IGN gamescom studio day 2
What is it?
Terry Cavanagh’s expertise is making unflinchingly difficult and addictive games with minimalism in mind. His latest, Super Hexagon for iOS, is as minimal as they come. The game presents you as a tiny icon, a geometric shape glued to a hexagon at the center of your screen. You orbit the hexagon via simple touch controls: tap left to rotate counter-clockwise and tap right to rotate clockwise.You’re rotating to avoid the endless onslaught of quickening lines funneling towards you from all directions. The lines approach in patterns that require quick-tapping and ruthless attention to avoid.
Don’t expect much of a tutorial. Super Hexagon throws you right in to this relentless polygonal gauntlet with three available modes from the start – Hard, Harder and Hardest. Each mode progresses through stages based on geometric shapes every 15 seconds. Last a minute in any mode and an even-harder hyper version unlocks.
Did we like it?
This game is a throwback that ’s going to be alienating if you believe a game should reward you for anything other than earning each and every inch of your progress. You’ll start by surviving 5 seconds at a time, then 10, then 30 – and finally you’ll hit 60 seconds and feel more completion than you get from some 100 hour RPGs. The experience is incredibly addictive – especially when you’re in the zone.The simplicity is so beautiful there’s little to complain about. The vibrant colors, hypnotic shapes and thumping music (comprised of expertly crafted chiptunes by Chipzel) combine to create a game that’s as much art as it is a compelling play experience.
If there’s a single thing that’s going to bother you throughout Super Hexagon (besides the difficulty) it’s likely that any notification will throw off your session, sometimes ruining an epic run. Still, you’ll be upset for about a second – the play sessions go so quickly you’ll barely notice.
