VVVVVV has faded into the background somewhat despite its positive critical reception upon launch, and that's a shame: I think more developers should take notes, as it succeeds at appealing to both casual and competitive audiences. From a casual viewpoint, VVVVVV takes a classic deconstructed concept ("what if we removed jumping in 2D platforming?") and expands upon this in meaningful ways with little downtime. I've often complained about the lack of tech-skill in 2D platformers, but VVVVVV remains a key exception because it's simple to pick up (just gravity flip and walking as controls) yet difficult to master due to its weightiness. Additionally, it never feels stale with its utilization of gravity flipping by innovating upon this with classic obstacle escalation, introducing flippers, screen wrapping, teleporters, and auto-scrolling in respective levels as just a few married mechanics. On the other hand, from a competitive viewpoint, VVVVVV presents itself as an almost perfect beginner's speedrunning game thanks to the general lack of RNG; all rooms begin from the same state once entered, following the same pattern every time. Upon exiting, the rooms will always reset to that exact same state playing the same pattern, meaning that timing cycles don't have to be accounted for on a broader scale and players can just focus on correctly routing the first time around. Due to the simplified routing and committal movement (since you can't flip mid-air and have very restrained control over aerial drift), players must both react quickly enough to meet single room cycles and carefully plan out input timings. It certainly helps that a solid speedrun takes less than an hour and individual sectors can be practiced as "challenges" added in a recent update.

Notice how I said "general lack of RNG" however, because this is where VVVVVV throws a wrench into the works. One of the game's twists is that upon rescuing three crewmates (i.e. clearing 3 of the 4 main sectors), the player is thrown into a 2nd intermission dubbed "The Gravitron," an arcade-like section that bounces the player between two flippers as they must dodge incoming projectiles without any vertical control. This particular intermission is the only case of RNG (in the form of randomized projectile waves) throughout the game, and unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise completely consistent speedrunning experience. As an endless arcade sidemode that can be unlocked via collecting every trinket, I think it fulfills this role as a reward well, but when considering it from a deathless run perspective, it is an absolute killer in the middle of the run that cannot be easily planned for. Outside of this complaint though, I find very few things that I can fault VVVVVV for. The game's simple visuals are bright and catchy, it's got a great sense of humor with its room names and stylized pixel hazards, and the soundtrack goes harder than it has any right to: Pressure Cooker and Potential for Anything never fail to blow me away with their energetic melodies. This is an easy recommendation for anyone looking to get into speedrunning platformers despite the need to heavily practice for the Gravitron, and it's an even easier recommendation for general players looking to understand how indies can thoroughly yet succinctly explore creative yet familiar concepts in a cohesive package.

Short but pleseant and fun experience. In this game the main gimmick is gravity, go up, go down it's the same.

It's almost like a puzzle game. The whole level design is around this mechanic, and it exploits it wonderfully. Again, it doesn't take more than 2 buttons (the directionals and the map) to enjoy this game so it's easy to pick up but hard to master.

This game was made by only one dude: Terry Cavanagh, same dude that made Super Hexagon; a very similar looking game. So you could say it's the most indie game ever, released in 2010 no less.

I've been on a short game kick lately and since this game was so cheap and has interested me for the longest time I decided to pick it up, and let me just say that was money well spent. I've never seen a game that's so short and yet packed with so many cool gameplay ideas, it's genuinely insane how inventive this game is. Difficulty wise the game is no joke either, the movement is very similar to Super Meat Boy in that it's really fast and slippery and it forces you to be precise in all that you do, and yet because you respawn instantly and there's checkpoints everywhere it ensures that the difficulty is in fact fair and that you're actually learning what you're supposed to do to pass each obstacle rather than throwing yourself at something over and over again and wasting your time. In terms of story there's not a lot going on but that's not a big deal at all because the unique gameplay is what's supposed to be front and center here. The artstyle is really neat, mimicking an Atari 2600 game is not an artstyle I ever expected to see but it's fairly charming and fits the gameplay really well, that being said however I'm not a big fan of the chiptune soundtrack that accompanies this artstyle and I kinda just unplugged my speakers and listened to something else for the duration of the game. I think the only genuine complaint I have about this game are the escort missions that come after rescuing a few of the scattered crewmates, they're the only thing in the game that really tried my patience and that I found myself getting frustrated at, but like everything else in the game they were pretty short and over with before I had time to get too angry while playing them. Overall, VVVVVV is a really short and sweet game that I'd recommend to anyone with ten bucks and around two hours to kill and is just the kind of original idea that I'd like to see more of in gaming.

