VVVVVV is a game developed by Terry Cavanagh that has caused quite a buzz in the indie game scene… Unfortunately, I didn’t pick it up right away when the buzz started, since I was put off by the retro graphics (I like retro graphics, but those just look ugly!). Only when it hit the Humble Indy Bundle 3 I finally gave it a try, and boy, was I missing out!
At first glance, VVVVVV is a standard platform game with a gimmick: instead of the usual jump action, you can reverse the gravity of the screen, making your character shoot out in the air and walk on ceilings… Although this looks like pretty simple stuff, it really adds a differentiation factor to the game. That, coupled by an exploration component really makes the game shine.
The level design is brilliant, with very challenging areas… when you die, you just restart in that room, so frustration is kept to a minimum.
The story is as straightforward as possible: a ship gets thrown into a strange dimension (the VVVVVV dimension) and the crew gets split. The captain has to go rescue them… Throughout the game you get clues on what the dimension is all about. What the game does right is to make you empathize with the characters, even such so crudely drawn and distinguishable only by color, by using simple texts and making you work hard to get access to them…
The game ends when you rescue all 6 members of the crew (I did it in 2h30, dying “just” 1400 times, but I’m not very good at platformers).
VVVVVV does a minimum of hand-holding and it’s quite merciless in some rooms, but even rooms where I got stuck for 10 mins seemed to be “fair”, i.e. the challenge wasn’t overcome because the game was being too hard, but because you suck! 
Seriously, this game deserves all the praise I’ve been reading about it in the last months, specially considering how cheap it is! Even the graphics, which at first glance seem really ugly kind of it with the overall theme, and I ended up appreciating the simple color schemes and forms…
This game is a 10/10!