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Nintendo pulls a 3DS game to fight another homebrew exploit
Nintendo's cat-and-mouse game with homebrew exploits isn't over yet. The gaming giant recently pulled Terry Cavanagh's retro platformer VVVVVV from the 3DS eShop after Shiny Quagsire discovered a way to use the game to run your own code. It's not a direct method, as you need another exploit for this to work (such as in the browser or another game), but that apparently doesn't matter to Nintendo.
VVVVVV is still vvvvvvery difficult on iOS
Are you looking for a game that will challenge you? No? How about a game that will frustrate you? Still not interested? How about a game that will, at times, make you wish you could snap your iPhone in half, cover it in gasoline, melt it into a puddle, then scoop up the remains and throw it into a river? Aha! Well then, VVVVVV is exactly what you've been waiting for. VVVVVV is an indie platform title that was originally released for PC way back in 2010. It quickly gained a reputation for being sadistically difficult thanks to its gravity-switching mechanic and wealth of murderous spikes that litter the game world. Simply navigating from one side of the screen to the other can be a serious challenge, and that's with the physical buttons of a keyboard at your disposal. You can imagine the challenge when you add a touchscreen to the mix. You play as Captain Viridian, a static stick-figure-like character that slides across the screen in search of his spaceship crew after a horrible accident that has landed him in an alternate dimension. As Viridian, you'll navigate a massive, confusing world filled with traps, disappearing platforms, and huge open voids. Instead of jumping, you have the ability to reverse gravity, causing your character to fly upwards and land on whatever happens to be above you. Oftentimes you'll land on spikes that you didn't see coming, but luckily you're given the ability to restart at various checkpoints indefinitely. You might think that endless lives makes the game a bit easier, but you'd be wrong. The controls of the iOS version are a bit more sketchy than that of its PC counterparts. Your movement is dependent on sliding your finger left or right, which can often lead to overshooting your destination and, as usual, dying on a bed of spikes. But as frustrating as it is, the journey to find your missing friends is still a blast, and the Commodore 64-inspired graphics look great on the iPhone and iPad. The retro soundtrack, humorous text dialogue, and instant respawns after your death make the game extremely addictive, and although you may have an urge to destroy your device from time to time, besting a difficult sequence offers a feeling of accomplishment that few games can match. The game is US$2.99, and you'll get more than your money's worth out of the lengthy adventure. Simply put, it's a brutal, sinister, unforgiving game that still somehow finds a way to make you smile.
This is VVVVVV on iPad, dev says mobile, Vita ports imminent
Gravity-twisting platformer VVVVVV should arrive on iOS and Android soon, after creator Terry Cavanagh said the mobile ports are "ready to submit any day now." According to Cavanagh, the Nicalis-developed Vita port is "imminent" too. Aside from its roaring chiptune soundtrack, VVVVVV is known for its challenging, twitchy platforming. Players have to move quickly while flipping the direction of gravity if they hope to navigate its mazey landscapes. It sounds like a tough thing to translate well to touchscreens, but Cavanagh reckons he's done just that. The Super Hexagon creator admitted gamepad controls are always going to be better for the kind of game VVVVVV is, but he added the swipe-and-hold controls he's implemented "are feeling really nice." Cavanagh posted a video of him navigating one of the game's hardest sequences on iPad, but don't be fooled into thinking you'll find it just as easy. The man is a beast at his own games, even relative to most devs; watch him play Super Hexagon if you don't believe us. [Image: Terry Cavanagh]
VVVVVV sets a course for PS Vita, iOS, Android and Ouya
Indie puzzle platformer VVVVVV will launch on PS Vita, iOS, Android and Ouya this year, creator Terry Cavanagh has announced. VVVVVV follows Captain Viridian, lost in arguably the most dangerous alternate dimension ever conceived, as he searches for his missing crew. In a blog post welcoming in the new year, Cavanagh reveals he's had "an incomplete iOS version of the game working for over a year now," but that other projects got in the way of him finishing it up. He spent time trying to wrap up the iOS port over the holidays, however, and adds he'd "really like to get that out soon, though." The PS Vita port has been in development at Nicalis since last year and is based on the 3DS version of VVVVVVV. Cavanagh says the ports "will very likely be the last thing I ever do with VVVVVV."
VVVVVV, Escape Goat star in GOG.com's 5 for $5 indie game sale
Taking a cue from the roast beef artisans at Arby's, Good Old Games is offering a 5 for $5 sale on a collection of indie games recently added to the storefront's online catalog. GOG's Super 5 Promo includes Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV, Smudged Cat Games' Adventures of Shuggy and Gateways, MagicalTimeBean's Escape Goat, and Size Five Games' adventure game combo Time, Gentlemen Please! + Ben There, Dan That! Purchased together, all featured games are priced at 99 cents each. Buyers can also mix-and-match the bundle at a discounted rate, or individual games can be purchased separately for $1.99 each. Seasoned curly fries are not included.
