VVVVVV FULL SERIES
It’s also better than just big-time corporate games like Capcom’s Mega Man 9, Konami’s Wii ReBirth series and even Retro Game Challenge / Game Center CX – those games simply offered refined versions of the games of yore, and while they did them very well, it’s still pretty much same old, same old. VVVVVV is lacking the cynicism of other retro-style throwbacks like Battle Kid and I Wanna Be The Guy, who pretty much just existed to remind people how difficult NES games were without really providing anything worth playing outside of irony. Obviously putting all of these next to each other is functionally useless, but it sends a subconscious message to the player – something SO CRAZY is coming up that you’d better well be prepared. The screen before it is called “The Warning” to includes dozen checkpoint markers all placed next to each other. The only really, really difficult is a series of screens that’s likely to cause any length of time is surmount is known as “Veni, Vidi, Vici” section, which is sort of like those sections in Mega Man where you drop down a narrow series of shafts and have to avoid the spikes on the walls…except done over six screens or so, twice, once upside down and once right side up. If this was running by the “three lives, get tossed a few screens back” model in some of these challenges, VVVVVV would be an incredibly difficult game, but as it stands, it’s light and breezy. By making player death so inconsequential, it allows the individual sections to be more challenging, and thereby engaging, than typical platformers. Since they’re practically everywhere, the only penalty for death is losing a few seconds, and your lives are unlimited, although it does keep a running tally of death counts. Checkpoints, denoted by little “C” markings, are remarkably prevalent, usually with at least one – and occasionally more – per screen. There’s even a brief escort-type mission where you need to guide a comrade to safety – he’ll follow you if you’re on the ground but stay put if you’re upside, and while this section is brief, an understanding of the pathfinding mechanics is necessary to get anywhere.ĭeath does come quite often, usually when flinging yourself into a bed of spikes, but it’s really here where VVVVVVworks so fantastically. Another area has tripwires which will automatically flip gravity when you cross it, requiring deft maneuvers to ping-ping yourself between platforms. One stage, dubbed “The Tower”, is one continuous upward auto-scrolling area, similar to stages in Super Mario Bros. Such a simple mechanic is iterated and put to different uses in various video game-type challenges. It does take a little bit of getting used to – the controls are slightly slippery, and since it uses flip screen scrolling, you can’t always see what you’re flying until unless you’ve seen the screen ahead of time. The entirety of VVVVVV is devoted to it, requiring a splendid mastery to progress. But in those games, it was simply a mechanic bolted onto the standard running-and-gunning. Irem’s NES title Metal Storm was even built largely around the same idea. Numerous games have featured similar gravity switching, like Gravity Man stage in Mega Man 5.
A central aspect to remember is that you cannot change gravity in mid-air, and need to hit solid ground before you can flip gravity again.
VVVVVV FULL HOW TO
The first few screens teach you how to use this to avoid a pit of spikes, but the precise movements you need to make quickly grow more complicated.
Your character cannot jump, but instead can switch gravity back and forth at a press of a button. The entire game rests on a single mechanic – the gravity flip. (The names of the crew members – Veridian, Vermilion, Violet, Verdigris, Vitellary and Victoria – is where the game gets its name.) The story puts you in the shows of Captain Viridian, whose spaceship is sucked into some kind of void, leaving himself and his crew stuck in various parts of some strange alternate dimension.
Its look and style heavily channels the Commodore 64, taking the best from its era while avoiding the clumsiness so often apparent on the platform. It exemplifies the level of difficulty found in old-school games, while avoiding the frustrations that come with it. It is eloquent in its simplicity, yet challenging and varied enough to avoid the dreaded “casual” label. VVVVVV is one of the best 2D platformers to arise since the end of the 16-bit era.
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