A nice game to play on a rainy day. It's technically a rouge-like, but the only randomization that takes place is in the layout of the very small world map, and from what I've seen it doesn't really make too much of a difference. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, the game is pretty simple and easy to pick up, with great aesthetics and satisfying, condensed controls.
It's pretty fun for the first couple of runs while the game's still fresh, but after a while the lack of content and variety starts to show. There's not much variation for how each individual run pans out and each run starts to feel formulaic. This would be fine if the runs weren't as long as they are. When you're not making interesting and different decisions each run, they start to become a slog.
Overall this is not a bad game at all, it's got plenty of things going for it such as its visuals and great beginning time. If you pick it up and jive with the concept, I'd consider buying one of the paid sequels to this, they're much more refined substantive compared to this game.

I picked up this game since I was without my gaming computer and needed something small I could run on my 2014 Macbook Air, and VVVVVV delivered. It's a short and sweet platforming romp that's apparently a classic in the indie platforming genre, and I can see why. Music is surprisingly good with crunchy and bumpin' chiptune beats, and is something I could see myself listing to from time to time. This game doesn't tout itself as a graphical powerhouse, it goes for a really retro style comprised almost exclusively with bright neon colors, though I never found it to be overwhelming. It's the type of retro platformer that has unique names for every screen that isn't the overworld if you're familiar with the type.
Gameplay feels good with the main gimmick, being your gravity flip, and I never missed having a jump button. Navigation is built around your ability so its never challenging to get around, and the game does some really cool things with your ability such as infinitely looping rooms, "gravitron lines", and more. It gave me plenty of those satisfying highs you get when you pull off crazy platforming tricks, my favorites being the scrolling levels where you had to think quickly off the seat of your pants or risk getting spiked. When it comes to negatives, my only complaint is that I sometimes got annoyed by how conservative the deceleration was when you released your input. It led to me sliding off the edge plenty of times, but other than that there's not much to complain about. There aren't too many platforming gimmicks compared to most other games of the genre, but it fits well with the game's length as you can beat this game in about 2 hours if you're experienced with the genre. However if the game really clicks with you, it's got plenty of optional side content such as collectibles, time trials, and custom levels, not to mention a bevy of speedrunning options for the iron willed (there's an option to reintroduce ALL the glitches from the original release for speedrunners in the modern version, how crazy is that?).
Overall, if you're looking for a small, espresso shot's worth of platforming goodness, pick this up and give it a go.

Played through this game over the course of a couple months, and I had a good time with it. While the movement and platforming are fun, I feel the setting and atmosphere are the highlights of this game. The environments and views of this game are a feast for the eyes, with everything draped in this wonderful neon cell shading which really sells the feeling of otherworldliness to the setting. It'll even burst into these explosions of color when completing something substantial, and it really adds impact and emotion to the experience.

The story was also pretty engaging. A lot of the optional content in this game is story focused, and I enjoyed learning about the stories of different people who lived in this area. Sometimes I enjoyed this side content even more than the main content, and it felt satisfying completing the stories of some of these side characters.

However when it came to the actual gameplay, I honestly felt a bit underwhelmed. To it's core, it's a game about momentum platforming with light puzzle aspects. There is combat, but it's surface level to the point where enemies feel not dissimilar to the variety of environmental hazards. The movement is pretty fun though, you can hold a button to initiate a skate and press another for a quick boost. Everything from the main objectives and bosses are essentially movement puzzles, where you have to complete mini platforming time trials to progress. There is some variety to these, but personally they weren't too engaging. For the most part they felt pretty easy, and I was playing on hard. The biggest issue for me was it's use in the bosses. While the bosses had super cool designs and all looked very unique, actually fighting the bosses felt very samey. They "attack", give you the opportunity to hop on, complete a time trial, rinse and repeat x3. I felt that the only difference between them was how you actually got onto the bosses, but it was always super apparent and quite easy to do so. I found myself fighting the bosses less because I enjoyed it and morseso to simply unlock the next area.

All things considered, I had a good time. It took me about 10 hours to complete this game, and I achieved 100%, so it'd probably take an hour or so less if you weren't going for that. While I had my gripes about the core gameplay loop, actually playing the game every couple of weeks was quite relaxing, and the ending was shockingly awesome. I recommend the game if you can get it at a decent discount.

I wanted to play through this game, along with the rest of the Half Life franchise, before I played Half Life Alyx. I've heard great things from every game in the series, but I wasn't expecting much from the first game. The graphics looked pretty dated from the few screenshots that I've seen, and I don't normally expect much from the first game in series this old. It felt great to be wrong.
Half Life is a gaming classic, one which has aged surprisingly well over the years. It still feels great to play, with satisfying movement and good gunplay, along with rather interesting locals, from the crumbling command center of the black mesa labs to the red mountains of New Mexico. The game manages to keep things mostly fresh with good pacing and steady supply of new enemies and weapons, though the final area of the game falls flat on this in my opinion. Regardless, its merits are still impressive for being one of the progenitors of the 3D FPS. With being such a great introduction to the Half Life franchise, and a fascinating look into gaming history, there's no reason to pass this up.

OneShot is a very powerful experience. It's one of those games best played blind, and it's hard to describe without betraying that. The closest game I can compare this to is Undertale, similar in presentation and atmosphere in some cases (they're also both RPG Maker games). It'll make sense when you play it. It does things you'd never expect, and has a very strong mood you get while playing, from the tone and characters. If you don't want to pay for the new version (which is definitely the definitive experience), the original is free, and in a way a much closer version to the original vision.