Penn & Teller VR: Frankly Unfair, Unkind, Unnecessary, & Underhanded

Penn & Teller VR: Frankly Unfair, Unkind, Unnecessary, & Underhanded
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Gearbox Software
Publisher	Gearbox Publishing
Platform	Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift (Platform), SteamVR, PlayStation VR
Device	Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR
Type	Game
Genre	Party, Casual
Input Device	Tracked Motion Controllers
Game Mode	Single-player, Multiplayer
Release Date	June 27, 2019 (Quest, Rift, Vive); July 9, 2019 (PlayStation VR)
Price	US$19.99
App Store	Oculus Store, Steam, PlayStation Store

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Penn & Teller VR: Frankly Unfair, Unkind, Unnecessary, & Underhanded (sold on the PlayStation Store and the Meta Quest store as Penn & Teller VR: F U, U, U, & U) is a comedy virtual reality game built around pranks and magic tricks, featuring the magicians Penn & Teller. It was developed by Gearbox Software and published by Gearbox Publishing. The game launched on Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on 27 June 2019 at US$19.99, and a PlayStation VR version followed on 9 July 2019.

Most of the game is meant to be played on someone else. A host uses the headset as misdirection: a guest wears it and follows a scripted "bit", while the host, coached by in-game tutorials from Penn & Teller, carries out a prank on them in the real room. Reviews were mixed. The Next Web called it "well-polished", while PlayStation LifeStyle gave it 6/10 and COGconnected 50/100.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Checked every fact, date, price, quote and score against the Steam, PlayStation Store, Meta store, OpenCritic and Metacritic listings, the three Gearbox press releases, Road to VR, UploadVR, DualShockers and the TNW, PlayStation LifeStyle and COGconnected reviews. About review dates.

Gameplay

The game contains fourteen bits, most of which are pranks rather than magic tricks. The store description groups the content into three parts. "Fool Your Friends" is a set of more than ten "cruel" tricks presented as cutting-edge science, such as an immersion therapy demo, a telekinesis test and a stunt called "The Most Dangerous Act in Showbiz". "Play With Yourself" holds single-player scenarios, among them playing a high-rise window washer or a volunteer in one of Penn & Teller's acts. In "Master the Magic", the player takes the role of Houdini, Cardini or Penn Jillette to perform a water escape and a card trick, with Penn & Teller as mentors.

Each bit has a "backstage" tutorial in which Penn & Teller explain the setup and how the VR scene works as misdirection. Some bits keep the person in the headset busy while the host scares them in the real world. COGconnected named Virtual Roshambo, VR Prototype and Quality Egg Control among the prank bits, and High Rise Grime Fighter, Immersion Therapy Demo, You Be Houdini and Being Penn Jillette among the others. It noted that Quality Egg Control needs a full-sized table, and that the only Penn & Teller magic routine shown is their cups and balls. PlayStation LifeStyle described a rock, paper, scissors bit in which the headset wearer plays against an AI they believe is the host holding the other controller, a social screen on the TV that gives the host instructions, and an option in which Penn reads the complete novel Moby-Dick on an e-reader. The PlayStation VR press release lists two single-player pieces: escaping Houdini's Water Torture Cell and solving a mystery while washing windows on a Las Vegas skyscraper.

UploadVR's hands-on at E3 2019 described several bits on Oculus hardware. In rock, paper, scissors, the headset wearer holds one Oculus Touch controller and the other person holds the second; the non-VR player is then prompted to let an AI take over, imitating their earlier throws, which leaves them free to move the headset wearer's chair or take their wallet. In a bullet catch, the player looks out from inside Teller's mouth and closes his jaws on slow-motion bullets before Penn fires a shotgun at the player's face, the cue for a friend in the room to push them. Other bits included a Houdini-style escape from a flooding cell, with the player's wrists tied with a Touch controller strap, and a trick that makes the friend believe they can move objects with their mind. DualShockers' E3 preview reported that the game recreates Penn & Teller's theater and the Monkey Room.

