bit.trip beat grabbed my interest the moment i saw the trailer. it has the qualities of other games that i hold in high regard: super simplistic game play, a retro art style harkening back to the days of the atari 2600, and a bit of quirkiness with the guitar hero like game design. i bought the game from nintendo’s wii store last friday and my expectations for the game were blown away.
the game is a souped up version of pong. you know, that game from the 70s. you move the paddle up and down by holding the wii controller horizontally and rotating it up and down. objects, let’s call them blocks, come flying across the screen and it is your job to send them back (or ‘repel’ as the manual says). if you successfully connect with a block a sound effect is made. when the block leaves the screen another sound effect is made. the series of blocks and sound effects together make a really interesting song that is easy to get into. also, if you hit enough blocks, the sound effects will change from sounding like an atari 2600 to something more modern (yet dated) like a super nintendo or sega genesis. miss enough blocks and the game will revert to sounding like an atari 2600, eventually looking like an atari 2600, and then the game is over.
the first time you play the game, it feels like there’s nothing complex about the game. this is pong we’re talking about, right? wrong. the game quickly becomes increasingly difficult. you start moving the paddle up and down the screen at a frantic pace not really knowing what to expect. after going through the cycle of losing, restarting, losing, and restarting once more, the game starts to become more familiar. you’re not reacting to what appears on the screen anymore. you know what is about to appear and how the song is supposed to go. the gameplay suddenly turns into a song and dance between you and the blocks as you glide the paddle to the proper place.
bit.trip beat has that addictive quality where you can’t help but say to yourself, “one more time” each time you lose. the game is available to download through nintendo’s wii store under the wiiware category and is an exceptional bargain for $6.
