VVVVVV for Vendetta
This year in gaming has been a perplexing one. While last year big-name developers were firing out hits like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Modern Warfare 2, and Plants vs Zombies this year pretty much every mainstream title has been a load of crap. In particular, this year's two biggest Christmas-time sellers, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, have come off as shovelware. It's almost paradoxical that this year's big-name titles like Red Dead Redemption and Halo: Reach can't compete with the likes of LIMBO or Super Meat Boy - for one of the first times, the independent scene is making better games than the mainstream crowd; in previous years, the playing field was laughably even.
One of the first of this year's indie games (and possibly the first sign that the indies were going to whip the mainstream like their little bitches) is VVVVVV, by Terry Cavanagh. I think I can safely compare it to Portal, as in, it's a puzzle/platformer with one, simple mechanic, that is used to brain-melting effect with the devious and minimalistic level design. You play as Captain Viridian, a brave starship captain, and your ship and its crew are sucked into a strange alternate dimension. All the crew go missing, and it is your job to rescue them. Easy. Well, not so easy. While design-wise its closest contemporary is Braid, difficulty-wise I can all but compare it to Super Meat Boy - über-challenging, pure difficulty, with a perfect curve that never gets frustrating. It's no-BS gaming fare. It removes all and any obstacles that might make the game difficult beyond the difficulty itself. It's a very clean, pure design principle, and it helps launch VVVVVV into the realm of "genius," alongside the aforementioned Braid.
