Review: VVVVVV

Everything about VVVVVV is retro, including its visuals.

During the September of 2010, I downloaded a demo of a retro platformer called VVVVVV.  And I absolutely loved it. However, I soon became very busy, and never ended up buying the game. I had forgotten about it until I saw it as part of the new Humble Bundle (which is over now, sorry if you missed it!). I finally finished it a few days ago.

And I cried for a few minutes because it was perhaps the best platformer I’ve ever played.

VVVVVV is a very simple game. Your goal is to rescue your crew members who have become lost due to an accident on your spaceship. Other than that, the plot of the game is fairly thin.

The gameplay is where VVVVVV shines. Instead of having a basic jump function like most platformers, Captain Veridian (the main character) can flip gravity. It is a simple concept, but that doesn’t make the game easy in any way. In fact, as of right now, I have 1,996 deaths in the campaign alone. Luckily, whenever you die, you respawn at a nearby checkpoint in a mere second, making death relatively painless. This is a good thing, because in some rooms, you are going to have to retry upwards of 20 times to get to the next checkpoint.

You are going to have need great flip timing to get past most rooms.

As you progress through the game, new mechanics are introduced, such as trampoline lines that flip gravity when you hit them, which ramps up the difficulty quite a bit. These twists on the normal flip concept keep things feeling fresh and fun. The game introduces enough of these concepts to never get boring.

VVVVVV looks and sounds retro. The visuals have a certain charm to them, especially the main characters, who are either extremely happy, or very sad. VVVVVV’s chiptune soundtrack is phenomenal, and sometimes the songs were the only things that kept me going in the room that I had died 50 times on already. The game is retro. Either you like it or you don’t.

VVVVVV is a great experience that anyone who even slightly likes platformers (and doesn’t mind old-school graphics) should play. The campaign lasted about 4 hours for me, not counting going back and getting the collectibles. However, it was recently updated with a batch of new levels and a level editor, which should increase the amount of content by a fair amount.

Overall:

Price comparison: $15 at launch – $5 now

Score: 9/10