In the game, the player controls Captain Viridian, who must rescue their spacecrew after a teleporter malfunction caused them to be separated in Dimension VVVVVV.

Unlike most platforming games, in VVVVVV, the player is not able to jump, but they instead can reverse the direction of gravity when standing on a surface, causing Captain Viridian to fall either upwards or downwards.

The player uses this mechanic to traverse the game's environment and avoid various hazards, including stationary spikes and moving enemies.

Later areas introduce new mechanics such as moving floors or rooms which, upon touching one edge of the screen, cause the player character to appear on the other side.

[13] The gravity-flipping mechanic of VVVVVV is based on an earlier game designed by Cavanagh titled Sine Wave Ninja.

Cavanagh wrote that VVVVVV, unlike some of his previous work such as Judith and Pathways, would not be a "storytelling experiment", but rather "focused on the level design".

Similarly to many of the enemies in the game, the sad elephant originated in dream journals kept by creator Terry Cavanagh and not from Jet Set Willy as once believed.

[22] A Linux version was in development, but a number of technical difficulties arose in the porting process, which led Cavanagh to cancel it for the time being.

[24] Based on this source code it was also ported in 2011 for the Open Pandora,[25] which requires the data files from the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux version of the game to work.

"[31] The complete soundtrack, titled PPPPPP, was released on January 10, 2010, alongside VVVVVV and is sold as a music download or CD on Pålsson's personal website.

[32] On June 12, 2014, Pålsson released a power metal version of the soundtrack titled MMMMMM which was arranged and performed by guitarist Jules Conroy.

Video game record label Materia Collective released a 180g picture disc vinyl LP edition on January 11, 2020.

[35][36] The game was noted for being the first important independent release of 2010;[11][12] Kieron Gillen of Rock, Paper, Shotgun called it "the first great Indie game of the year",[12] while Michael Rose, writing for IndieGames.com, noted that the release of VVVVVV followed a year which "some may argue...didn't really deliver an outstanding indie title which showed the mainstream that independent developers mean business.

"[9] However, several critics noted that the game's challenge is made less frustrating due to its numerous checkpoints, as well as the player's ability to retry after dying as many times as needed.

[40][42] These additions made VVVVVV "not unforgiving", according to IGN staff writer Samuel Claiborn, while still being "old-school in its demands of player dedication".

[43] IGN’s Matthew Adler named VVVVVV the 12th hardest modern game, saying it requires quick reflexes in order to survive and that players will likely die many times.

"[9] Likewise, Gillen wrote in his review that the cost "does strike you as a lot for an Indie lo-fi platformer", while insisting that "it is worth the money".