Gravity Muffins

Well this is an interesting time. I have very little money for new games so I'll be dipping into the PC gaming genre for a good deal of time. First of this list is a new game I discovered called VVVVVV. It's a 2d gravity bending platformer. One of the most frustratingly amazing games I've ever played.

I started out with just a demo of the game, including only two levels and nothing else. Frankly, I only needed one level before I was hooked. The style of the game focuses on the puzzles and tricks you need to solve the puzzles. They use the gravity bending so often it's like it's no big deal, and throughout the game you find different ways to manipulate it to get through challenges.

There -is- a story behind it, and it's a little confusing without finding all of the terminals. You are a captain of a space crew, and your ship is broken, the crew scattered. Due to a dimensional disturbance, the teleporters aren't working quite right, and you have to go out and rescue your crew. So begins your journey.

You start with some pretty basic puzzles to get you used to the gravity bending, and then a few more to get timing down. Then it dumps you into harder puzzle rooms and you have to think and strategize your way out of them. Truth be told, this reminded me a good deal of Portal, without the satirical computer nagging at you the whole game.

Instead, you have shinies. Yes, that is what they are called. The secondary objective of the game is to collect all 20 of the shiny trinkets. This is something I have yet to do because of how utterly frustrating it is. Throughout just simply beating the main objective of the game, I died nearly a thousand times. Quite literally, my death count was nearing 1000. You die more often than you don't. Oddly enough, it doesn't break the flow of the game -too- much and while it is horribly frustrating, it does show you what not to do. Unlimited lives make it easier too.

Checkpoints scattered throughout the game along with teleporters will save your progress and let you start from there when (not if) you die. You can jump around the over-world map with the teleporters and you can fly about through the empty space between levels for fun.

Overall, I think this game is a fantastic break from the normality of mainstream games. Totally worth the $5 it costs on Steam.