Format: PC
Release date: 2010
VVVVVV is one of the only 2D platform games that I have completed from start to finish, which makes it special to me. I became obsessed with Veni Vidi Vici, an entirely optional sequence of deadly traps that teases you with a collectible orb right in the very first room, which is blocked off by a tiny box. You can’t jump in the traditional way as most other platformer’s, so the only way to overcome the box is by leaping up through the ridiculously cruel chambers above, navigating your way to the top…and then back down again.
Here’s a video of someone completing Veni Vidi Vici. Watch them fail a few times at first, but finally succeed about 1 minute in. You have no idea how good it feels to complete this bastard:
I think it took me over a week to beat it. And because the game worked on Mac, I sneakily played it at my old workplace, when I thought no-one was looking. After hours of repeating the same rooms over and over and over again until my fingers had memorised the precise movements down to a tee, I FINALLY beat that horrendous level and got my orb. I did one of those restrained cheers for joy, desperately trying to hold back an outburst so nobody in the office heard me and realised I wasn’t actually working. Pretty sure Paul knew exactly what had happened though. He was sitting next to me at the time, probably playing Minecraft.
I listen to the soundtrack to VVVVVV quite regularly because it is a fantastic example of chiptune music, mimicking that retro sound but with a contemporary flair. Every tune is just so bloody catchy, and it’s one of only a select few game OST’s that has made it into my mp3 collection of ‘normal’ music. It goes well with the Bastion soundtrack, and both albums helped me to train for my first (and so far, only) half marathon. ‘Pushing Onwards,’ the song from the video above, is a real motivator for going just a little bit further… I have since completed a few other 2D platformers, but I haven’t enjoyed any quite so much as Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV.
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
Doki Doki Literature Club has dug its way into my chest and ripped me apart over the last couple of nights. It’s a free visual novel game where you get to know a bunch of girls in an afterschool book club… except not really. It looks exactly like any other tropey Japanese dating sim type game, but what lurks underneath this cutesy exterior is something really quite sinister and thought-provoking. The game’s tagline does a good job of reminding you that all is not what it seems: “This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.”
Hello, world! This post marks the moment in time and space when BangClickReload got a little redesign and was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Every post before this point is rather old and might not look right, and unless I decide to go through them all to fix them, they’re going to […]
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
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