How I caught VVVVVV fever. And you should too!

Christmas. The time of year when a large chubby man brings winter cheer to everyone across the world. That's right, you guessed it, Gabe Newell and his lovely winter steam sale.  During this period of madness where every game suddenly becomes drops in price quicker than UK house prices in 2008, I managed to purchase VVVVVV for no more than 0.39p!! I never gave much thought to the Terry Cavanagh creation. I thought of it as nothing more as a "palette cleanser" to the  heavier epics I play after them. (Currently on Batman: Arkham Origins).
    
VVVVVV, unlike previous "palette cleansers" was different. It all starts off simple enough, you control Captain Viridian, whose ship comes into "dimensional interference" which eventually causes the crew to become scattered throughout a dimension, called VVVVVV. The aim, as Captain Viridian is to rescue your team mates and find the source of the dimensional interference.

But then the fever started to take hold. The first stage of infection? Emotion. (This will come as a big shock to other members of BFVG as it was proposed that I would only experience emotions during a certain; erm, act.) Never have so few pixels conveyed so much emotion. The characters only have two emotions, happy and sad, but it was enough for me to care about them. The start of the game with Captain Viridian were as emotional as experiencing the first time Lee and Clementine met in The Walking Dead. 

Feelings

The second stage of the V⁶ fever was something that started off so subliminally, I didn't realise it until I started to mimic it during my morning commute to work. The music. As with all games of this type its seems to be a generic 8 bit sound giving a rose tinted view of the music that was played during the "golden age" era of games.  For me, the music was well chosen and created. It fit perfectly with the game and helped keep me infused with the game, even as I was repeating parts of the game over and over again (Further explanation described on stage 3). The music was created by a band called Souleye and as the fever took hold I quickly purchased the album, hoping it would help me with my symptoms.

Souleye: 8-bit music loveliness

The third stage was something that I rarely want from games but was something that I realise now, I needed. This was the difficulty. As with something that I'm sure is debated a lot with modern games is that they are becoming less and less difficult to complete. In all the words I will use to describe this game, easy will not be one of them. Controlling Captain Viridian is unlike any other platformers I have played.

Getting past this small block will be one of the hardest
challenges you will ever face IN YOUR LIFE!

 Firstly, there are technically only three buttons, and one of them is not "jump". I'm sure there would be someone happy to point out there are other platform games without a jump feature but for me this concept was mind blowing! Instead of jumping you are effectively able to reverse gravity. The other unique point to this game is that the screen does not scroll. So that when the player moves off screen a new screen occurs showing the player has moved essentially into a new "room". Later on there are extra bits which change the game-play which adds extra difficulty.  

The use of both the game mechanic and non-scrolling movement makes this game HARD! But the crazy thing was, I loved it. There were times I thought I would never get past a certain point (especially this bit) but time and time again I managed to improve my skills enough to get past it. I WAS LEARNING!! AND IT WAS FUN! The more and more these challenges came I enjoyed them more and more, wanting the game to give me something more improbable and more ridiculous (If you like super hexagon, you need to try the Super Gravatron). This difficulty was not something I was really looking for but it gave this game an edge over others I would play like Rayman origins or Thomas was alone.

Despite lots of things going on, this game never felt broken

 At this point I was taken. The fever had me in a vice like grip with its gravity flipping, electro beeping genius. Over the last month I had spent well over £50 worth of high class games and the one that took me by storm was something I nonchalantly brought as a last minute throw away play.  One extra thing about this game which stood out for me was the fact that I never came into a game bug or glitch. The game felt so well made it felt like it was made by a large group of developers not from one or two people. The only really thing missing from this game was the lack of gamepad support, however I didn't mind using the keyboard.

This game is infectious with its amazing music, fun game play and lovable chirpy characters. I will always remember Captain Viridian and his crew members bouncing through space like a pinball.
In conclusion, if you think you've got a cold or virus coming on, catch this bug instead!! VVVVVV!!    

Quite possibly the most metal band ever!