Forum Overview :: DECKER

Super Hexagon by Fullofkittens 09/18/2012, 6:31pm PDT Super Hexagon is the latest creation of Terry Cavanagh, who you might remember as the guy who made the best casual game for the PC in years, VVVVVV. The basics: Super Hexagon is an exceedingly simple idea: it's a maze hell game. You are a tiny triangle, surrounded by walls. The walls are closing in, but there are holes in them. The object: don't get squooshed. It's got two buttons: rotate left, rotate right. That's it, that's the whole game. What Cavanagh has achieved here is kind of amazing. Pretty much every iPad game I own is either a port of some game that could be on any platform or some kind of puzzle game that attempts to use creatively the touch controls. Super Hexagon successfully turns the iPad itself into a handheld game that you can't put down. Everybody I've showed it to in person has gone "Wow, I don't think I'd last two seconds in that thing," and they're right. No one can last two seconds in it the first time they play it. The whole point of the game is to rewire your brain pathways so that you can play it. Cavanagh has correctly identified what's fun about "arcade-style" gameplay: it's fun to learn a new skill. The first ten times you play it you won't last ten seconds. When you've been playing it for an hour, you'll probably last 30 seconds every single game. This will feel like a big achievement. (My high score on "hard" - the easiest level - is currently 71:59, I've been playing it for maybe a total of 2.5 hours over a couple of days.) It's on sale for a buck, if you have an iPad and a dollar go buy it right now. The only reason I stopped playing it to write this review is that I had to stop playing so I could blink a few times.

Super Hexagon by Fullofkittens 09/18/2012, 6:31pm PDT