Super Hexagon

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JaySevenZero
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Super Hexagon

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here is where you can leave your thoughts regarding the Super Hexagon for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.
SnakeyDave

Re: Super Hexagon

Post by SnakeyDave »

My first game of Super Hexagon probably lasted about 3 seconds, and in that time I was completely gripped.

After my first few gos, once my heart slowed a little and the game stopped seeming like just a whirl of colour and noise, I noticed the repeating sections for each level: spirally bit, 180s, back and forth, etc - if we’re being technical. The sections come up randomly, like Tetris pieces, but individually they’re possible to learn by heart.

Getting through a section feels like an analogue combo. The sequence of taps might be the same but there are always variations and little course corrections. It’s this wonderful mix of muscle memory and twitchy-fingered adaptation.

The same’s true for the joins between the sections. Failure often comes from being unable to negotiate that gap, fingers paralysed without a clear script to follow. The gradual step to mastery (well, vague competence) comes from learning to identify the next section ahead of time and nail the transition.

None of this feels particularly like conscious decision making though. With the high speed, pulsing music and hypnotic light show, it all feels instinctual. Visceral is an overused word in games criticism, but it feels apt here. I can’t think of a game that can so reliably and immediately get my adrenaline pumping.

I’ve completed all 6 stages of Super Hexagon (all 3 stages and their hyper versions). I went one further and got above 100 seconds on all of them too. It’s an incredible game and an absolute essential for mobile.
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stvnorman
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.8.17): Super Hexagon

Post by stvnorman »

For a game that apparently takes minutes to complete, I've spent hours not making a dent into it, and enjoyed every second! Get this on the go with headphones in a darkened room and you are quickly drawn into its barebones hypnotic cruelty. You'll hate every death but you can't resist coming back for more. And more. And more.

Three word (but many letter) review: Undiluted gaming sadomasochism.
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hazeredmist
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.8.17): Super Hexagon

Post by hazeredmist »

I don't like many mobile games but this one is special. I had a long phase of irritating myself with it on the toilet, failing to get any decent scores. The music is brilliant and right up my street, I often restart to get the music I like the most, and get the most annoyed when I spin out having not heard the full track.

I loved this game so much I bought it on both Android and iOS. Also my mate at work knows Terry Cavanagh. Possibly the craippiest claim to fame ever :P
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Alex79
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.8.17): Super Hexagon

Post by Alex79 »

I spent a while playing this back when it was the talk of the week. I kind of enjoyed what I played, but never managed to find that zone that people spoke of. I've had it with other games, sure, but this never quite clicked the way it did for some. As such I never spent that much time with It, but can totally appreciate how it would hook you in with it's one more go claws. Very clever game design, but ultimately not one I can honestly say I loved.

Three word review: too bloody fast!
kintaris

Re: Our next podcast recording (5.8.17): Super Hexagon

Post by kintaris »

I hadn't heard of Super Hexagon at all until I saw the podcast recording coming up. I realised I could get it on Android so I've been giving it a spin in the last 24 hours. Here's my journey.

It's rubbish. A boring and frustrating exercise in futility. I can't make it past five seconds. Well, six. OK, OK. Ten and a bit seconds that time, felt like I got a rhythm going. I can appreciate the stark visuals and the thumping soundtrack, but I still don't quite get the fuss about a game I can only play for 11 seconds at a time. Ah, OK - 13 seconds now. Whoa, where did these massive lines come from all of a sudden? That was so unfair! Rubbish. Why torture myself with it any longer? Who needs blind rage in their lives every 13 - no, 15 - seconds? Oh I see, it's a spiral I have to loop around. That felt pretty good. A lucky run most likely, but hey - 21 seconds.

Thumbs are cramping. When did it get dark outside? I'll take one more spin. I spent money on this irritating, pointless, worst game ever made. I want my money's worth. How the hell did I get to 28 seconds before, anyway? Good lord, it's 2am.

