The visual style is simple, yet a perfect fit along with the music.
A great idea for a game like this, since letting fans show what they would have made were they working on the level design of VVVVVV is bound to excite more than just a few people. No “cheats” here ?īut while on the topic of additional stuff – with the 2.0 update, the game got a level editor, allowing fans to create their own levels for everyone else to enjoy. But if you want to find out what they unlock, either collect them or hit Google. It also tells you the status of all your crew members, how many times you’ve died, how long you’ve played on your current save and how many trinkets (out of 20) you have found.Įven a simple game like this has collectibles and they actually serve to unlock stuff. From the pause screen, the map can be displayed, showing explored areas along with specific locations. VVVVVV takes after Castlevania/ Metroid in the exploration aspect, so a map is vital and thankfully implemented nicely. The controls are simple: You can reverse gravity, go left, go right, open your map (more on that in a second), each done with the press of a specific button (that to my knowledge can’t be remapped). The alarm sounds and everyone abandons the ship through a teleporter and to find out what happens after that, you’re gonna have to play the game! Ha! that would not make for much of a game so obviously something goes wrong. In fact, everything is simply nice and peaceful, complete with happy music, but. Captain Viridian is a simple man, dressed entirely in cyan colored clothing. There is a story, but it’s kept to a minimum – no long dialogues, cut-scenes or even much in the way of a story. Gameplay takes precedence over story here, but still…ĭon’t go into this one expecting a deep plot.
Even with a checkpoint nearby, my futile attempts at trying to defy the game got boring eventually, so I decided to play the way it wanted me to and what d’ya know, gravity was defied, the spiky path was behind me and the lovely game (available on PC and Mac) could begin! It didn’t help that Captain Viridian had a depressed look on his face either, that’s for sure. where jumping was crucial.īoy was I surprised… and dead. The game looked like a 2D platformer of days gone by, so my mind went straight to genre-defining titles the likes of Super Mario Bros. There was no way this ‘Captain Viridian’ was able to defy gravity. Yet I tried to do just that… I jumped continuously and furiously, thinking the game was trying to trick me. Had the game not informed me immediately that I could not jump, but instead reverse gravity, I would have questioned the physical abilities of the character I controlling, since even the first obstacle (a nasty row of spikes) would seem insane to even attempt a jump across. Upon launching this one the first time and navigating the menus to start a new game, it didn’t take long for the band to start playing and the tune was quite familiar: VVVVVV was a trip back in time!Īnd not only in the visual and gameplay departments but also quite so with the difficulty.