Thoughts so far on VVVVVV 2.0
Aug. 15th, 2011 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyI sure hope this failing to load time trial scores bug is fixed soon. Sure, mine are mostly pretty awful, but I do have a V ranking on The Tower, y'know. :P
Level editor: How the hell do I rotate the tiles? (The bane of all hastily thrown-together level editors... well, except when it's "How the hell do I flip the tiles?"). Not that I actually intend to start making my own levels. There's a lot here though that probably needs external documentation to make much sense.
That he actually ported the whole thing to C++ is a surprise, though it wasn't actually Terry Cavanagh who did it.
New music (Paced Energy, Piercing the Sky): So when is Souleye going to put up mp3s of these we can buy? Also, is Piercing the Sky actually used in any of the new levels (just talking about the ones included with the game)? So far it seems no.
ADDENDUM 2:41 Tuesday: Apparently Piercing the Sky is used in A New Dimension. Perhaps Paced Energy is as well? That's the only way they would both be used in Souleye's levels.
Some of these new levels are really clever (e.g. Variation Venture). Some are really evil (e.g. Dual Challenge)... at this point I've completed most of them. But I missed a trinket (don't know where -- well I can see it but I have no idea how to get to it) in Vertiginous Veridian, and I deliberately skipped a trinket in Roadtrip to the Moon (the segment leading up to it was too frustrating). The game seems to run fine in fullscreen (well, aside from the occasional crash on startup :P ), but I'm tempted to try again in windowed mode just to make sure that it's not actually makign the controls extra slippery...
The first of the two I haven't completed are Golden Spiral -- this one is just *grueling*. First time I actually went ahead and used quicksave. :P Currently I'm on the "Feel the Rhythm" room. The other is A New Dimension. I haven't even tried this one, it looks ridiculous. Though according to Terry Cavanagh's blog entry it's easier than Golden Spiral. I wonder, is that assuming you do or you don't get the trinkets? :-/
Thoughts on individual levels:
Pyramid of Doom: Why was this included? It's easy, but more importantly, it's just kind of pointless. :-/ Probably the only one I don't like.
Vertiginous Veridian: Oy, had to replay this a few times to go back and get missed trinkets. Goddamn checkpoints! I'm still missing a trinket here -- it's one of the ones visible in the "Potential for Anything" section (I'm going to refer to sections by the music that plays in them); not the one visible in the Spinning Plates room (I think that's what that room is called?). Do you have to get into that hole on the left in the Centipede room? It's the only thing I can think of, but I don't see at all how that's possible. Also, amusingly and annoyingly, in the "Pressure Cooker" section, there's what appears to be an alternate path (or a path to a trinket, rather) which actually just leads you to a bugged area. I guess the author didn't realize it was possible to go that way!
Dual Challenge: Had to replay this one *quite* a few times to get missed trinkets. Then I replayed it again to see what the rooms I skipped were! (I think it's funny that "Nobody Said This Was Going to be Easy" is skippable. "Sure, but nobody said it would be necessary either!") This level is really clever, and really evil, too...
A New Dimension: Haven't tried it yet, wrote about it above.
Variation Venture: This one was clever.
Line Wrap, Roadtrip to the Moon: Good levels, not much to say about these two. Still missing a trinket on Roadtrip to the Moon because the leadup to it was too frustrating, and if you hit the checkpoint after that leadup, you won't be able to get back.
Golden Spiral: Havne't completed it yet, wrote a bit about it above. This one is just *grueling*. At least it's nicely segmented into one challenge per screen...
Variety Show: Not much to say about this one. The second least-interesting.
VVVV 4k: I never played this in in its original form due to Java never working properly. Interesting to see a really exploration-based level; of course, it wasn't originally a "level". The haphazard geometry is definitely a bit annoying, but it's neat to see a "compressed" version of the original game. And of course there's a homage to "Doing Things the Hard Way", though it's way, way easier.
A bit odd that the victory condition for new levels has to be "find all the crewmates", not the "find the teleporter" of the original game. Guess it's for compatibility with VVVV 4k? :P (And why can't *any* of these levels have maps? OK, it wouldn't work for many, but...)
