Ludography
79/100
Players139 ratings
83/100
Critics3 reviews
More scores
Metacritic4 critic reviews
88/100
Metacritic usersuser score
73/100
GameFAQsUnforgiving
3.75/5
Player reviews
97% positive18,440 reviews
Steam Deck
Verified
Runs on
Windows, Mac, Linux
Price
US$2.99

Where to get it

Super Hexagon cover

2012 · Terry Cavanagh · Action · Arcade

Super Hexagon

Super Hexagon is a minimal action game by Terry Cavanagh, with music by Chipzel.

Released
6 September 2012
Platforms
AndroidBlackBerry 10BlackBerry OSLinuxWindowsiOSmacOS
Genres
ActionArcadeIndieRhythm
Developers
Terry Cavanagh
Publishers
Terry Cavanagh
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Engine
Adobe Flash
Country
Ireland
Age ratings
ESRB ECLASS_IND L
Languages
English
Copies sold
45,000 as of 2012-09-21
Time to beat
5.5hmain story18hcompletionist
Composers
Chipzel

About

Super Hexagon is an action video game created by independent developer Terry Cavanagh with music composed by Chipzel. Originally released for iOS in September 2012, versions for Windows and macOS were released three months later. Android, BlackBerry and Linux versions followed in early 2013.

The game is based on an earlier prototype by Cavanagh, simply titled Hexagon, which was created for a twelve-hour game jam in early 2012.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Super Hexagon is a game in which the player controls a triangle on a hexagonal grid in the center while walls come from the edges of the screen. The player must pivot their triangle left or right into an opening in order to survive. The ultimate goal of the game is to survive as long as possible, beating the player's previous record, and the entire level must be restarted if the player makes a mistake. The pace of the game progressively gets more difficult the longer the player has survived and to distract players, the game features a chiptune soundtrack, walls that occasionally change direction, and the playfield will constantly spin in different directions and may also occasionally change color.

The game contains three main difficulty levels, respectively "Hexagon", "Hexagoner", and "Hexagonest", beginning at hard, harder, and hardest. Additional, "Hyper" versions of the previous stages can be unlocked by surviving for over sixty seconds on a level, with their difficulties increasing to "hardester", "hardestest", and "hardestestest" in that order.

Development

Super Hexagon started off as a prototype titled Hexagon, made and released in one day for the late February 2012 game jam Pirate Kart V. Designer Terry Cavanagh saw potential in the project and decided to increase the game's difficulty and expand upon its concept. Cavanagh has stated that he is "not much of a visual artist," thus settling on a minimal look quickly. The visuals of Super Hexagon are barely different from its original Hexagon iteration.

During development, Cavanagh made various changes based on "what felt good", before starting the beta testing process. Cavanagh found that anyone could beat the game once they get better reflexes and a better understanding of the game's mechanics.

Reception

Super Hexagon has received a positive critical response with a score of 86/100 on review aggregator website Metacritic for the iOS version and 88/100 for the Windows version.

The game was the runner-up for Apple's App Store "Best of 2012" Game of the Year and was a finalist for the 2013 Independent Games Festival Excellence in Design award (which went to FTL: Faster Than Light) with an Honorable Mention for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. It was also nominated for "British Game" in the British Academy Video Games Awards in 2013.

Legacy

Vittorio Romeo developed Open Hexagon, a spiritual successor designed to be easily customisable. In May 2021, Terry Cavanagh praised the project in a tweet reading "It's really cool to see that Open Hexagon is still getting regular updates, all these years later - if you liked Super Hexagon and you're interested in what a community driven version looks like, check it out!"

Awards

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
iOS31 August 2012Worldwide
Windows27 November 2012Worldwide
macOS27 November 2012Worldwide
Android19 January 2013Worldwide
BlackBerry OS16 February 2013Worldwide
Linux27 February 2013Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Based on
Hexagon

Games like this

Collections3 collections

Platform libraries

Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.