VG Mad

Super Hexagon

System: PC & iOS & Android & Linus & OSX
Developer: Terry Cavanagh
Publisher: Terry Cavanagh

28 Jan 2015

I'm a great fan of games that are music based, mixed with on screen visuals, that don't involve playing plastic instruments.

Relishing the idea of pleasing my eyes with some trippy candy, I shove this on with a friend present. A friend who finds it amazing that I can do Beat Hazard on suicide with visuals maxed out.

So, after selecting Hard, (there's no easy or normal mode), just two seconds into the game, I die. I try again, two seconds later, I die again, this time to a roar of laughter from my friend. A third attempt I yet again die, this time after 3 or 4 seconds. My mate by this point, is in a fit of laughter, laughing so hard he's struggling for oxygen.

Once my friend catches his breath back, I hand the pad over, 'you try', I say. I get the pad back after a few seconds with a rant to go with it, 'thats impossible!'.

I totally agreed, so head over to youtube to see a couple of videos and find someone, obviously on a cartload of amphetamine and green to gave that illusion of time being warped to snails pace, make it look easy by not dying for over ten minutes!

Many weeks pass before I eventually break the minute mark, which unlocks the next difficulty level, Harder. Harder it certainly is. Thinking that was harder, after determination I unlock the next difficulty level, Harderer.

Harderer, I can only describe as, ‘Holy Fucking Shit’.

The soundtracks to the levels, are retro 8-bit trance-like, and damn they’re amazing. Composed by Niamh Houston.

The aim of the game is to avoid incoming walls that constantly rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise, the direction of the rotation seems to be triggered by the music.

Every ten seconds, the shape of the walls change, there is a voice to let you know you reached the time mark for a new shape. When I first started playing, because of the amount of times I died, it sounded like the voice was mocking me with the word 'Again'. Turns out, the voice starts the game by announcing 'Begin'.

One thing is for certain, this game has to be one of, if not the, hardest game around. For diehard or competitive gamers only, also, it's addictive.