Archives: Super Hexagon


TOUCH ME I’M SLICK: THE SUPERB SEVERITY OF TERRY CAVANAGH’S SUPER HEXAGON


9.17.2012

Brandon Boyer

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“Didn’t the original come together in like four hours one morning?”, I ask. “Sometimes it just works like that,” Terry Cavanagh demures.

Having launched just days before this site opened its doors, a super-strong recommendation of Cavanagh’s updated and fantastically feature-complete Super Hexagon for iPhone & iPad is long overdue, and in the intervening time, the game’s gone on to be as well received as it richly deserves.

Sometimes it just happens that a game pops into the universe and makes you wonder how it’s possible that something so simple hadn’t materialized yet in all of videogaming’s past, at the same time as you wonder how it’s possible it’s not a time-travelling relic from videogaming’s future.

I’ve described the game probably ad nauseum as a “27th century space-disco teen-laser-punk arcade hit”, but it’s still how I see the game, and having run it at a few live events over the past few months, it’s amazing at how perfect a portable party it is. Providing its own ultra-hypnotic visuals and blasting its own fantastically forward-focused beats courtesy Chipzel (grab her soundtrack EP here), it’d nearly be danceable were it not stop/starting every 15 seconds in unskilled hands.

If you haven’t played it yet, do not hesitate a moment longer: your hands will initially be even exponentially more unskilled, but patience and zen-training (borrow my mantra & embrace the negative space) will pay off, and you may find yourself in as much an ultra zone as the nearly unbelievable player above. [Super Hexagon (App Store), coming to PC/Mac soon]


HEY PORTLAND: THIS FRIDAY, VISIT THE VENUS PATROL-CURATED ARCADE AT XOXO FRINGE


9.13.2012

Brandon Boyer

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Another location-specific update: Portland-area readers will want to clear off their Friday nights for XOXO Fringe‘s arcade, a free-to-the-public event starting at 7PM at Union/Pine, as part of the recently Kickstarted XOXO arts and tech festival, created by Andy Baio & Andy McMillan.

This very website curated the selection of games available at the arcade, which will include Messhof’s Nidhogg, Ed Key & David Kanaga’s Proteus, Noah Sasso’s Barabariball, Terry Cavanagh’s Super Hexagon, Die Gute Fabrik’s Johann Sebastian Joust, the very first look at the new game from Big Bucket, the team behind the 2010 iPhone/iPad/Mac game The Incident, and more.

In addition to the games, there’ll also be a live performance from Disasterpeace, the musician behind the soundtrack to Polytron’s Fez, which I can say from experience is an unmissable show.

Below the fold, I’ll stick video of all of the above for the uninitiated, so you can see what you’re getting into. I unfortunately couldn’t make it out to the event, so take lots of pictures for us! See the official XOXO Fringe site for more information.

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