VVVVVV (PC)

by Piyoz on Apr 17th, 2013

Yes, that is in fact the title of a game. A pretty brilliant game at that. Reaching back into my bag of indie games on Steam, the next title on my list was VVVVVV (pronounced “vee vee vee vee vee vee” apparently), a 2D platformer published in 2010 by Terry Cavanagh. The clever thing about the game’s name is that your biggest antagonist is inexplicably-placed spikes lining much of the world’s surfaces. So in game, they look like a row of V’s. Get it?

Premise

In VVVVVV, you play as Captain Viridian, leader of a team of scientists who are out exploring, I bet. Their ship crashes into another dimension, and your five companions have been strewn out all over the crash site. It is up to you to explore the wreckage and find your team. Like Jinjo’s, they don’t move at all, even when a convenient exit is nearby. Thanks to the graphics inspired by the Commodore 64, all the character are tiny stick people right out of a Newgrounds flash animation. Also, all six of the main characters’ names begin with the letter V. So that’s clever, too.

VVVVVV doesn’t spend much time at all explaining why your ship crashed or the crazy science behind this game. Why bother? The players don’t need world building or character development to rationalize what’s going on. Here, it’s less about atmosphere and more about refreshing and undeniably entertaining game play.

Game Play
The game play consists purely of manipulating the insane gravity of this dimension to make yourself fly upward to the ceiling or straight down to the ground. There is not jump or attack function. Just gravity switching.

This is accommodated to very well in the level design. You are tossed into the damaged space ship which has crashed on an oddly square asteroid. It’s very open-world in that you are given one large map to explore. No smaller, numbered stages like Mario games. So not only are you given some fun platforming to jump around in, you have this sense of exploration, too! As you uncover more of the map, you will find plenty of areas in outer space to discover. The real gold of this game lies in the space ship. The innards of this vessel contain some very clever and mind-bending puzzles. Think of it like a 2D Super Mario Galaxy, but without the turtles.

Precise timing and swift grasp on the controls is needed to advance through these series of puzzles. Some involve moving platforms to avoid a spiky death. In some spots, there are white bands of light that instantly switch your gravity upon contact. In a few intermission sequences, the exit/entrances to each room begin to get seriously messed up using something called “wraparound” (walk off the right side and you end up coming out of the left; drop down the bottom of the stage and you fall from the top again). It’s pretty wild.

The controls for our captain are very solid. He moves around pretty quickly, yet he also stops on a dime. The gravity pulls or pushes you right at the correct speed so you don’t lose track of where you are. The hit detection for spikes and enemies is brutal. Since you’re going to die a lot while playing VVVVVV, there are checkpoints scattered everywhere in this game. They’re the tiny globes with the letter “C” on them. Don’t be worried about losing your progress. When you locate and rescue all five of your teammates, you will have beaten the game.

Just to give the player more to accomplish, VVVVVV has hidden twenty shiny trinkets across the map. These are the special bonus challenges for the hard core gamers out there. The first fifteen are pretty simple, out-of-your-way items. The last five, though, are seriously tough to find.

Presentation
The soundtrack consists of chiptunes not unlike Anamanaguchi. Magnus Pålsson did a fine job composing some interesting music for the separate areas of the map. Some of them are pretty invigorating and set up for some quality platforming. I’ve never been a huge fan of chiptunes, but even I can get behind this sound track.

The graphics of VVVVVV are purposefully old school. Those of you out there with a retro fetish should be more than happy with how VVVVVV’s lo-fi visuals using color to distinguish between segments of the world. They wanted to keep the look simple because complex visuals would be too distracting from the platforming. Although it’s difficult at times to understand where you are, exactly. The ship and the asteroid that you’re on blend together so you can’t really tell what your surroundings are.

Also, there’s this room with en enormous elephant in it. Not sure what the heck it’s supposed to do. You can’t interact with it. Maybe the developer likes elephants. Maybe Babar made this game.

I read that there is a release of this game for the Nintendo 3DS, as well. I didn’t play that, but I imagine that a 3D version of VVVVVV would be pretty mind-blowing. When I acquire a 3DS, I’ll play it and let you know.

Conclusion
VVVVVV is challenging yet simple. But it wears its simplicity well. Not giving you so much to look at lets you focus on where your little avatar is going. The main game should take you only a few hours to beat. If you’re looking for more challenge, though, there are about five of those special trinkets hidden throughout the game that are especially hard to reach. Plus, there are time trial modes, a one-life mode, inverted mode where everything is upside down, and fan-made maps thought up by gamers including the world-renowned Notch.

This is not a game about gaining new abilities, new equipment, or ranking up. VVVVVV is purely about trial-and-error puzzles and hand-eye-coordination challenges. The rest of the game is stream-lined to simplicity to ensure that nothing stands between you and some wonderful tests of your gaming ability. It’s a little odd that there are no achievements for VVVVVV, though. Regardless, this is a strong indie title with some incredibly satisfying platforming.

4/5
Wild and Crazy

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