VVVVVV

January 11, 2010 4:51 AM

Terry Cavanagh's (Don't Look Back, Judith, Pathways) much-awaited gravity-flipping platformer VVVVVV is out for Windows and Mac, with a Linux version forthcoming! The full game costs $15, but you can try the demo on Kongregate. Here's a gameplay video.

Features retro, Jet-Set-Willy-style graphics, and an incredible chiptune soundtrack by Magnus Pålsson, a.k.a. SoulEye (available for $4 on his website). The main quest is about 2.5 hours long.

posted by archagon (21 comments total)

The demo for this was pretty fun for the first several screens, although personally the physics made walking feel like every surface was made out of ice. Ice with oil on it. While wearing roller skates. It's possible the bad controls were meant to be part of the challenge, but to me they just felt like bad controls.
posted by majick at 5:10 AM on January 11, 2010

Twenty seconds into the video I could tell this game would be too hard for me. Maybe twelve-year old Me could have mastered it, but thirty-three year old Me got frustrated just looking at it.

Stupid, cocky twelve-year old Me. Thinks he's so great.
posted by joelhunt at 5:23 AM on January 11, 2010 [3 favorites]

In a "tear your eyes out and eat your own hair out of frustration" kind of way, this is exactly what platforming should be like. Real cool.
posted by litleozy at 6:04 AM on January 11, 2010

personally the physics made walking feel like every surface was made out of ice. Ice with oil on it. While wearing roller skates.

Are you sure your keyboard isn't broken? Both the game and the controls felt like a NES-era Mega Man to me, which I guess is exactly what it's supposed to be.
posted by effbot at 6:19 AM on January 11, 2010

Game was fun for a while. But I'm a bit bored with retro graphics and gameplay.
posted by schwa at 7:00 AM on January 11, 2010

The demo was so short that I can spend my $15 better elsewhere if the game is only four times that length.
posted by LSK at 7:22 AM on January 11, 2010

If you like the concept of a gravity flipping platformer, but don't care for 8-bit retro graphics, you should check out And Yet It Moves.
posted by thewittyname at 7:39 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

That was great - total Commander Keen flashback.
posted by acro at 7:46 AM on January 11, 2010

Oh, wow, that made my brain happy. $15 feels a bit much but it's tempting. It's got a lot of the crazy appeal of Jet Set Willy and other flip-screen c64 platformers, without the intense frustration factor of limited lives. And having grown up with a c64, the visual style is a big nostalgia kick; it really does feel like a lost classic from that time.
posted by egypturnash at 7:47 AM on January 11, 2010

This is fantastic. Gameplay is smooth and it has that certain elegance that lets you slide right through a level once your the rote reflexes are conditioned. Death by a thousand spikes!
posted by furtive at 8:56 AM on January 11, 2010

Clever name btw, matching the spikes in the game.
posted by furtive at 8:56 AM on January 11, 2010

What eventually happened is that I got drunk at a staff night out and told everyone around me that I wanted to quit and spend all my time making games. Somebody told my boss, and the next day he called me in and asked about it. Even though I hadn't saved up nearly enough, I ended up impulsively giving him my notice.

There was a pretty good interview with Terry Cavanagh the other day on IndieGames.com.
posted by CarolynG at 9:18 AM on January 11, 2010

Yeah, I really don't see paying more for this than I paid for Plants Vs. Zombies. I do hope he succeeds, I just don't want to pay that much.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:32 AM on January 11, 2010

Yeah, I really don't see paying more for this than I paid for Plants Vs. Zombies. I do hope he succeeds, I just don't want to pay that much.

That is a problem, yeah. It looks like a neat enough game, but I don't think fifteen bucks is a reasonable price point. New games with high-end graphics can be had for that, or less. (Damn you Steam Christmas sale!)
posted by graventy at 10:06 AM on January 11, 2010

I've paid more for less.

Not finished it yet but I'm impressed by the variety on offer. Each area has a different "rule". Also I suspect the game's bigger than it looks - the last crewman I rescued sent me into a surprise new area with a particularly nifty rule.
posted by Lorc at 1:50 PM on January 11, 2010

Gameplay is far more important than shiny graphics, IMO, and this game is impeccably designed. It's well-worth the $15, even for 2.5 hours.
posted by archagon at 2:50 PM on January 11, 2010

Also, at least on my computer, it seems that fullscreen slows the game down a bit. FYI.
posted by archagon at 2:55 PM on January 11, 2010

It's inventive, I'll give them that much. And I like the audio. The little mewlings of the meeple are great. But the gameplay is too tough for these old bones and $15 seems steep.

Right, back to Cave Story.
posted by chairface at 8:19 PM on January 11, 2010

He quit his job at a bank to pursue his dream. That's worth at $15 alone right there. Once the Linux version comes out I'll probably pay it, if nothing else to support that kind of passion.
posted by formless at 9:18 PM on January 11, 2010

$15 totally worth it. I love this game.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:31 PM on January 12, 2010

For what it's worth, Giant Bomb posted a Quick Look at the game today.
posted by graventy at 1:22 PM on January 14, 2010