Last year was the first I really spent experimenting with indie games.  Not that I frown at games without a big budget, but there just haven’t been many that captivated me until a great friend of mine sent me a demo for VVVVVV, making the bet that I would buy it afterward.  I thought he was full of shit too until I finished the demo and promptly headed to steam to play what I consider one of the best games of last year, indie or not.

I didn’t have time to fit it in, but the title music is so damn relaxing.

Part of the magic is in the music.  It’s easy to please the retro crowd by composing chiptune tracks on the merit of nostalgia alone, but Souleye managed to put together a collection that sounds refreshing and proves that there is still a lot of directions that chiptune music can expand.

The official soundtrack is also of excellent quality, designed in such a way that you can set a track to loop infinitely, and the transition is seamless unlike others that fade out and offers only a distraction when you want to just lay back and listen to the same thing for hours on end.  I highly recommend getting it if you enjoy the youtube examples to come.

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