Review: BIT.TRIP FATE and FLUX

There is an area

the path of fate can move around on.
But if emotion takes over
the path is set in stone.
Anger controls our actions.
Fate is decided.
This is the hardest part of our BIT.TRIP.

First off guys, sorry for no screenies in this review. Somehow my USB grabber is raging - it displays a BSOD as soon I plug it in. I hate technology. As soon it starts working again, I'll deliver some, but until then ask Google or try the demo on the Wii Shop.
But what I don't hate is BIT.TRIP, obviously. Here are the final two games of the series - BIT.TRIP FATE and BIT.TRIP FLUX. Both are currently available on WiiWare for 800 points each.

FATE picks up right where RUNNER left off - CommanderVideo's Five Man Band chasing Mingrawn Timbletot, who's fleeing into space. This game is a rail shooter - literally. CV is moving on a line called the vibe, and you can only tell him to move forward or backwards, but as the screen autoscrolls forward you are forced to go forward. (note to myself: write a story analysis on BIT.TRIP - there are so many hidden meanings which could be explained and stuff)

All the while, blocky enemies are launched at you, which you have to dispose of before they hit you. Especially later in the game, when the concept of "beat aiming" is introduced, FATE becomes pure bullet hell.
On a rail. Have fun dodging.
The game's tempo is a lot slower than in the other games, and that slower tempo shows in the music music. The soundtrack is chiefly influenced by the genre of dubstep, creating a slow, bass-heavy selection of chiptunes. The music is awesome, but the slower tempo of the game might not please everyone. Personally, I didn't really like it.

This time the game has 6 levels instead of three. Each one is named after a feeling the Commander has at this stage. Starting from DETERMINATION, it goes to FRUSTRATION and so on. Slowly his anger takes over, as he comes closer and closer to his arch enemy in his final battle.

And then IT happens.

A warning here, FLUX will spoil the plot twist at the end of FATE. It's basically impossible to review this game without telling it. So you better play through FATE first, then read below if you want to buy FLUX. Hint: yes, you want to.

After the battle against his arch rival, CV does a suicide attack on Mingrawn Timbletot to defeat him for good. Sadly, he fails and dies. BIT.TRIP FLUX tells the story of the end of CommanderVideo's journey - his death, afterlife and reincarnation.

FLUX takes the basic gameplay of BEAT - the biggest difference being that the paddle is now on the right and the beats come from the left - but mixes in various elements from the other games, like beats you have to avoid from VOID.
The difficulty went down a lot thanks to 7 checkpoints per stage which you can use unlimited times. Makes sense, since when you are dead, you can't die again. That makes it much more accessible for those alienated by the sparse checkpoints in the previous games

And that's what the developers wanted. Gaijin wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the visual and musical experience mixed with familiar gameplay. The soundtrack is truly awesome - the anonymous composer at Petrified Productions made calm, relaxing chiptunes, mixing in various themes from the other BIT.TRIP games. The bosses are throwbacks to the older games too.

VERDICT:  Basically, FLUX is a celebration of the conclusion of the BIT.TRIP saga while still managing to feel fresh thanks to various new kinds of beats. The ending is truly a great ending to the series - especially when you know it's secret, you will have a sudden epiphany about the entire saga as a whole.
Also, it's fucking perfect.
I hate giving out a full score, but this game deserves it so much. You won't find a better game on WiiWare.

Memories are purged.

Knowledge is replace by instinct again.
Our game is over,
but we are still there.
Life begins anew,
born of the old.
Our journey is complete.
We all are on our BIT.TRIP.

Aaaand here's a note on what's coming.
You may have noticed my post about The Potato Sack. I will review every game in it (except BIT.TRIP BEAT, obviously), and while most are awesome, there are some that aren't that great. The series starts next time with AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A reckless Disregard for Gravity. I might put in a preview of 1... 2... 3... KICK IT! -- Drop that Beat like an ugly Baby too, since it's by the same developer, but it's still in alpha. Just stating what's awesome and what suggestions I have. I'll also try to get back into MSN soon so I can poke Mabelma until he makes images better then mine :D So, stay tuned!

Oh, and even though I already wrote this twice on Facebook, twice on YouTube, on three forums and on Twitter, here's another shoutout for Valve: YOU ARE AWESOME FOR GIVING THE COMPLETE VALVE PACK AND PORTAL 2 FOR FREE TO EVERYONE WHO COLLECTED ALL THE POTATOES IN YOUR PORTAL 2 ARG. Thank you for reading.

Review: BIT.TRIP VOID and RUNNER

You.

Your goal.
Nothing can stop you.
Believe in yourself
and you can do anything.
Take up the challenge
and continue your BIT.TRIP.

It's time for more BIT.TRIP madness! As a part of our review series, this time we will play BIT.TRIP VOID and BIT.TRIP RUNNER. You can grab both on the Wii Shop Channel for 600/800 Wii Points. And it seems RUNNER for your computer at home is not far away.

Hey guys. What's up.

