![]() However what is said in VVVVVV is just as important as what isn’t said, or more significantly: what isn’t directly described.Īs mentioned, the crew of this starship become lost in varying corners of these dimensions where physics don’t follow any kind of normality, or even consistency. ![]() Curiously, each room or screen in the game is also named another tenet from games of the past. This is exactly how VVVVVV describes its world, though, through old fashioned text boxes when characters interact with each other. I wouldn’t say something so audacious if I’d never experienced meeting such people myself. Voice acting, facial mapping, detailed character animations have all become the norm and coming across a game where you actually have to read the dialogue yourself may come as a shock to some people. Modern gamers, or more appropriately those who exclusively play current gen and/or last gen titles, are accustomed to expository sequences which play out like scenes in feature films. Beside the retro-themed visuals, this should be the most apparent limitation for anyone even remotely familiar with the games of the 80’s. Simple limitations, unrelenting difficulty, antiquated graphics, and next there’s storytelling. Later in the game, the adherence to C64 aesthetics allows for some bizarre and beautiful environments. However, with its context of weird interdimensional travel, it seemed to me as if the antiquated graphics described the totality of this strange multiverse, rather than merely giving an impression of it. There’s a boundary of tolerance there, and I expect that that line may be drawn closer to home depending on how frequently one plays retro or retro-styled games, or how far back in time one is willing to go. VVVVVV models itself after what I originally thought to be Atari 2600 graphics, though I later discovered that the intention was to emulate the appearance of games from the Commodore 64.Įven for a classics gamer like myself, the C64 was before my time and I barely have any experience playing with one so in that regard the imagery of VVVVVV seems foreign, alien, and at first glance off-putting. ![]() This is a tough game which can border on frustrating but it relies on an exploratory lust and brevity of gameplay sessions and goals in order to keep the player invested.įurther, the graphics are interesting in their choice of era to adapt, since most retro-styled games seem to choose either an 8-bit NES or a 16-bit SNES/Genesis appearance. This makes VVVVVV a trial and error sort of game, which certainly will test the limits of tolerance, specifically the patience, of players. If you impale yourself on spikes or find yourself crushed by flying metaphysical words like “Truth” and “Yes”, you’ll be able to instantly respawn nearby. Dangers are so frequent that checkpoints are placed in nearly every room. These limitations afford challenging and unique level design, falling upward or downward to overcome obstacles and hazards, which are numerous. Viridian travels along the ground or he can flip himself upside down to travel along the ceiling. There are no guns, no power ups, no extra lives, or anything of that sort. This anti-grav movement is the core mechanic. Viridian navigates his environment through the manipulation of gravity. As a 2D puzzle platformer, the game is unique in that there’s no jump function. VVVVVV is the best kind of puzzle video game where the rules are inherently simple but the stage design grows more complex. Six characters whose names each begin with V… “VVVVVV”? Captain Viridian must hunt down each member of his crew and discover the source of the interference in order to get their ship functioning again and escape dimension VVVVVV. When the crew’s vessel is assaulted by dimensional interference, they abandon ship via teleporter but quickly find themselves separated and lost in space. “Vee vee vee vee vee”? Just a humming V noise? However you pronounce the title of this indie by Terry Cavanagh, his first commercial game, VVVVVV is about a group of spacefaring stick figures led by Captain Viridian (the player character). So here’s what I mean by limits and tolerance. To dissipate any suspicions you may have after that last sentence: I really enjoyed this game. VVVVVV represents to me an exploration of the limits of the general populace’s tolerance levels in video games. (Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.) “Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica verita.”
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