VVVVVV is an indie action platformer developed by Terry Cavanagh and was released on January 11, 2010. Its core gameplay mechanic, gravity-flipping was inspired by one of his previous games, Sine Wave Ninja.
In the game, you are Captain Viridian, in a pixelized world. Your ship and crew have been separated in a horrible accident, and your goal is to rescue your crew and escape from the space station that you have been stranded on. There is a twist, though. Unlike common platforming games, you can not jump. Instead, you can flip gravity, causing you to fall in the opposite direction. But you can only flip gravity when you are on a solid surface. This mechanic is used extensively in the game and used to move around, and complete puzzles.
This game is a quick-action-paced game. The game revolves around making quick maneuvers with your gravity-flipping ability, cleverly challenged by trampolines, a number of abstract objects (don’t touch them), and optional yet so satisfying “trinkets” that are extremely hard to acquire. This makes VVVVVV the best indie game if you want to have some great casual fun.
Akin to Super Meat Boy, another 2D platformer, the game is very difficult. Some sections, are extremely hard to maneuver around and require perfect coordination of keyboard presses and timing. What VVVVVV does cleverly to prevent this from being detrimental to the game, is by adding quick-save points where you will respawn every time you die. This makes the game less unforgiving, preventing one from having to repeat territory.
The gameplay was madly addicting, except for a frustrating portion here and there. The 8bit music is catchy, the puzzles are entertaining and fast-paced. For the most part, it is a great experience. Savepoints were plentiful that offset this design choice. The graphics were 8bit, which fit the style of the game and provided a nice aesthetic, but the options were lacking and many little things were missing like the ability to lower the volume. The gameplay was top-notch and challenging if a bit repeating at times. The game wasn’t that long too, but it was still good.
Conclusion: Great gameplay if not for some seemingly impossible areas, good aesthetics, good music and it lacked many different settings.