So, we've been following CommanderVideo for quite some time now, and now it's about time he gets social. Meeting others, finding friends, etc. Sadly, the Commander is doing it completely wrong at first.
The story is being told mainly in the cutscenes this time, and the occassional text appearing shortly in a stage. The background doesn't become less awesome, though.

Popping the void is a good idea
in this situation.

VOID doesn't limit you to the Wiimote this time. You can choose beetween using your Nunchuck or a Classic Controller, both of which work equally well. You can move your void around using the stick, and pop your void using a button.
The game goes after the classic R/R system. In case you are not familar with this, here's a quick explantation. R/R means risk/reward - there is a special goal you can only reach by taking a risk. Let's take Super Mario as example. There's a 1UP hanging right above a pit. The risk is losing your life, the reward getting a life.
The blog of Super Meat Boy has a quite nice analysis, go check it out.

How much will you risk to get
a good score here?

Now how is R/R implemented in BIT.TRIP VOID? Easy - you move around with your void, collecting black beats. For chaining black beats the value for each best increases, the multiplier grows and you get more points stored in your void. The catch is: with every beat your void grows, which makes it slower and thus it's harder to avoid white beats, which reset the beat value. Thus you have to pop your void after some time, and that's when the points in your void are added to your real score.


The R/R system brings a whole new dimension to the game, as you now can't get a highest possible score anymore. That keeps the competition up - sadly, due to the lack of online leaderboards it's hard to compare all scores.
note to myself: make an online portal to post your scores to. Would be awesome, I guess
The new checkpoints sure make the game easier than BEAT and CORE (that may be a good or bad point depending on your skill). The soundtrack is one of the best in the series, and the new backgrounds are awesome. While not being the best game, it comes pretty damn close to it. A great start for new BIT.TRIPpers who are not too sure if they have enough skills.

4.8/5

Now that the Commander has gotten some social skills and new-found friends, it's time to go on. He is living life to it's fullest. Nothing can stop him now. It's time for the TRIP in BIT.TRIP. It's time for BIT.TRIP RUNNER.

RUNNER features 3 zones with 11 levels,
11 retro challenges and a boss.

First thing you notice, the game title has 6 letters as opposed to the 4 letters of any other game. Why? I don't know, but it's worth noting.
Second thing you notice, the gameplay can be compared to the free flash game Canabalt. Holding the Wiimore horizontally, press 2 to jump over pits, rocks and other stuff. But as opposed to the flash game, you can do various other moves you learn while running through the 3 zones, which include sliding, using springs, kicking and getting your paddle from BIT.TRIP BEAT to block beats aiming for your head.

If you reach the highest mode, you
leave a rainbow trail. Double
Rainbow all the way!

As you jump, slide and kick your way through 69 (!) 2-minute-long levels, you must not fail. The NETHER meter from the older games is absent. One hit, and you're out. Back to the start, score set to 0 and mode reset to HYPER. RUNNER takes an idea from Super Meat Boy here - CommanderVideo will start running again just 3 seconds after your death.
But even though you just take one hit, RUNNER is by far the easiest of the pack right now.

And this is just the first part
of the level.

Why, you ask? Well, let's take a look at BEAT and CORE, where a death in one of the three levels would result in a restart of the entire level. In VOID there were 3 checkpoints per level, but you had to have a credit left, thus keeping the difficulty up.
Now let's imagine RUNNER's three zones were levels. You would have 11 checkpoints per level, free to use, and 11 challenges in front of each checkpoint as the only thing you can truly fail at. Also the bit-sized levels make it way easier to get a PERFECT.

That doesn't mean it's bad, though. In fact, this is - right now - the best BIT.TRIP game. Due to the short levels you can play this game for a short time while you wait for another game to finish loading, and it feels way more likely to get a perfect score, thus motivatnig many players to try what they haven't in the other BIT.TRIP games. And since it's the easiest game right now, other players with less skill can also quickly success. This is a must-buy, if you have a Wii.

4.9/5

You may ask why I didn't give a full 5 of 5. Well, it's because there's still room for improvement, since the final game is coming tomorrow. BIT.TRIP FLUX, the 6th part, will was released in Europe today and the USA get it on Monday! Get your Wii Points ready to complete the final chapter of your BIT.TRIP.
But before we review the final duo BIT.TRIP FATE and FLUX, we will take a look at what is most likely one of the most successful indie games of all time, being still in beta and has sold one million copies, though. If you still don't know what we're talking about, here's a final hint:
It's about working in mines and crafting.

Review: BIT.TRIP BEAT and BIT.TRIP CORE

Everything comes from nothing.
Nothing comes from something.
Life is rhythm.
Rhythm is life.
It will all make sense
once we return to nothing.
Our BIT.TRIP has started.

In celebration of the upcoming final part, we will review the BIT.TRIP series by Gaijin Games. BIT.TRIP consists out of 6 parts. Today, we will review the first both games of the series, BIT.TRIP BEAT and BIT.TRIP CORE. In case you want to check them out, they are available on the WiiWare store for the small fee of 600 Wii Points. If you want BEAT but don't own a Wii, it was also released on the iOSes, but since the controls were criticized I suggest grabbing for PC/Mac on Steam.

