Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV might just be the underappreciated(well at least in the mainstream) indie game of 2010. Sure, its got a lot of mentions in indie game of the year lists but it unfortunately didn’t win any. In my book, VVVVVV is a winner, or shall we say… a Vinner. It’s a platformer with some devious and killer levels. It’s a baby puncher too!
Your space ship has a major malfunction and you and the rest of the crew rush to the teleporter. You end up in one piece but the rest of the crew got teleported somewhere else, some other dimension. It’s all screwed up! It is your duty to find the rest of the crew(all five of them) and get them back to the ship. All five of the crews(including your character) names start with the letter V, hence the title. So Captain Viridian to the rescue!
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| Rescue your fellow crew members |
The gameplay of VVVVVV is very simple. Instead of jumping, your character flips. Once you flip, you can’t flip mid way. So you’ll need to land on a solid surface to flip back down. Add in spikes, moving platforms, disappearing platforms, enemies and other traps and you start to see how this can be quite a challenge even for the most hardcore gamer.
But the brilliant bit about VVVVVV is that it has a very lenient check point system and oodles of charm. Which I find hard to figure out why exactly. But for a game that uses such a simplistic commodore 64 like art style, it manages to capture the players attention with its cleverly designed levels. And I think this is the key bit here, the level design is pure brilliance.
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| They call this, Dimension VVVVVV! The coloured rooms are level while the black spaces are the open world |
No special powers etc, just really well crafted levels. That platform is placed just at the right spot that isn’t impossible to reach or spikes placed in just the right places to force you to move in a specific direction. This doesn’t lead to a lot of different variations of solving levels(often times there is only one way of going through a level) but when the game does some really smart things to change the way things work in some levels, it more than makes up for it.
Basically there is an open world like level and when you get to a specific level(where probably one of your crew member is lost in there), it introduces some new mechanic that will make that particular level unique. For instance the tower level where you will be forced to keep moving upwards as a wall of spikes reach up from beneath you. Or how in one level, there are these bouncy fields where you flip automatically when you hit them.
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| Spikes are your number one enemy |
VVVVVV requires skill. It doesn’t feel like it depends on luck. It requires you to train your body and mind to be one with the game(yes just like Luke did with his X-Wing trench run). Once you’ve hit your stride it is immensely satisfying. Easily one of the best games, if not the best, this year.
Pros:
- The extreme level of challenge and smart use of checkpoints make it extremely gratifying when you finally complete a portion of the level.
- Simple and elegant C64 graphics.
- The levels are so well crafted, you’d wish more games that were a lot more complex were this good.
- Lots of unique levels that introduce some new trick to change things up.
- Lots of bonus items(called trinkets) to find and extra modes(like the gravitron mode) once you’ve completed the main game.
- Absolutely the best music soundtrack in any game this year. Hands down.
Cons:
- If you’re up for the challenge, it can get its hooks on you.
- If you’ve got most of your crew back and hunting for the last one, it might take you a while.
- No online leaderboards.
Verdict: VVVVVV For The Vin!
PS : I highly recommend everyone to get this. It’s on sale for a pittance on major digital distribution sites for now. You also try out the demo over here
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