Thought I got to 33 seconds, but that was a head-pounding, neon-pulsing dream I was having before my alarm went off. I'm not playing this anymore... although it's so easy to just pick up and play on the train to work. Maybe one more go... damn it, missed my stop. My eyes are twitching. But hey - 38 seconds.

Exquisitely designed, deceptively simple and hypnotically alluring, this might be the best game I've ever played on my phone.

I hate it.

42 seconds.

Three word review: Hypnotic, hyperactive... hexcellent.
(Sorry.)
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Tleprie
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.8.17): Super Hexagon

Post by Tleprie »

I put Super Hexagon right next to Tetris. Maybe just a little below.

If Tetris were a wise old wizard that could help you defeat the dragon through patience and careful planning, Super Hexagon is that wizard's hip younger nephew-in-law (who is also a wizard). He'll die to the dragon, taking you all with him in the process, 99 out of 100 times, but gosh darn it if he doesn't look rad doing it.
And that hundredth time when things go right, it's the best feeling ever.
There are no extra gimmicks to the dragon, what you see is what you get. You're in awe of the dragon, everytime you face it you get that much closer to bringing a blade through its neck.
The celebration is short lived, however. You've seen the other dragons, and if the first took a hundred tries, you may as well just add a zero for each new one.

Finally, the last dragon. It's just like the third dragon only not because it's faster and has blander colors but somehow makes them work.
Occasionally, as you sit in the halls outside the dragon's lair, you look around. The wise wizard Tetris takes another happy party in, and back out with plenty of treasure and most of their limbs intact. You peek into their dungeon, aghast at what you see: they didn't actually kill the dragon! They put it to sleep, stole some of what it had, and just left. Hardly anyone has actually bested the dragons with Tetris around!
You wake the sleeping Hexagonal Wizard. He groggily shakes off a hangover, takes a swig from three separate flasks, and drops a tab of acid, before offering you one. Though you've come to decline his offer in the recent hours of attempts, this time you accept.
You approach the Grey dragon one more time. It swings its tail. "Again!"
A chandelier falls on you. "Again!"
The wizard forgets how to cast magic missle for a minute. "Again! Again! Again!"
You've gotten your blade to the beast's neck, once, but could not push it through before gashes from razor talons do you in. "Again!"
You lose track of how many times she says it, mocking you. The final attempt is no different from the first, except you've stopped thinking. Maybe it's the acid, maybe you're just a baller. You see things coming ever so slightly earlier than before. You step over the tail with ease. The chandelier is far behind you by the time it falls. The claws take your cloak, but not your life.

The grey dragon shall not say "again" again. You are ready to celebrate. You turn back to your wizard companion, expecting him to be opening a bottle of wine in celebration. Instead he points up. From the ceiling a black dragon breaks through. Before even having time to react, debris ends you. You leave the dungeon with the wizard, parting ways, perhaps for good. But all six dragon's have been slain.
You ask a passerby what day it is, sure that you've been away decades. Your friends and family must be old by now, but they answer with the same day you entered the dungeon. The only difference is that it is evening now, you ask more specifically for a time. Only twelve hours passed, though it felt like years.

Before you can share your musings with the wizard, you see him already taking a new group of adventures back inside. He passes a flask, distributes some acid, and is gone.
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Stanshall
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.8.17): Super Hexagon

Post by Stanshall »

Part-Tempest, part-Thumper, Super Hexagon is as infuriating and stressful as both of those games but without the fun factor, or sense of satisfaction. It's a very minimalist game and lives and dies solely on its mechanics; perhaps it's my struggle to contend with the rotation but it feels too twitchy and 'fidgety' to me. The cursor moves like I've slept badly and had one too many espressos to compensate. I'm sure it scratches a deep itch for a certain player, but the first hurdles are so punishing that I've never been inclined to stick with it. I'm surprised I don't like it because the music is decent (reminiscent of Paul Jacobs' Motocross Madness!) and I like a good psychedelic 'flow' type game, but the jittery feel makes me quickly uninstall whenever I give it another go.

Three word review: Game over. Again.
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