PixlBit

Reviewing VVVVVV is about as tough as getting your head around its title.  It’s an odd game that sticks out in a crowd.  It’s simple, yet quirky.  It’s hard not to want to pick it up and play it, yet once consumed it becomes difficult to formulate an opinion on.  But that’s precisely my job, to form an opinion and disseminate that to you, the reader.  The review that follows almost mirrors the end experience with VVVVVV – somewhat unstable but worth taking in.

A freak accident has stranded Captain Viridian and his crew in an alternate dimension.  The player assumes the role of the captain and explores the various areas of this odd dimension in search of his scattered crew and a means to return home.  It seems simple enough but as soon as you hit A to jump over your first obstacle you’ll realize that it’s anything but.  That’s because A doesn’t make you jump.  None of the buttons do for that matter, instead it inverts the gravitational field sending you hurtling feet first towards the ceiling.  Another press of the button brings you back down.  It’s about this time that you realize why there are spikes lining not only the floors and walls but the ceiling as well.  Then it dawns on you that you are trapped in a rather hellish dimension that is trying to kill you every chance it gets.

This alternate dimension lends itself to the tired yet accurate term of “Metroidvania” design.  It’s an impressively large world that promotes free form exploration.  The game will occasionally give you hints on where you should go, but it’s not demanding.  Most of the time I would outright ignore all of the clues I had been given and simply press on in whichever direction felt right to me at the time.

As you navigate from one screen to the next you’ll be faced with different environmental hazards, most of which won’t be easily traversed.  There are the previously mentioned ubiquitous spike pits, fixed course enemies, moving platforms and the occasional random projectile.  Simply grazing any of these items results in immediate death which would be much more annoying if checkpoints weren’t nearly as numerous as the instruments of death themselves.  As you start to make some progress you’ll come to the realization that the game doesn’t want you to simply stumble through the world.  It wants to teach you to make your way through each level perfectly – with precision and control.

This being the case it is only natural that you will die.  Quite a bit actually.  VVVVVV uses death as a tool to teach you what works and what doesn’t.  Unfortunately the touchy controls give you the feeling that the game actually wants you to fail.  Simply tapping the directional or slider pad will likely send the captain much farther than you had intended and overshooting nearly always results in death.

There are some control inconsistencies as well, particularly when it comes to an escort mission that comes upon rescuing one of your crew.  Your newly found crew member will only follow when you’re on the ground and does not possess the ability to invert gravity for themselves.  As such you’ll meticulously switch from ground to ceiling, guiding them through the many hazards.  The idea isn’t bad, but since the concept revolves around precise movement it suffers when your crew member isn’t consistent in his movements.  There would be times I would inch away from him and he wouldn’t move and then suddenly he would shoot forward into a spike pit.  It would be one thing if this was regular behavior, but other times the crew member would act in a sane manner and inch along with you.  As a result this particular stage is maddening and will certainly result in more than a few rage quits.

The game is presented in 3D which doesn’t make much sense.  The throwback graphical styling does not lend itself to stereoscopic 3D and only serves to blur the image.  Being originally developed for the PC it stands to reason that the game was not designed with 3D in mind, but I don’t understand why it was even applied to begin with since the game looks and works just fine and is even preferable with the slider all the way down.

VVVVVV is a good game that will have those that pine for days gone by tittering with excitement, but a steep difficulty, control issues and tacked on 3D keep it blasting off to another dimension.  Still, it’s a good addition to the maturing eShop and is worth a look if you have the time.