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.
A friend on Facebook posted a list of their favourite movies, listed in the year they came out, which I immediately followed up with my own list. There’s only one rule: you must pick your favourite for all of the years that you’ve been alive, and you can only pick one per year. I decided to give it a go for videogames. It’s a lot trickier than you might think! Some years have featured an abundance of incredible titles, whereas other years it’s easy to pick out a clear winner in your mind. So, without further ado, here’s my list of favourite games, one per year since I was born. This was insanely difficult…
Format: PC
Year: 2001 – present day
If Return to Castle Wolfenstein was my first date with PC gaming, Battlefield 1942 was when she invited me to meet her parents, and the relationship went to the next level. My god, did I really just write that analogy?
Beyond: Two Souls is a paranormal action thriller starring Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. You’d be forgiven for assuming it’s a Hollywood film based on that description, but it is in fact the latest game from Quantic Dream, the studio behind the equally cinematic Heavy Rain. It’s tempting to compare the two, but Beyond is a different experience, opting to tell a linear story with fewer choices and consequences. As a big fan of Heavy Rain’s dynamic storytelling approach, I expected to be disappointed but as soon as I started playing I realised what writer and director David Cage was trying to achieve and felt satisfied to go along for the ride. Because what a ride it is…
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