Hey, so now that I have a computer with Windows on it I can play VVVVVV time trials! (Recall: Previously when I tried to play time trials under Wine, it ran terribly slowly. I don't know why just time trials had this problem; meanwhile I don't recall anyone else reporting such a problem, so possibly I should have tried it with Wine on this computer, but, eh, no need. Also this way full screen works!)
Of course that means first playing through the game proper a second time. Much easier this time - only took about 2 hours, and that's with getting all trinkets before beating the game. (First time I played, I missed Purest Unobtainium and Prize for the Reckless. I also missed the second one in the Tower first time through there, but I went back for it before beating the game.) But man, I really did not remember the controls being so slippery...
Of course the thing that's silly about time trials is that you can easily get an A by entirely ignoring the time trial aspect and just getting all the trinkets. The only one I haven't bothered to do this on is the second Space Station, since I don't really feel like Doing Things the Hard Way a third time just right now. (Funny - I had enough muscle memory of it that I could do the up direction straight off the bat, but I had to spend a lot of time getting correct the down...) So that one I still have a B on.
Right now I'm just trying to get 4 S's to unlock No Death Mode. Not that I actually intend to play that, but, y'know. So far I have S on the first Space Station and on the Tower. Both via deaths + time. That really seems to be the only practical way. On the Tower, due to the fixed scrolling, deaths and time are essentially the same - I don't think you could get trinkets and one other without getting all three! As for first Space Station, Trench Warfare seems to just take too much time to make time + trinkets work at my current level. Obviously there's always the possibility of ignoring the time aspect and just going trinkets + deaths, but on an easy level like that, if you can do deaths, you can do time. This may be a sensible strategy on the harder levels, but I doubt it.
I haven't managed to make the par times on any other levels. On the final level my best time is way over, on the order of 17 minutes. I'd go for an S on the final level next, seeing as I can do that one via time and not worry about deaths, except that the final level is really hard to do fast! So not sure where to go from here. Maybe Warp Zone? Right now I'd guess Warp Zone and final are the two easiest to get S on that I haven't done. Laboratory is very hard to avoid dying on, and as for second Space Station... yeah. Admittedly, aside from the auto-trinket thing, final level is probably harder than either, but...
Getting V ratings seems to be way beyond me right now. Completing flip mode shouldn't be not hard, but also not particularly interesting when I just played through the main game again the other day...
(Meanwhile, I no longer even have 15 seconds on the Super Gravitron! Previously I think I'd gotten to 20... definitely at least 15, definitely not 25. This time though it took me a long time to even get 10.)
-Harry
Of course that means first playing through the game proper a second time. Much easier this time - only took about 2 hours, and that's with getting all trinkets before beating the game. (First time I played, I missed Purest Unobtainium and Prize for the Reckless. I also missed the second one in the Tower first time through there, but I went back for it before beating the game.) But man, I really did not remember the controls being so slippery...
Of course the thing that's silly about time trials is that you can easily get an A by entirely ignoring the time trial aspect and just getting all the trinkets. The only one I haven't bothered to do this on is the second Space Station, since I don't really feel like Doing Things the Hard Way a third time just right now. (Funny - I had enough muscle memory of it that I could do the up direction straight off the bat, but I had to spend a lot of time getting correct the down...) So that one I still have a B on.
Right now I'm just trying to get 4 S's to unlock No Death Mode. Not that I actually intend to play that, but, y'know. So far I have S on the first Space Station and on the Tower. Both via deaths + time. That really seems to be the only practical way. On the Tower, due to the fixed scrolling, deaths and time are essentially the same - I don't think you could get trinkets and one other without getting all three! As for first Space Station, Trench Warfare seems to just take too much time to make time + trinkets work at my current level. Obviously there's always the possibility of ignoring the time aspect and just going trinkets + deaths, but on an easy level like that, if you can do deaths, you can do time. This may be a sensible strategy on the harder levels, but I doubt it.
I haven't managed to make the par times on any other levels. On the final level my best time is way over, on the order of 17 minutes. I'd go for an S on the final level next, seeing as I can do that one via time and not worry about deaths, except that the final level is really hard to do fast! So not sure where to go from here. Maybe Warp Zone? Right now I'd guess Warp Zone and final are the two easiest to get S on that I haven't done. Laboratory is very hard to avoid dying on, and as for second Space Station... yeah. Admittedly, aside from the auto-trinket thing, final level is probably harder than either, but...
Getting V ratings seems to be way beyond me right now. Completing flip mode shouldn't be not hard, but also not particularly interesting when I just played through the main game again the other day...
(Meanwhile, I no longer even have 15 seconds on the Super Gravitron! Previously I think I'd gotten to 20... definitely at least 15, definitely not 25. This time though it took me a long time to even get 10.)
-Harry
