Collision detection is sometimes shonky as all hell, allowing you to randomly veer straight through some walls while punishing you for scraping a stray pixel against others. Game Center integration will have you keeping tabs on friends progress, while the leaderboards will give you plenty of "how the fuck did he get that time there's no way" moments. It's been a long time since gamers were presented with such a compelling high score chase, with each bite-sized shot potentially edging up your best time in split-second increments. For a game where the average playthrough will last no more than 30 seconds, it certainly can eat up the hours. Toilet breaks become longer, commutes begin to feel shorter. Super Hexagon is "one-more-go" gaming taken to the next level. Each playthrough is a noisy rush of hypnotic shapes and sounds, lasting mere seconds before you start it all over again. It's all complimented by a driving chiptune soundtrack (courtesy of Northern Irish musician Chipzel) that adds an element of intense rhythm-action to the whole package. Levels swirl by in a demented retro-vortex, looking like a black hole that's swallowed a Commodore 64. The breakneck pace of the gameplay extends to the visuals, all pulsing colours and speeding lines. ![]() Your reward for lasting a minute? Why, a whole new level of difficulty of course. Reach 60 seconds and the level hits the fast forward button, hastening your crushingly inevitable end. Speed increases the longer you last, patterns become more complex and rotations shift frequently as you test your reactions to the limit. To add to the challenge the level rotates as well, as do, er, the barriers. The aim is to avoid the patterns of barriers that are being sucked in towards you, skitting around as you spot then race to reach gaps before slamming into a wall. Taking control of a barely-there arrow at the centre of the screen, you rotate yourself around a pulsating hexagonal singularity by pressing left or right on the touchscreen. But this is a step up in all the right ways. That this comes from Terry Cavanagh, developer of masochistic indie puzzler VVVVVV, shouldn't surprise you Super Hexagon shares its brutally addictive difficulty and retro sheen. Half an hour later you probably won't care much, as you try and hold yourself back from tapping that screen to retry yet again. Within a couple of minutes you might lose track of how many times you've heard the words "Game Over" droned at you, cutting short each playthrough with all the tenderness of a punch in the face. Ten seconds after that you'll probably see another. The simple and striking two-colour graphical style manages to keep the action readable, allowing Cavanagh and Chipzel to push the boat out with a vibrant ‘neon-chiptune-dubstep’ aesthetic. Finally beating a stage, hearing the music swell as the screen explodes with colour, is a huge adrenaline rush book-ending a brutally immersive experience.Rating:4.5 Ten seconds into your first go on Super Hexagon you'll be faced with a game over screen. In fact, the ‘playing fields’ are psychedelic marvels, a stream of dizzying perspective flips that introduce a fascinating layer of difficulty by disorientation as you struggle to maintain your bearings amidst the chaos. The central shape bounces in time to the music as the screen spins and zooms in what should, by all rights, be as nauseating as one of those dodgy-looking pop-up carnival rides. Hours come and go – fail, “Game Over”, spacebar, “Again”, repeated over and over as you chip away, second by second. After three hours with the game, I only got past the first two levels two minutes worth of progression (disclaimer: it’s very possible I’m extremely shite at the game).
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