-Harry
Level editor: How the hell do I rotate the tiles? (The bane of all hastily thrown-together level editors... well, except when it's "How the hell do I flip the tiles?"). Not that I actually intend to start making my own levels. There's a lot here though that probably needs external documentation to make much sense.
That he actually ported the whole thing to C++ is a surprise, though it wasn't actually Terry Cavanagh who did it.
New music (Paced Energy, Piercing the Sky): So when is Souleye going to put up mp3s of these we can buy? Also, is Piercing the Sky actually used in any of the new levels (just talking about the ones included with the game)? So far it seems no.
ADDENDUM 2:41 Tuesday: Apparently Piercing the Sky is used in A New Dimension. Perhaps Paced Energy is as well? That's the only way they would both be used in Souleye's levels.
Some of these new levels are really clever (e.g. Variation Venture). Some are really evil (e.g. Dual Challenge)... at this point I've completed most of them. But I missed a trinket (don't know where -- well I can see it but I have no idea how to get to it) in Vertiginous Veridian, and I deliberately skipped a trinket in Roadtrip to the Moon (the segment leading up to it was too frustrating). The game seems to run fine in fullscreen (well, aside from the occasional crash on startup :P ), but I'm tempted to try again in windowed mode just to make sure that it's not actually makign the controls extra slippery...
The first of the two I haven't completed are Golden Spiral -- this one is just *grueling*. First time I actually went ahead and used quicksave. :P Currently I'm on the "Feel the Rhythm" room. The other is A New Dimension. I haven't even tried this one, it looks ridiculous. Though according to Terry Cavanagh's blog entry it's easier than Golden Spiral. I wonder, is that assuming you do or you don't get the trinkets? :-/
Thoughts on individual levels:
Pyramid of Doom: Why was this included? It's easy, but more importantly, it's just kind of pointless. :-/ Probably the only one I don't like.
Vertiginous Veridian: Oy, had to replay this a few times to go back and get missed trinkets. Goddamn checkpoints! I'm still missing a trinket here -- it's one of the ones visible in the "Potential for Anything" section (I'm going to refer to sections by the music that plays in them); not the one visible in the Spinning Plates room (I think that's what that room is called?). Do you have to get into that hole on the left in the Centipede room? It's the only thing I can think of, but I don't see at all how that's possible. Also, amusingly and annoyingly, in the "Pressure Cooker" section, there's what appears to be an alternate path (or a path to a trinket, rather) which actually just leads you to a bugged area. I guess the author didn't realize it was possible to go that way!
Dual Challenge: Had to replay this one *quite* a few times to get missed trinkets. Then I replayed it again to see what the rooms I skipped were! (I think it's funny that "Nobody Said This Was Going to be Easy" is skippable. "Sure, but nobody said it would be necessary either!") This level is really clever, and really evil, too...
A New Dimension: Haven't tried it yet, wrote about it above.
Variation Venture: This one was clever.
Line Wrap, Roadtrip to the Moon: Good levels, not much to say about these two. Still missing a trinket on Roadtrip to the Moon because the leadup to it was too frustrating, and if you hit the checkpoint after that leadup, you won't be able to get back.
Golden Spiral: Havne't completed it yet, wrote a bit about it above. This one is just *grueling*. At least it's nicely segmented into one challenge per screen...
Variety Show: Not much to say about this one. The second least-interesting.
VVVV 4k: I never played this in in its original form due to Java never working properly. Interesting to see a really exploration-based level; of course, it wasn't originally a "level". The haphazard geometry is definitely a bit annoying, but it's neat to see a "compressed" version of the original game. And of course there's a homage to "Doing Things the Hard Way", though it's way, way easier.
A bit odd that the victory condition for new levels has to be "find all the crewmates", not the "find the teleporter" of the original game. Guess it's for compatibility with VVVV 4k? :P (And why can't *any* of these levels have maps? OK, it wouldn't work for many, but...)
-Harry