The hero of the BIT.TRIP
series: CommanderVideo.

Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of CommanderVideo. His continuing mission: To make people rage. Hard. The story of the BIT.TRIP games is told in short cutscenes and the animated backgrounds of the stages. It's hard to look at those while there are 10 beats per second flying on your paddle, though. You probably won't even be able to make sense of the story on your first playthrough. And even after a couple more, it still won't be easy.

Let's play "Keep track of all the flying stuff
on the screen"! ... You lost!

The gameplay can be best described as “Pong versus a machine gun”. By tilting the Wiimote, you can move your paddle up and down, reflecting “beats” which are being launched at you from the right. There are multiple kinds – the ones going straight, the wall-bouncers, the juggling beats, the stuttering beats, the wave beats, the trail beats, and the paddle-stopping beats – luckily you can differ every beat, as they all have a unique color. It starts off easy with slow beats, but later in the 3 stages – TRANSITION, DESCENT and GROWTH - you won't get a break from the massive onslaught.

“3 stages” makes the game sound pretty short, but considering every stage is 15 minutes long and if you fail, you have to replay the entire stage, it sounds a lot longer. This game is unforgiving. If you always fail at the part which appears 7 minutes in, you have to replay these 7 minutes every time. It can be frustrating as hell if you aren't a person who likes really hard games like this.

By leveling up into MEGA, your multiplier
will increase as long as you hit beats
– but miss 5 beats and it gets reset.

As this is a rhythm game, the music is a big part of the experience. And this game does not let you down. Oh no. On a scale of 0 to 5, this soundtrack gets a solid 10. Chiptune beats play in the background, and every beat hit plays a note. Every transition you pass adds a new layer to the background music. If you miss enough beats, you get leveled down into NETHER mode, where the music is off and beeps are just played through the Wiimote. If you manage to avoid a game over, the music instantly kicks in again. On the contrary, if you hit enough beats you get into MEGA mode, which makes your score skyrocket and makes music and graphics even BIT.TRIP-pier.

As soon you finally beat the (incredibly hard) boss of the final level, you are done here. The odd story is concluded in the ending – and suddenly, it all makes sense. The meteor in TRANSITION, the beats, the cutscenes. Relieved because you finally beat those levels, you keep coming back for more; new highscores, and even trying to get the elusive PERFECTs, by hitting every beat. You are competing with your friends who can beat the boss of TRANSITION without missing a beat; who can get a higher score on DESCENT and who can play GROWTH while holding the Wiimote the wrong way. Or, you could just do it to hear the great music again. The only downside is that it's a game for experienced players – other players will get frustrated easily because of the massive difficulty.

4.5/5

But wait, stop! Move your mouse away from that X button. There's more.
BEAT was just the first step on the Commander's journey. Now, it's time to meet his surroundings. The saga continues with BIT.TRIP CORE - it's 600 Wii Points on the Wii Shop Channel, and will be released soon on Steam.

The menu serves, like in BEAT, as a
tutorial - it will show you the basic
controls and gameplay.

CORE uses a completely different gameplay mechanic than BEAT, removing motion controls and the paddle. Instead, you have a Core in the screen center. By holding the D-Pad in a direction, a beam is sent out. As soon a beat passes by your core, press 2 to turn the beam into a laser, destroying the beat, giving you points and increasing your mode. But still, many elements from the first game were carried over, like the 3 old modes, and a new mode higher than MEGA, called SUPER. And I tell you, this is just for the pros. Your score is increasing rapidly, your multiplier skyrocketing and the music is being continually awesome - until you miss a beat, that is. Because one mistake will send you right back to MEGA again.

You will be in NETHER a lot.
And I mean a LOT.

Again, having a load of different beats you have to return, CORE is a bit harder than BEAT, making it the hardest BIT.TRIP game yet. The game still spans three levels, still 15 minutes each and still as unforgiving as before. If you continue to miss beats and end up in the NETHER and don't manage to get back into HYPER, you're out. Score back to 0, progress back to 0, all effort gone. And then, rage. Luckily, BIT.TRIP CORE is motivating enough to keep you going, even through all of your constant failures. Everytime you fail at the boss, you get more and more tries until you can finally nail the pattern, and subsequently, the boss. Then, you're just so damn happy, you jump right into the next stage. And fail. Again.

Though it got some of the best reviews in the entire series, the developers say CORE is the worst BIT.TRIP game. But that doesn't mean it's bad; it's a really great game, and can easily be counted as one of the best WiiWare exclusives. It's addictive as hell, the bosses are great references to old games like Asteroid, and the music is pretty damn awesome. Especially the soundtrack of the final level, CONTROL. The story is less complex (if you got the story of BEAT it will be way easier), but the music works well with the backgrounds and cutscenes to weave an interesting tale. CORE is a wonderful symbiosis, and despite being - as stated before - the weakest game of the pack, it's definitely worth checking out.

4/5

And that's it for today! Check back next Thursday when we review Super Meat Boy, and stay tuned for future reviews of BIT.TRIP VOID and BIT.TRIP RUNNER!