gear Kid thanks to sudden difficulty spikes. But honestly, the game is pretty easy from start to finish.

It looks like some kind of sequel is on the way, and if that’s true, there’s one thing I know for sure: I’m absolutely getting it.

Pixel Ripped 1989 looks and sounds perfectly fine, and while it’s not groundbreaking, it still manages to open a box of ideas no one else had touched at the time. It’s a concept so clever that I wouldn’t be surprised if other developers try to copy it in the future.

I’d go as far as saying this game is essential for any VR collection — and a must‑play for both retro fans and VR enthusiasts. The only real downsides are the price tag and the lack of a Platinum trophy.

— The crazy part is that back when I wrote this review in 2018, I fully expected a sequel someday… and now, eight years later, we’ve ended up with two…(and mini review links here)