Super Hexagon creator unveils free browser-based puzzler Naya's Quest
Terry Cavanagh recently released a new flash-based game, Naya's Quest. The enjoyable little adventure game has players traversing through an abandoned town to "the edge," an isometric world full of puzzling rooms. The attractive, challenging platformer also has a catchy soundtrack, which Cavanagh created and released on BandCamp. Cavanagh is best known for crafting VVVVVV and Super Hexagon. Naya's Quest is one of six free games listed on Cavanagh's site, and one that you should probably spend time with right now.
VVVVVV heading to VVVVVVita
Terry Cavanagh's challenging platformer VVVVVV is heading to PlayStation Vita, Sony announced during its PlayStation Indie Arcade event at PAX Prime. VVVVVV first launched on PC in January 2010, then showed up on the 3DS eShop in December 2011. No release date was given for the Vita version of the gravity-flipping, chiptune-infested game.
Unfinished Business: Super Hexagon creator reveals his abandonware
This Vine represents eight of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon creator Terry Cavanagh's unfinished projects – the first of three like it recently posted to the game designer's Twitter account. There's a hell of a lot of information contained within those flashing, garbled clips, but thankfully Cavanagh was willing to take our hand and guide us through each and every incomplete game he posted. Some represent ideas still to come, while others serve as bittersweet reminders of projects that will likely never see the light of day.%Gallery-187182%
Indie Spring Sale bounces onto Steam
From now through March 29, Steam will be hosting a cavalcade of discounted indie games, both old standbys and newcomers alike, as part of its Indie Spring Sale. The list of discounted games (just click on "Specials") is as long as it is jam packed with great deals.For instance, 25 percent off of Kentucky Route Zero is something you can have in your life right now, as is the opportunity to buy To The Moon, Home or Jamestown for less than $5 each. Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, Super Hexagon, Proteus, Retro City Rampage, VVVVVV; the list of discounted greatness goes on and on. There's even quite a few options for you Linux gamers out there, so apologize to your wallet and start restocking your gaming retirement fund.
PSA: VVVVVV now flipping around Linux via Steam
Terry Cavanagh's reorientation-oriented platformer VVVVVV is now available on Linux by way of Steam, Cavanagh announced earlier today. The port requires Ubuntu version 12.04 LTS (aka "Precise Pangolin") running on a machine only slightly more advanced than a George Foreman grill, so chances are good that your box can handle it.Cavanagh recently revealed that testing has begun on an iOS version of VVVVVV, though its release shouldn't be expected anytime soon. Meanwhile, our desperate pleas to have Xbox 360 controller support patched into the PC version of the game have thus far gone unanswered. Sources familiar with our deepest desires inform us that we'd be prepared to offer Cavanagh upwards of five dollars and a sizable baguette in exchange for this functionality.
Terry Cavanagh testing VVVVVV on iPhone, not launching anytime soon
The iOS port of Terry Cavanagh's flipping-centric platformer VVVVVV is running,undergoing testing by the man himself, though that shouldn't be taken as evidence of its impending release.Cavanagh revealed via Twitter that while the game technically works, at least well enough to get two thirds of the way through without dying (above), the controls are only "acceptable" and the game won't be available to the public "for AGES." Real buttons are always the preferred control mechanism, Cavanagh added, but that he's hoping to "make it good enough to play."
Cavanagh's Don't Look Back now on iOS & Android, VVVVVV may follow
Terry Cavanagh is considering bringing VVVVVV to iOS and Android, after releasing his short 2009 game Don't Look Back for free on the App Store and Google Play today. The Super Hexagon creator posted on his blog revealing he saw the Don't Look Back port as a "trial run" for VVVVVV. While Cavanagh isn't promising an iOS and Android port, it's certainly a distinct possibility. Although Cavanagh tells Joystiq "it may not happen this year." So don't go pinning all your hopes on finding the iPad version of VVVVVV under your Christmas tree (especially since it'll be digital and your tree's probably physical).Cavanagh's chiptune-stuffed 2D platformer arrived on PC back in 2010, and then made the jump to 3DS last year. It didn't, however, use the console's touch screen controls. This may explain why Cavanagh wanted to try porting Don't Look Back first, a 2D platformer which he gave on-screen buttons to on iOS. As Cavanagh puts it, it's a "pretty simple port" of a game which is a bit rough around the edges. It's unlikely to be indicative of how VVVVVV would run on iOS, especially given how sado-nefariously intricate Super Hexagon is.
Steam Summer Sale, Day 9: Dungeon Defenders, Crysis 2, Civ 5 and more
Well, we're more than a week into the Steam Summer Sale and there's still no end in sight. No end to the savings, that is! (Can you tell we used to write copy for a local used car dealership?)Today's deep discounts include Dungeon Defenders, Fear 3, Magicka and Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad GOTYE, all for less than five smackers each, and Civilization 5, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Crysis 2 and Driver: San Fancisco for less than a tenner. Today's indie bundle is also no slouch, touting the now-classic VVVVVV, as well as the ballistically brilliant Jamestown.
