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# Pixel Rift is a virtual reality arcade game simulator, the most meta game ever
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/pixel-rift-virtual-reality-arcade-game-simulator-most-meta-game-ever/
- Published: 2014-09-24T14:43:11.000Z
- Updated: 2024-07-26T10:35:52.000Z
- Description: A game inside a game inside of virtual reality. Ouch.
- Author: Jamin Warren
- Tags: News, Ana Ribiero, oculus rift, Pixel Rift, simulation, simulator, Virtual Reality, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

You are Nicola, a gaming addict who only wants to get back to her favorite game *Pixel Rift*. The year is 1989 and you are in a classroom, trying to sneak time away from learning. But you are also you, a human being wearing an Oculus Rift, playing Nicola while she plays *Pixel Rift* on her Game Girl handheld device. That’s because *[Pixel Rift](http://www.pixelriftgame.com/?ref=killscreen.com)*[, the VR experience](http://www.pixelriftgame.com/?ref=killscreen.com), not the eponymous game inside a game, is an arcade game simulator.

Yes, “arcade game simulator” sounds like [an Onion article](http://www.theonion.com/video/warcraft-sequel-lets-gamers-play-a-character-playi,14240/?ref=killscreen.com), but *Pixel Rift* is the brainchild of [Ana Ribeiro](http://www.anagamedeveloper.com/?ref=killscreen.com), a games design and development student at the prestigious National Film & Television School in the U.K. It’s part of her final project and is heavily based on her memories as a child, which explains why she ultimately would like to make the games she was so enraptured with during her youth.

As strange as the idea of playing a game inside a game sounds, it has a precedent, of course, in the world of games. Rockstar has, of course, dotted the worlds of *Grand Theft Auto* [with its own in-game arcade games](http://gta.wikia.com/Arcade%5FGames?ref=killscreen.com). But what *Pixel Rift* challenges is the idea of what *can’t* be replicated in VR. What I find curious is the idea that we may lose some semblance of touch with the world we came from, which is exactly the point Ribiero is making of course.

[In our virtual reality issue](http://shop.killscreendaily.com/products/issue-8-virtual-reality?ref=killscreen.com), Chris Breault astutely predicted that once we produce a VR helmet that can recreate the sensation of taking the helmet *off*, we’ll all be in trouble. Let’s hope *Pixel Rift* isn’t a sad but true commentary of what lies on the other side.