The UFO 50 Diaries: Vainger
Gravity Mush
Metroid really was the blueprint for a lot of games, wasn't it? The progenitor of a score of experiences neatly dubbed ‘Search Action', or more boringly in the west ‘Metroidvanias’, it took the concept of level navigation, conflict and progression and, through the implementation of item and ability gates, turned it on its head.
You know what else is turned on its head? Vainger, a gravity swapping new genre entry that has a few neat tricks up its sleeve! At a glance this game is so Metroid that it almost feels like plagiarism, and yet, through a few key design choices, it feels brand new.
In Vainger, you navigate your environment by changing your centre of gravity. Up becomes down, down becomes up, and in many cases a deft understanding of when precisely to switch will be the difference between life and death.
The problem with this is that the game really suffers from UFO 50’s two button constraint in this regard. You switch poles by double tapping, which in calmer waters is no great toil. When you're in the heat of battle however, especially during some of the game’s boss encounters, it becomes a problem.
Often was the case that I went to switch and simply jumped, or more often the opposite, attempting to leap a projectile only to careen upwards into some life ending spikes. Double tap, in a game that requires this much precision, is a death sentence.
It's tolerable, though. And luckily not the only thing the game has going for it. One thing I really enjoyed was how modular its upgrade system was. Every mod accrued can be swapped between Gravity, Armour and Weapon for different effects, and in that joyous way that all good Search Action titles render, even a single new ability will bring with it memories of multiple new paths the player could potentially now navigate.
Level design is equally fascinating. By making both floor and ceiling a surface, there’s a brilliant duality to every space that organically trains you to think smart about how you get past the myriad obstacles in your way. In designing things this way, it makes both the world and the avatar aspects of the player’s engagement.
On a slightly related note, everyone really should play Leap Year for more of this kind of smart game design synergy.
Vainger is a cool title, one that I had a lot of fun with. Once again it falls foul of the thing a lot of Search Action games do that I despise, which is to dump largely uninspired boss encounters in bland empty rooms, but at least here you are still making good use of that central mechanic. I just wish they had given it an extra button.
Just one extra button, Mossmouth, it won't break the kayfabe that much, I promise!