RUNNER is an upcoming racing game from indie studio Truant Pixel that promises to bring some very ’80s-inspired run-and-gun action to Quest 2 next month.

Update (September 28th, 2022): Truant Pixel announced that RUNNER is headed to the official Quest Store for Quest 2 on October 6th, 2022. The studio says its previously mentioned release on SteamVR headsets is still “TBA”. They’ve said they’re now targeting PSVR 2 as well.

If you’re looking to dive into a little bit of the game’s story, the studio also published a visual novel for mobile devices and PC called ‘PREAMBLE’ which tells the story of Vice, a former smuggler turned corporate cog on the colony world of N-351.

Additionally, the studio tossed out a new trailer, featured below. And if you were wondering, yes, that’s the voice talents of Steve Blum, probably best known for voicing Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, and Sandra Saad, who you may recognize from COD: Modern Warfare, Deathloop, and League of Legends.

Original Article (July 13th, 2021): Truant Pixel released this video back in early June, which shows off a second major look at the game following its initial reveal video in April. In the video, we get a look at some of the road hazards, a few newly revealed enemies, and a few weapons—all framed by a really interesting hand-drawn explosions and other cool cel shaded effects.

Since that teaser, the studio has thrown out a few other looks at the work-in-progress game, like the massive six-legged enemy type which seems to be inspired by Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell. No surprises here: the studio says they’re inspired by classic anime like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Patlabor.

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Back at its reveal in April, the studio said Runner would include autonomous motorcycles, UAVs, hunter-killer tanks, sniper quadrupeds, covert assassin vehicles and unique boss battles.

Truant Pixel also revealed a slow-motion mechanic that may be tied to a certain type of laser in the game.

Runner doesn’t have a launch window yet, however it’s said to launch on all major VR headsets, including Oculus Quest, SteamVR-headsets, and the second-gen PSVR headset too. We’ll be keeping our eyes on Truant Pixel’s Twitter for more updates, which we hope come sooner rather than later. You can wishlist it on Steam here.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • jbob4mall

    Looks great.

  • Well this is looking potentially very cool.

  • Steve Nordquist

    So…the chain fight from Akira isn’t safe for living rooms? Tch.

  • It looks cool enough, but do we really need yet another neon-coated 80s-flavored game with REALLY dull quasi-80s music? Like, the 80s retread thing is a deader horse than the 60s and 70s throwbacks were in the 90s, we have been crappily dredging this aesthetic up over and over again for 20 years now. I’m so tired of all of this endless lightcycle synthwave crap in VR, enough already, pick a new setting already for pete’s sake.

    • Jistuce

      I like the style and would be happy if everything leaned a bit more into it.

    • So sorry that your personal tastes are clashing with the zeitgeist. Must be a difficult existence to be so out of touch.

  • I love the vibes of this game!

  • Hello, I am Andrew Taylor. I am CEO at Shanghai Electrical Machinery Group Co., which is a leading ac motor manufacturer in China. We are located at Zhaojiabang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    This article was posted a year ago. Please stop reposting the same article with the same headline – even with a small update in the body text, this is misleading and maddening.