
- 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

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
Editions and related releases
- Based on
- Hexagon
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Collections3 collections
Platform libraries
- IOS gamesGames and applications
Years
- Games released in 2012List › October–December
- Games released in 2013List › January–March
- Games released in 2013List › January–March
Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.