NintendoWare Weekly: Bomb Monkey, Marvel Pinball, VVVVVV sale
This is not just a great week for the 3DS eShop, but it's an important one. Last weekend, Nintendo discounted Super Mario Land temporarily; this weekend's sale on VVVVVV proves that these limited-time discounts are an actual thing. For a digital Nintendo platform, two sales is a giant leap forward.That discount is joined by a demo for Rhythm Thief, which appears to actually be coming out, and interesting new eShop games Bomb Monkey and Marvel Pinball 3D. It's not so great for the Wii this week, with absolutely no releases of any kind on the Wii Shop, but it can't all be good news.
'PPPPPP: The VVVVVV Soundtrack' and 'Pac-Man Fever' featured in Indie All-Stars Bundle
You can't swing a dead cat these days without hitting an independent gaming bundle of some kind – hell, even EA has one now. You can, however, swing a dead cat without hitting someone attempting to champion the independent music scene, especially in gaming's neck of the woods.The Indie All-Stars Bundle seeks to correct that by offering a collection of 10 albums for sale under the pay-what-you-want-and-donate-to-charity pricing model used by countless indie gaming bundles. Granted, not every album in the bundle is directly video game related, but it does include Magnus Pålsson's phenomenal soundtrack to VVVVVV, as well as Buckner & Garcia's somehow still ironically iconic Pac-Man Fever.Charity donations benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Like usual with these kinds of things, all purchases that beat the average sale price will also include five bonus EPs.
VVVVVV hits European eShop on May 10
Terry Cavanagh's 2D excursion into the world of gravity control and chiptune excellence, VVVVVV, finally has a release date for its long-belated debut on the European eShop: May 10. The announcement comes to us via Twitter, where publisher Nicalis revealed that VVVVVV has passed Nintendo of Europe's certification process – implying immediately afterwards that the game will hit virtual store shelves on "MMMMMMay 10th."VVVVVV's European eShop debut will take place a little over two years after the game's original release in January of 2010, and while that may sound like a long time, fake scientific studies have shown that it takes at least four and a half years to get the game's phenomenal soundtrack out of your head. So, comparatively, the delay isn't really all that bad.
Free Indie Games is a lot of free indie games chosen by Terry Cavanagh
Terry Cavanagh, indie-game maniac behind VVVVVV, Chat Chat and At a Distance, has started a new website with a title to make an SOE enthusiast blush: Free Indie Games. Guess what it offers? Free indie games, as chosen by Cavanagh based on their newness, goodness, freeness, indieness and gameness.Currently, Free Indie Games "highly recommends" Wither, Game Title: Lost Levels and Dys4ia, but recent titles we find intriguing include Nausea and Socially Awkward Conversationalist. But they're all free, so really, every single one is quite intriguing to begin with.
'Hexagon' is Terry Cavanagh's latest jam
We hope you weren't planning on getting anything done for the rest of your entire life, because every waking moment of productivity you had in your future will be consumed by Hexagon, a browser-based twitch game by Terry Cavanagh of VVVVVV fame.You control a small triangle that orbits the hexagon in the middle of the screen. Various shapes and line segments fall toward the hexagon, and it's your job to avoid them in a frantic-yet-calculated, reverse Tempest-style gauntlet of adrenaline and frustration. You must last predetermined amounts of time in order to advance to the next level, at which point the game speeds up and the incoming shapes increase in complexity. The whole experience is set to a phenomenal chiptune track courtesy of Chipzel; it feels like we should be playing it in that rollerblade techno club from Hackers.The game was created yesterday morning for Pirate Kart V, a two-day event in which hundreds of programmers around the world attempt and create as many games as humanly possible in the short span of 48 hours. It's a wonderful example of game design in its purest form, and we challenge all of you to beat our best time of 35:23 at Level 4.
Cavanagh's ChatChat teaches the finer points of feline life
ChatChat would be an entirely sensible game if not for the second half of its one-sentence description. We were totally on board through "ChatChat is a game about being a cat," but we threw up our hands in incredulity at "and talking to other cats." We'll be a cat, sure, but a talking cat? Too far, Terry Cavanagh. Too far.Cavanagh is the (mad)man behind VVVVVV and At a Distance, and ChatChat (we assume pronounced "Chat cat," with the second "h" as a soft "whipped" sound) is one of a few smaller projects he's working on this year. It involves running around various forests, "mush rooms," alleyways and secret areas, and figuring out the ways you can interact with the environment and other cats. Yes, you can talk to the other cats in your room, but you can also meow, purr, screech and turn into a dog to play tag with your cat friends.You can play ChatChat on Kongregate right now and learn why cats seem to find it so amusing to lurk around abandoned alleyways, kill mice and, as the game's instructions suggest, "be a cat."
New album available from VVVVVV composer Souleye
Souleye, the chiptune mastermind behind the incredible soundtrack for indie darling VVVVVV, has released a new, full-length album of original delights entitles Adventure. The 20 track collection of bleeps, boops and beats includes brand new songs, tracks from VVVVVV 2.0 and VVVVVV for the 3DS, as well as unreleased remixes from the indie rhythm title Pulsen.As the above trailer testifies, Souleye's pseudo-retro compositions are guaranteed to lift your spirits in his trademark, undeniably catchy way. The album is available for $10 (or more) at Souleye's official website, and can be listed to for free at Souleye's Bandcamp profile.
