Shadowcat on 10/3/2013 at 01:30

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I searched for the game title and came up with a CommChat article entitled "Diamonds replaced as hardest known material".

I'm pretty sure that "Super Hexagon" is the new hardest known material.

I'd seen this game featured on RPS, and watched some video clips of people who are good at it playing it well (e.g. the author -- Terry Cavanagh of VVVVVV fame -- completing it in a public demo), and concluded that there was no way in hell I was subjecting myself to this game.

Then it just had to crop up in the newest Humble Indie Bundle, so I've just installed it and played it. And as a pay-what-you-want title it's great.

You'll lose constantly, but the restarts are as quick as you'd hope for. The music (which fits the game well) seems to continue from where it was when you lost (or something like that), which is a particularly clever way of not making it feel like you're starting over (at least when you're learning how to play). The patterns vary in any case, so you're not constantly repeating the same thing. The game is pretty good at making you want to just keep playing.

I kinda wish there was an easy/assist game option to "do what I meant" when you just slightly under- or over-shoot the mark, and would have had time to correct it before getting hit. I imagine it gets easier with time.

So yeah... get the latest HIB and get rotating with Super Hexagon! I've only reached "Triangle" (20 seconds) so far, but I'm quite pleased to have managed that as quickly as I have. Although it's hard, it seems essentially fair, and it's certainly easier to see what's coming up than I had figured from just watching video of other people playing (when watching videos I was mostly looking at the centre of the screen, but that's not really the main focus when you're playing).

Edit: 33.37 (Square)

The game keeps doing new things to me. I expect my eyes bug out for a moment every time it happens, and I have about a half second to decide which way to go.

Edit 2: I just tried the harder and hardest difficulties (the lowest difficulty is labelled "hard" :) and have only managed 15 and 5 seconds respectively.

Shadowcat on 10/3/2013 at 02:06

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Yes, you're right about the music. Maybe it just starts it at a random spot in the track? Regardless, it prevents each restart feeling like starting over, which I'm pretty sure is the intention.

Edit: I see what you mean about the old browser version, although Super Hexagon doesn't distract you with on-screen messages, and the cleaner high-res full-screen graphics makes a noticeable difference for me.

You can probably go approximately full-screen with:
(http://www.distractionware.com/games/flash/hexagon/hexagon.swf)

(but it still doesn't look nearly as nice.)

p.s. I just watched the game's official trailer, and now I'm scared again. Actually playing this game is considerably less stressful.

retractingblinds on 10/3/2013 at 15:09

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I'm finding progress much easier to make with v-sync disabled. Check the options setting by pressing right on the main menu to tinker with the dinker.

Al_B on 10/3/2013 at 18:22

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Yes, it's a great game to keep dipping into both on Android and Windows versions (and presumably iOS too).

For controls on the PC version I find the mouse buttons allow you to be much sharper than the keyboard but I did see YouTube video where someone used the A and right arrow key to get an insane time on the last unlockable stage.

I'm no expert - about 65 seconds or so a few times on the hard difficulty and around 35s and 20s on the next . As far as the music is concerned the section of the track being played seems to affect which patterns you're likely to get at each stage but I'm not sure if that is purely psychological.

SubJeff on 11/3/2013 at 01:48

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You'll get better.