The Android's Horn-Rimmed Glasses (Indie)

VVVVVV, aka If You Die Fewer Than Ten Times a Minute, You’re Doing Good

2 Comments

The other day I acquired VVVVVV, an indie game that looks and plays similar to a Flash game, but Steam was having a special so it was only $2.50 and I’d heard good things about it so I bought it. Can’t beat a video game that costs less than a gallon of gas, right?

Though to be fair I guess that's not much of an accomplishment these days.

So anyways, this game is based around the rather gravity-defying gimmick of being able to switch between walking on the floor and walking on the ceiling. That might seem like a pretty simple gimmick, but you’d be surprised: this mechanic single-handedly turns the game from your typical retro platformer into a puzzle game that still somehow requires lightning-quick reflexes. Or you die. For the record, you die a lot in this game. Fortunately, the game designers were well aware of this, and you have unlimited lives and respawn near-instantly.

This brings me to my next point: each puzzle is neatly self-contained within either a single room, or a very small selection of rooms. So theoretically, if you have perfect reflexes, you can finish each puzzle within about five seconds. This is a delightfully evil tactic on the game designers’ parts, by the way, because the fact that you can see the end of every puzzle juuuuust out of reach, combined with unlimited lives and instant respawn on death, means that instead of getting frustrated and quitting, you’ll just keep trying, because it’s just RIGHT there and you’d might as well give it ONE MORE SHOT and then ONE MORE TRY and then JUST ONE MORE and then… yeah.

Directly after this room is the Puzzle From Hell.

Anyways, combine some seriously catchy game mechanics with some seriously catchy chiptune music, and you’ve got yourself a game that you’ll quickly lose an hour or so to. It’s not particularly big and flashy or anything, but if you’ve got thirty minutes and want to lose your mind, this game is the way to go.

Picture related: this game is like the top series there.
Written by: Pike on June 2, 2011.

2 thoughts on “VVVVVV, aka If You Die Fewer Than Ten Times a Minute, You’re Doing Good”

  1. I found the Iron Boots/magnetic surfaces in Twilight Princess to be a nice touch. The whole; walk on the ceiling with iron boots did put a new spin on the goron level.

  2. Reminds me of Give Up, Robot. God that game slayed me. “Just one more level” – a few hours later, I’ve completed the game. I do love these games that actually challenge you. Winning gives you a sense of accomplishing something, either through smarts or dedication or skill or something, instead of just “you spent enough time here”.

Comments are closed.