VVVVVV Message Board older than one year ago

Carrie Gouskos has been following Giant Bomb for nearly 23 years. When she's not disagreeing with Jeff's opinion on just about everything, she's working as a producer at BioWare Mythic on the upcoming free-to-play title Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes. She's also recently taken up crocheting during video game cutscenes, and has made to date, one very uneven scarf.

As a game developer, looking after live games in particular, it sometimes takes more than a year to get to the games I want to play. So it's usually about halfway through the next year, I find myself regretting not to have added one title or another to my previous year's Top 10 list. Which is why I want to give an honorable mention to VVVVVV, which would have made my list if I'd actually played it in 2010.

Another Honorable Mention goes to Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I can't in good conscience slot in my Top 10, given that it's made by a number of extremely talented people at my employer. That being said, I can't neglect to mention what a tremendous achievement it is and how proud I am of the team that made it.

Gears 3 doesn't take any huge steps forward - but in a year jam packed full of sequels to games that did (and then failed to live up to those standards) - Gears is a great example of how not to break a winning formula.

It's the best thing about Burnout plus the best thing about a slot machine plus 10 second clips of the world's catchiest 80's and 90's jingles. There were plenty of other games coming out around the same time... but I just couldn't stop playing Burnout Crash. Doc-doc-doc-doc-doctor beat!

Gameplay is not the reason to play To the Moon, in fact, it often feels like a barebones device to push you through the story. But oh man what a story...

Is it me or is it a little misty in here?

I'm sort of horrified to have Battlefield on this list and not Call of Duty. I have long been a CoD player and never gotten into any of the Battlefield games. But this year's Battlefield is a tour de force - not only does it have all the elements that make it uniquely Battlefield (vehicles, destructible environments, giant maps), but it may have just one-upped The Duty as the game in which I like to be called a newb by 15-year-old boys the most.

The only reason Dungeon Raid is not in the top three is that I believe it technically came out late in 2010. But Dungeon Raid feels like a 2011 game, as suddenly, after some critical patches in the beginning of this year, everybody was playing it. And not only is it one of the best games of 2011 (or 2010), but it's probably one of the best games ever released on the iOS. Never has there been so much legitimate gameplay in a Match 3 before.

Despite having a particular affinity for the crew at SuperGiant Games - I don't feel any display of bias including Bastion on this list. It has wonderful story, art, music, and gameplay. And where many indie games get "forgiven" to fall short in one or more of those departments - Bastion raises the bar in all of them. Not only do the "little guys" have a new standard, but so do the big guys too.

One of the best things about Atlus's games is how daring they are. Catherine may not be the best testament to healthy relationships - but it certainly is the most interesting combination of story driven morality choices, puzzle solving, and sheep nightmares. This is not a game you've ever played before, or ever will again - and while that might feel like a shame, it's a big part of what makes it so wonderful.

Arkham Asylum was nearly perfect, so it was hard to imagine how Arkham City was going to meet those expectations. In order to do it, however, they gave us what we didn't realize we wanted - the ability to freely roam through Gotham City. Sure, there are more Batman villains, and more Waynetech upgrades, but most of all - you're able to glide as Batman all over Gotham City. Videogame fantasy wish fulfillment at its finest.

No game this year had a higher bar to meet than Uncharted 3. And while there were times where it felt like it was meeting that bar in spite of itself (the combat felt particularly frustrating this time around), you still find yourself on this incredible and epic journey that is unmistakenly Uncharted. From the moments of riveting, breath-catching wonder, to the beautiful character interaction and storytelling - Uncharted 3 is wonderful as both a game and an experience.

It's hard to imagine a game adding to and then improving upon the original Portal, but Portal 2 does it. In particular, it shines in the co-operative gameplay mode, as nuanced as the single-player in its humor and charm - and one of the finest co-operative gameplay experiences there is. Partners in science!

Him: silent, stoic, patient. “OK.”Me: jabbering, confused, hectoring. “Go there, what about that, does that look like that?”

A right pair, Jim and I. Entirely inappropriate, surely, to tackle a co-operative puzzle and exploration game together. We did it, though. We conquered At A Distance‘s abstract shape-worlds, and we did it together. And creator Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV) only had to give us big, fat hints around half a dozen times. Perhaps he was inwardlythinking “these feckless jokers run a website about videogames?”, but outwardly he was patient and understanding, so I’ll presume we weren’t quite the most pathetic pair he saw tackle his brain-teasing wonder.

Right: here’s the main problem with writing about At A Distance. You say how it works, you spoil it. I’m going to take a cowardly middle-ground and obliquely reference key elements without actually shining a direct light on them (and certainly not on how to solve the game), but if you want to go in totally blind to this 30 minute-long co-op indie game that requires two adjacent PCs to play it, stop reading now.(more…)

Few games have given me the same sadistic pleasure as VVVVVV. Whenever I'm confused as to why people are so into games like Dark Souls, I remember how much pain I've put myself through playing and beating games like VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy and Bit.Trip Runner.

Within that context, it all makes sense.

If you never played VVVVVV on a Mac or PC, Nicalis is about to give you a new option: 3DS.

VVVVVV, which has players shifting gravity back and forth while navigating a world of very mean spikes, is coming to 3DS via the eShop, complete with new levels and the promise of "future updates."

VVVVVV is currently slated for a 3DS debut in "late 2011."

I can't wait to hate myself all over again.

We all loved Terry Cavanagh’s wonderful VVVVVV last year, didn’t we? Well I certainly did, that Kieron bloke did, and a straw poll of my hands unanimously voted in favour it. Universal approval if ever I saw it. Fantastic news: Terry has joined up with programmer Simon Roth to push out a major update to VVVVVV. Here’s the what’s new in VVVVVVersion 2.0: (more…)

VVVVVV, last year’s absolutely stellar indie platformer, had some similarly brilliant music. Take a listen to this. Complex, organic, emotive- if that’s not perfection in a pseudo chiptune, I don’t know what is. The artist behind those tracks, Magnus Pålsson (aka Souleye), released them last year in an album called PPPPPP.

What this post is about is that Pålsson’s just released PPPPPPowerup!, an album made up of VVVVVV tracks (and some extras) arranged by eighteen different musicians (including Super Meat Boy composer Danny Baranowsky). “Arranged” is musician for “using real instruments, for instance a guitar or a bassoon or something”. PPPPPPowerup! will set you back $10 (plus shipping if you want a physical copy), and you can listen to a teaser below. All this comes courtesy of the Indiegames blog, who have a fat interview with Souleye here. (more…)