Right off the bat I will say Bit. Trip:Beat is completely worth the 600 Wii Points it is asking for. It is a fascinating little variation on the Rhythm Game genre with plenty of nods to Pong and Arkanoid along the way. A game like this would not really work that well on any other system (unless it came with some kind of trackball attachment) and the addicting smoothness of play will easily allow you to over look the one or two minor flat notes that it possesses.
As you would expect, this is a lot harder than it sounds as the patterns start simple and get more and more complex as they go, throwing in new kinds of pixels that have their little tricks that follow the songs’ pattern but can still surprise you with unexpected movements. Do well and you’ll rise up into a Hyper Mode where the background grows more colorful, the music gains some added sounds and continuing to do well multiplies your score exponentially. Do poorly and you will descend into the Nether, where all is in black and white and the only sound is a soft beep from your Wiimote whenever you manage to hit a pixel back. You can save yourself from death if you do well but if you wind up in the Nether in a later part of a stage, don’t expect that to be very likely as the patterns will be almost impossible to follow without the melody.
Speaking of the melodies, those are one of the two things that can make or break a Rhythm Game and Bit. Trip:Beat is happily up to the task. The songs are simple techno affairs, supplying a toe-tapping backbeat while allowing you to make up the bulk of the melody. When you bounce back a pixel you get the types of sounds you would expect to hear coming out of an old-fashioned Atari but with a complexity the hardware of the time would be unable to pull off. When you keep upwith the pattern, it results in a musically rewarding experience.
The other make-or-break factor in something requiring such precise motions is, of course, the controls. Again, Bit. Trip:Beat pulls it off. Holding the Wiimote sideways, you must tilt it forwards and backwards to make your Paddle go up and down. The Paddle responds fluidly to your motions and any misses will have to be blamed on your own lack of rhythm… and one of the two minor flaws this game has.
When you manage to get into Hyper mode, the background explodes with colors and images and the pixels you knock back “explode” with giant splashes that flash across the screen. While it looks really cool, it can also be somewhat disorienting and some of the smaller, darker pixels are easy to lose in all the chaos, which may result in a miss because you couldn’t make out what was coming at you in time.
The other minor flaw is that this is a very… bright game, to the point that it may be hard to play it for extended periods before your eyes start to get tired. Fortunately, Bit. Trip:Beat is a game that functions just fine being played in small portions and even if you do manage to beat all three challenges, you may just be tempted to go back and play through them again just to enjoy the unique experience and catchy tunes.
Add Us On