MixRift has launched its free-to-play mixed reality arcade shooter game Crit Attack.
The wave shooter game is the third game from the mixed reality startup and it’s a lot of fun.
I played a prototype of the game at a coffee shop, wearing a Meta Quest 3 headset. It was cool to be able to see a chunk of the wall of the coffee shop fall away and reveal the attacking critters. I had a gun in each hand and had to fire away as quickly as possible to dispatch the critters before they reached me.
Bobby Voicu, CEO of MixRift, said in an interview that the game was designed for three generations of family members — grand parents, parents and kids — so that they could all play something together. The game is available today on the PlayStation VR 2, Meta Quest and Steam.
Just in time for the holiday season, the game is easy and free to play, and is compatible with the Meta Quest 3, 3S, Pro and 2.
The game makes money through in-app purchases like upgrades and extra lives, which are available to make the most out of the playing session. But players can also win these by playing the game for longer.
Your job is to defend your living room or office from a wave of monsters. The combination of the game mechanic (arcade wave shooter), the graphics and the ease of picking it up make Crit Attack unique in the Meta Store, where the emphasis is on the more story driven, multiplayer, longer sessions. In between waves, you can power up your weapons so you can do more damage or withstand more attacks. Over time, you earn better and better weapons.
Powered by that growing market feedback for more ‘family-friendly’, less intense or graphic violence games, and a nostalgia for 80s and 90s games and entertainment brought to today, Crit Attack is a simple and casual game that anyone can intuitively understand how to use and play, Voicu said.
“By listening to our audience we noticed a nostalgia trend, driven by TV series like ‘Stranger Things’ or games like Stardew Valley and Minecraft with pixelated graphics,” Voicu said. “This enables the entire family to enjoy our games — the generation that first played games in arcades, the generation that played the early consoles and, finally, Gen Z and Alpha that can use their MR devices for a competitive and fun game.”
The launch of Crit Attack underscores the company’s vision to drive mass MR adoption and make gaming accessible to everyone by developing games that are easy for anyone to play, and deeply immersive. It’s the perfect gift for the whole family to enjoy – what better way to spend Christmas than uniting to fight a wave of monsters, Voicu said.
The MR shooter has a “friendlier”look and feel. Arcade wave shooters are often combined with the kind of graphics for the entire family to play. The monsters are cute and annoying rather than scary, appearing in waves – making it a very fun experience for everyone.
It’s accessible, simple and easy user experience. I picked it up and played within seconds, shooting the enemies and then reloading by dropping my hand down and then bringing the gun up again. You simply point the crosshairs at the monsters and then pull the trigger.
It inspires that kind of “one more time” experience. The wave arcade shooter mechanic makes it the ideal game for short gaming sessions that players want to experience “one more time” according to user feedback, as with each time they understand what to do to get more monster waves destroyed.
And unlike many VR titles, it has a low time commitment required to play – a more casual experience, where you can play for a half an hour or less session.
There’s also a Hall of Fame leaderboard. It tracks performance globally to show off the best players in the world, creating the beginnings of a real gaming community.
There are different strategies to play. Inside VR, you can move close to the portal in the wall and shoot the critters up close at first. Then, as they become more and more intense, you can back away from the wall and get more time to take them out, Voicu said. When you’re sitting, they come at you faster as that’s an easier position to shoot them down. When you come across a boss, they will do a lot more damage to you.
At a certain number of waves, the battle switches and it becomes an infinite firefight.
“We basically develop prototypes to see if the game mechanic is interesting. If people come without us putting in any retention mechanic, and if they just love the the actual game mechanic, then the game is worth developing more,” Voicu said. “We continued development on this one because players sent us messages saying they really wanted to play the final game.”
Origins
Voicu began to believe in mixed reality a while ago as he saw a demo with a crack in a ceiling that became a hole in the wall. In his head, he knew it was real but it looked so real that he was taken aback by that moment.
Voicu said that MixRift believes in the power of MR to transform the gaming landscape, making it more interactive, accessible, and enjoyable for players worldwide. The company’s games are designed to be intuitive, allowing for seamless integration into players’ daily lives ensuring that every adventure is just another reality away.
The company’s developers have a background in mobile games where rapid development was key. Voicu sold his mobile game company and then later moved into VR. Voicu said the company worked on the Crit Attack game for a matter of months. The team was prepared to launch a version early but decided to redo the art to make it more family friendly after receiving feedback.
MixRift’s unique approach is centered on game mechanics, developing and releasing games that resonate with audiences, and launching them quickly rather than investing years in a single title, Voicu said.
“While the demand for MR experiences continues to grow, largely driven by tech giants like Meta and Apple, there’s a clear lack of high-quality MR games out there,” Voicu said. “We’re in the perfect position to tackle this because our flexibility lets us dive into unique game mechanics built specifically for MR. We’re not just making games—we’re pushing boundaries to create new kinds of interactive experiences, changing the way we engage with this technology in our daily lives.”
MixRift has been at the forefront of the MR/XR revolution since its inception, pushing the boundaries of seamless integration between physical and digital realms to create ‘wow’ moments for gamers, Voicu said.
The company made the game with a half-dozen developers. They’re spread out through different places in Europe.
In August, MixRift raised $1.6 million, primarily directed towards accelerating its game development efforts. The company’s additional games Hell Horde (MR Survival) and Fractured (MR 3D puzzle) are available on Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest. MixRift has an ambitious roadmap ahead, including a new, exciting gaming title for the first quarter of 2025.
In the long term, Voicu foresees mixed reality glasses hitting the market that look like ordinary glasses. That’s when he expects a huge mixed reality gaming market to take off.
“I truly believe we’re pretty close to, in the next three years, where we are going to see the first glasses that are like heads-up display glasses,” he said. “I think that is going to be really compelling for game developers.”