VVVVVV has been in my backlog for a long time & finally decided to sit down & play it. I had heard good things throughout the years about the game & for 95% of the experience I'd say it lives up to that hype. The gravity shifting & later introduced mechanics are well executed. The soundtrack is stellar throughout. Its admittedly a moderately difficult game, but checkpoints are well placed enough that it doesn't feel cheap/too stressful.

There's 1 section I don't think it does well though... That being the mandatory escort mission midway through the game. It's a brief section (no longer than like 10 minutes if you make very few errors) but in that I found the CPU movement so inconsistent to control I actually looked up how long the section was & would probably have shelved the game if it had been longer than 15 minutes, but decided to power through realizing it wasn't going to drag much further.

I'm happy I stuck through, because this is a really solid and enjoyable platformer with some great ideas. But definitely would warn people about that section beforehand. Nevertheless, it's still a very strong recommendation for anybody who enjoy platforming games & want to play something challenging - but still feeling fair throughout

"The very best videogames in existence leave you with a whole mess of memories that are so varied and entertaining that you can leaf through them like a photo album. VVVVVV is one of those games" - Quintin Smith

I agree wholeheartedly, and this idea has changed the way I think about games, and how I reflect on them.

VVVVVV is a special kind of game! Thanks Terry, thanks Souleye, thanks Bennett, and thanks Quinns!

Veredito: Curto, criativo e divertido.

Provavelmente é modelo pra vários gamedevs aí. É um jogo amador, e falo isso como um puta elogio: o carinho por videogames tá em cada detalhe dele. A prioridade não é "parecer sério e profissional", ele é sério e profissional e não precisa provar isso. Porque a prioridade é ser legal de jogar e ponto.

Sempre teve jogo que faz muito com bem pouco, mas VVVVVV sempre vai vir na cabeça quando eu pensar nisso. O gráfico é o mais simplista possível, a música é um chiptune provavelmente feita no Game Boy ou Nintendinho e, agora que o jogo virou código aberto ano passado, reza a lenda que esse código é uma bagunça escrita por um cara que claramente não era programador.

Nada disso impede VVVVVV de ser do caralho. Dá pra zerar em pouco mais de uma hora, é extremamente rejogável, e diverte tanto que chega a ser estranho. Não passa de um plataforma 2D, com uns 5 ou 6 personagens pra resgatar no final de fases mais ou menos difíceis espalhadas num mundinho explorável, e com uns conteúdos extras legais. É só isso. Pega a mecânica de inverter gravidade, que o nome VVVVVV já joga na cara, e suga tudo o que tinha pra sugar dessa mecânica.

A pergunta "E se fizessem um jogo de plataforma sem pulo?" nunca foi tão maneira.

Shifting gravity is not an uncommon idea in platformers nowadays, but I have never seen it explored as thoroughly as in VVVVVV. Every screen builds on and twists the mechanics with such genius and unpredictability that it's impossible to get bored. The difficulty is high, but made manageable by abundant checkpoints and the platforming being centered around creativity instead of precision. My only nitpick is that there were a few times I was lured into activating a checkpoint that was placed after a trinket, with no easy way to backtrack. This meant I would have to return later and redo some of the platforming to collect it. I don't agree that the game is too short. There's no filler and plenty of replay value with the trinket collecting, time trials, secret achievements, flip and no death modes, and level editor.

When indie platformers are brought up, Shovel Knight and Celeste receive the most attention. VVVVVV should be part of that discussion. It's a perfect example of how a platformer focused on a single mechanic can still surprise players in unexpected ways. I'm shocked indie devs don't do this more often since designing several dozen unique mechanics is not only very demanding, but it also invites comparisons to games that often do it better, like Mario 3 and Yoshi's Island.

A charming and devilishly simple but challenging puzzle platformer by Terry Cavanagh (Dicey Dungeons, Super Hexagon).

You can move left and right but instead of jumping you flip gravity, a simple mechanic but explored in a variety of interesting ways to its fullest extent across the different areas of the game. The puzzles begin simple and grow increasingly complex as you have to deal with auto-scrolling, looping, and even making journeys across multiple screens and back again. There's a surprising amount of variety and challenge that comes from such a simple singular mechanic.

The art may be simplified and the story just an excuse to stitch the puzzles together, but the music is absolutely the highlight here next to gameplay. Every song by Magnus Palsson is a chiptune classic that makes spending time in each area a head bopping pleasure.

While not very long VVVVVV is more minimalist than minimal. It makes the most of what it has to offer and doesn't pretend to be anything more. It doesn't convolute it's design with unnecessary systems, it has some collectibles for challenges, explores its one mechanic in interesting ways, and doesn't outstay it's welcome. For the crazy low price now it's a steal and a guaranteed fun 2 hours of gameplay for those who like platformers.