The Bit. Trip series has proven to be a very engaging and very frustrating series for me. The first game (Bit. Trip Beat) was all fun in it’s old school pong gameplay and infectious music but would quickly turn into a “want to throw your wiimote into a wall” sort of game. One of the biggest problems I had with the game was the way that the visuals overpowered everything else in the screen just to make it difficult to play. That’s a pretty cheap element to use to make a game challenging. Not to mention it being irritating on the eyes. Fatigued eyes don’t make me want to play your game much.
Bit. Trip Core and Void didn’t leave as much of an impression on me as the first game did so I won’t say much about them. Well, other than that I felt the series was losing the edgy feeling it had with Beat.
I was barely following the Bit. Trip Runner announcements, but I figured I’d gone three games deep into the series, why not see what Gaijin comes up with in the fourth. I’m glad that I got Runner because I feel like they aced it with this one.
The music is perfect, the gameplay (while many will probably just compare it to Canabalt) is gripping and fairly simple once you manage to get set of moves down and it’s just altogether addictive. Unlike the other games in the series, I seriously find myself playing for an hour and wanting to go play some more despite a lot of the game being all about memorization and quick reflexes in the most basic sense.
It feels like more of a music rhythm game than any of the Bit. Trip games and I think that’s what’s got me liking it so much. (I’m a big time sucker for music rhythm games.)
There are 3 worlds with 11 stages and one boss stage and they’re all really well designed stages with enough obstacles to dash the Canabalt comparison. That becomes especially true when you factor in the different moves Commander Video uses to make it through. Jumping, sliding, flying kicks, shield guard and timing jumps on springing platforms.
As for dying in this game, I really appreciate not having to see the screen fade to black and have the stage reload. Instead Gaijin just has Commander Video get sent flying back to the beginning of the stage. There’s no break in the music, just a couple seconds of downtime as you watch him zoom back, passing through the stage as you frantically prepare yourself (and kick yourself if you’ve gotten lazy and didn’t bother to remember the layout of the stage) so you can swiftly get back to where you died and move on.
Definitely pick up this game if you like old school graphics and gameplay with a modern twist.
800 wii points on Wii Ware
update .
I’m up to the 3rd world’s final boss. The FINAL BOSS. (I think.)
I just wanted to add for those who are finding themselves frustrated with the game; Take it one stage, one day at a time. And if you need to spread the memorization of a stage and development of strategy in terms of how to tap (short holds vs. long holds), do it. I spent 3 to 4 days on World 3-11 before I finally “Got it.”
And stay calm! This game is definitely a test of patience, self control and endurance. The more my apartment became expletive filled because I was losing my cool, the more often I’d mess up on stupid moves. Things like not holding a button long enough or timing a jump into slide movement. If you need to, make your angry reaction quick and breath evenly as you get sent back to the beginning of the stage. If nothing else, Bit. Trip Runner has taught me I can get pretty angry, pretty fast sometimes. But I’ll give myself the excuse that it’s been really hot lately and I haven’t gotten around to getting an air conditioner into a window.