On PlayStation 4 the game requires the PlayStation VR headset and the PlayStation Camera, and uses the PlayStation Move controller (up to two are supported) for one to two players. Steam lists the PC version as VR-only with tracked controller support, single-player and shared/split-screen PvP modes, and support for SteamVR or Oculus PC headsets.

Development

The game was not Gearbox's first project based on Penn & Teller material. In 2017 the studio released Desert Bus VR, a virtual reality version of Desert Bus, a mini-game from the unreleased Sega CD game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors.

Gearbox Publishing confirmed the game in a press release dated 28 March 2019, issued with its PAX East announcements. The release described it as "the long-awaited VR game from Gearbox Software" and said it would come to Oculus, Vive and PlayStation VR in summer 2019. UploadVR noted that Gearbox did not mention the game during its PAX East presentation and that little was known about it at that point. The game was shown to press in hands-on demos during E3 2019 in June.

Mario Rodriguez, the game's lead producer, told The Next Web that the team wanted the game to reflect how Penn & Teller break the rules of magic, and that it "isn't a game in the traditional sense" because it is more about learning to perform like them. In the launch press release, technical designer Jacob Lavender said the team collaborated with Penn & Teller directly, and that "by introducing the use of a second player outside the headset, we're influencing gameplay outside of what users typically see with a VR experience."

Release

The game launched on 27 June 2019 for Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive at US$19.99. Road to VR reported that it was sold through Steam for Rift and Vive and through the Oculus Store for Quest and Rift. The PlayStation VR version was released on 9 July 2019.

At launch, Gearbox President and CEO Randy Pitchford announced that the company would donate an initial US$10,000 to UNICEF's immunization program, plus a further US$10,000 for every 100,000 sales. Road to VR reported that Penn & Teller and Gearbox intended to use the game to help fight the anti-vaccine movement.

Platform	Release date	Notes
Oculus Quest	27 June 2019	Oculus Store; US$19.99
Oculus Rift	27 June 2019	Oculus Store and Steam; US$19.99
HTC Vive (SteamVR)	27 June 2019	Steam; US$19.99
PlayStation VR (PlayStation 4)	9 July 2019	PlayStation Store; US$19.99; requires PlayStation Camera and PlayStation Move

As of October 2026, the game is still listed on Steam at US$19.99, on the Meta Horizon Store for Meta Quest under the short title Penn & Teller VR: F U, U, U, & U, and on the PlayStation Store as a PS4 title that the store says is playable on PlayStation 5.

Reception

OpenCritic lists two critic reviews, and Metacritic shows no Metascore for the game.

Publication	Platform	Score
PlayStation LifeStyle	PlayStation VR	6/10
COGconnected	PC	50/100

Tristan Greene of The Next Web called the game "well-polished and superbly developed" and a "love-letter" to Penn & Teller fans. He described it as less a game than a performance aid, "tool for pranksters, or gateway drug for budding magicians", warned that some bits could upset people who fear spiders or enclosed spaces, and recommended it for showing VR to newcomers.

Chandler Wood of PlayStation LifeStyle wrote that "Penn & Teller VR is not for you to play. It's for your guests." He found that it "leans heavily on its prank side of things, trading moments of wonder for a bunch of cheap 'gotchas!'", called it "a one-weekend app" with little replay value once the tricks are known, and concluded that "It's just not the magic of video games that I was hoping for from two of magic's greatest."

Felix Wong of COGconnected, reviewing the PC version, wrote that the game "strives to do too much without committing to any of its ideas". He found the pranks "too unrealistic to execute" and the content thin, but praised the tutorials, in which Penn & Teller display their showmanship, "selling even the most mundane instructions with admirable enthusiasm", and named High Rise Grime Fighter as the highlight. He called the game "a mixed bag" that "will please only fans of the titular duo".

UploadVR's David Jagneaux, writing from the E3 2019 demo before release, expected the game to become a party staple and compared it to Cards Against Humanity and the Jackbox Party Pack.