Pixel Ripped 1978 Review (PS5 / PSVR2) | Push Square

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Gaming heroine Dot is back for her third adventure, and this time, developer ARVORE has gone even further back in time than with Pixel Ripped 1989 or 1995. Now, we travel back to 1978 and bask in the glory of the era of Atari.

Not only does the game deify and lampoon all manner of Atari projects, but with 1978, the title doesn’t have to dance around talking about certain games: Atari is explicitly involved, and even publishes the title. While it’s really cool to interact with Yar and find them a set of wings so they can seek revenge, the game strikes a good balance of references and original ideas. It’s one thing to stoke the nostalgia of many a gamer, but it’s another to go off the rails and devolve into a series of “remember this?” moments. ARVORE avoids the traps of nostalgia-baiting and instead crafts a clever, meta-story about a hard-working developer inside Atari.

Your character Dot must once again do battle with the Cyblin Lord, as it’s up to you to chase him through different eras and defeat him to reforge a series of energy crystals. While the environments are all visually distinct from each other – a traditional RPG land, a disco city, and a graveyard to name a few – the level design is homogenous outside of the very memorable boss fights. Each area has a series of checkpoints and secrets, but none feel distinct from one another apart from the visual variety. This extends to the gunplay too, which doesn’t change at all from the early game. While you unlock new abilities to interact with the environments more effectively, it's mostly stagnant.

What doesn't get stale is the game-within-a-game conceit. You control Dot via Bug, the aforementioned Atari employee, and this sees you playing a traditional sidescroller