Aided by the simple, charming art style, VVVVVV is ultimately a very inviting game, even when facing you with a twisting passage of death. Most importantly, though, is that nothing here is particularly stressful. Some of the challenges are infamous, such as a multi-screen ascent and descent through a spiked gauntlet just to clear a tiny ankle-high wall. Platforming takes on a whole new dimension here, with ceilings becoming just as important as floors and nominally simple jumps turning into an entire process when you can only flip around the extremes of the problem. And trust me, the game makes incredible use of this dynamic in all of its areas. With no discrete ability to jump, a single-tile obstruction can be a greater obstacle than a yawning laser-filled chasm if there’s no clear way to gravity-flip over it. All you can do is run left, run right, or reverse your own gravity while on solid ground. The platforming is the real star of the show here, because it takes a wonderfully Bionic Commando approach to powerful yet limited mobility. Your crew tends to be tucked away at the ass-ends of each of these areas, and each adds their own little colorful observations about the predicament you find yourself in. From here, tunnels and passageways lead to more discrete sections that present thematic challenges like moving platforms, edge-wrapping mazes, and a particularly harrowing tower ascent. The map is wide open, with a vast Super Metroid-esque landscape sprawling in all directions just outside your ship. There are terminals dotted about that give a little more context to the story beats that happen from time to time, but again, plumbing the depths of this strange space is the real attraction here. VVVVVV has a perfectly serviceable story for the kind of game it is, a framework to hang fantastical platforming and exploration upon. Each new challenge will push him in different and unexpected ways, and ultimately lead to some big revelations about where his ship ended up, and where it’s going. That’ll prove invaluable when facing the twisting corridors and yawning voids of this enigmatic place. Not only does he have a winning smile and a can-do attitude, he can also flip his personal gravity at will. It’s up to him to reunite the team and figure out what the heck happened to the ship, and fortunately, he’s the perfect person to do it. It’s a disaster…IN SPAAAAAACE! Captain Viridian’s ship has crashed in an unknown sector of the universe, and his crew has been scattered by a mysterious disruption.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |