Old yet new and exciting! – A Bit.Trip Beat review Print
Written by act_deft   
Sunday, 29 March 2009 15:11

actdeftreviewsbittripbeat

Nowadays, most gaming companies have releasing a handful of remakes of retro games and giving them a new look or a new feel to them. But Bit.Trip Beat is a game that takes retro gaming and turns it into something completely new.

Bit.Trip Beat has a very simple game play mechanics yet it is kind of difficult to master.  It plays basically like Pong, you get thrown blocks from the right side of your screen and you have to bounce those blocks back from where they came from, making it a little like a Shoot ‘Em Up type of game, like Gradius or R-type.  But of course it is not just that, while you hit every block you are also making the rhythm and music to the game, some examples of this are Space Channel 5, Rez or Space Invaders Extreme.


As the level progresses, you’ll have to hit all the blocks that appear on screen.  For every block you hit you’ll fill the bar on the top of your screen; that would be your multiplier bar.  Every time you fill it you’ll get more point multipliers (x2, x3 and so on).  But if you fill the bottom bar you’ll lose all your multiplier points, but if you fill that bar and you don’t have any multipliers your screen will turn black and white and the music will be gone.  So it will be only you hitting blocks and trying to refill the top bar.  You won’t get any points while you are on this screen but the Multiplier bar will fill faster but also will the bottom bar.  So try not to miss as many blocks as possible.

It won’t be as easy as just playing Pong though.  The blocks come from every angle possible and each have different patterns to follow.  This will require a lot of agility on your part since the blocks can come in a straight line, they can zig-zag or they can even bounce of your paddle.  In other words, the game won’t make it easy for you and the further you advance the harder it gets.  And each of the three levels of the game have a very steep difficulty progression, they start out easy then as the level advances it gets more harder and complicated. And while there’s only three levels in the whole game, the game falls from short and does offer some replay value with the in-game hi-score board, too bad it isn’t Wi-Fi compatible because that would’ve been better.

Though not only the game makes it harder for you, the controls don’t help at all.  You use your Wiimote sideways, but instead of using the the control pad you tilt the control forward or backwards to move the paddle up and down. While using the controls in a fun and creative way, sometimes if you make a false move, it will make you miss blocks and throw your game off.  And not only the game controls that way, the menus are the same.  So just be careful how you tilt the Wiimote or you will have to restart the level again.  And while the graphics are not as awesome or good looking as in most games this generation, it looks appealing and it is very colorful, despite the 8-bit graphics.  Though some of the blocks mix with the background and if you are not careful you will miss those blocks.  So while the game is challenging on its own, some of these flaws make the game harder than it should be.

So if you are looking for something simple yet challenging and different, like rhythm action games or just want something old school like, I really suggest getting this game.  For 600 Wii Points it is sure worth the price and it will keep you entertained for a while.