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Preview: Bit.Trip Complete

Features

Six colourful worlds in one happy package...

Posted 14th February 2012, 7:03pm in Games / By Becca Roberts


Combining colour with music and increasingly difficult gameplay, the Bit.Trip games are not to be dismissed lightly as basic platformers. The series combines arcade principles with rhythmic music that responds to your performance, which is one of the main reasons the series has become so popular. The music is largely composed and arranged by chiptune artist Anamanaguchi, so it adds a really fun, retro vibe to the series. Combine that with the extremely vibrant backdrops and you get a series of games that are energetic and full of character. Bit.Trip Complete is a full collection of all six Wii games in one handy set, with additional bonus elements like art, video diaries and audio.

Starting with Bit.Trip Beat, this is the first Bit.Trip game and it combines motion with music. You are given a small paddle and are required to dodge the blobs coming your way, much the same principle as Atari’s Pong, by tilting the Wii remote. The game increases in speed and difficulty and a lot of hand-eye coordination is required!



Bit.Trip Core uses basic shooter principles, but builds more upon the rhythmic synchronization of the music than in Beat. You are a cross-shaped ship placed in the middle of the screen and are required to use the d-pad on the Wii remote to shoot at objects coming from all directions. It gets pretty tough as all the dots go flying around the screen, but you can use the beat of the music to guide you when to fire, you just have to pick the right direction.



Bit.Trip Void requires the nunchuck and is perhaps the lesser intuitive of all the games, but it’s still addictive. You begin as a small black spot and you have to use the analog stick on the nunchuck to move around and gather other black spots whilst avoiding the white spots. The difficulty comes in movement as you increase in size with each black spot you collect. You can shrink to avoid these, but as always, the speed constantly increases.



Bit.Trip Runner is probably the most famous out of the set and is certainly my favourite! You are required to jump over and duck under objects as Commander Video keeps powering on with his little jog. It has one of the best soundtracks in the game and incorporates the rhythmic reflexes as usual. It also has rainbows and robots and SO many colours!



Bit.Trip Fate is a on rails shooter type game where you have the ability to move along the line using the analog stick on the nunchuck whilst shooting at the objects using the motion on the Wii remote. This one is ok, but less fun than the others as there is not much rhythmic synchronization in it.



The last game in the set is Bit.Trip Flux, which is pretty much Bit.Trip Beat 2. You control a panel at the other end of the screen this time, and there are a few changes in terms of how the objects travel towards you. Also the game feels more continuous as you are not taken back to the home screen when you die, which makes for more addictive play as you don’t ever have to stop!



So that’s the whole complete package, which will be available for the Wii in March. It’s a great collection that combines skill with a retro edge, and with all the games in one handy set, this is a bargain that shouldn’t be missed!

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