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REVIEW
BIT.TRIP BEAT

This WiiWare titles begs the question: What is a videogame? And in a similar way, thinking about this game is making me question: What is a videogame review? How could I possibly write any more about BIT.TRIP BEAT other than saying you have to play it for yourself? Let me begin…

BIT.TRIP BEAT is at the base level of its existence, a videogame - which is to say it has a challenge and rules in which users must meet it. But through the experience of sitting down to play it, the game becomes much more. The “Are Videogames Art?” debate has been so ongoing that it has become easy to forget these core principles of what elements come together to make a game, and yet here we have a game – a WiiWare game, at that – that makes you feel like a catalyst in the creation of art.

The game uses the simplest of concepts to introduce players into its world. You control the movement of a paddle along a vertical plane by holding the Wii Remote sideways. Tilting or rolling the remote forward sends the paddle upward and tilting it back moves the paddle downward. While you do this, objects fly towards your paddle from the right side of the screen. It’s your job to move your paddle to intercept these bits, bouncing them back to whence they came. And when you do this, they play different notes in time and tune to the already-playing background music. The act of missing a bit results in a dropped note, and a less-satisfying thud sound as it sails past the paddle.

With all these bits moving towards you, the overall effect is that as you control the paddle’s vertical movement, it is constantly traveling forward (IE: rightward) through the game. The bits that rush towards it initially move in a strictly horizontal fashion, but the longer the game continues, new types of bit movement are introduced, and with them, new sounds. Bits zigzag, stop and go, and some even bounce back when you hit them. As all this is happening, the Wii Remote itself responds to the music’s rhythm, vibrating in time to the beat like a tactile metronome.

Further deepening this experience is the fact that the game reacts, both visually and audibly, to how well you’re doing at bouncing the bits back. You receive score multipliers for consecutive hits, and although the main “stage” is a long song, the better you do, more instrument tracks are layered on top of it. The visual effect of this transition is akin to what it looks like to change channels on a television with a dial tuner. After the quick vertical flip up, more visual details are seen and these complement the additional audio tracking quite nicely.

Similarly, consecutively missing approaching bits will yield an appropriate penalty – the removal of layered audio tracks and visual details. With a vertical “channel change” downward, sound is reduced until it is non-existent. The Wii Remote still pulses in time to where the beat would be, but you are left deprived of that sense, realizing just how important it is to BIT.TRIP BEAT. And visually, we’re faced with nothing more than a stark black playing field with white objects floating on them, very reminiscent of the first home version of PONG, complete with subtle touches such as an occasional V-hold scan line slowly drifting from bottom to top of the screen. Adding further retro flair, the paddle and any bits traveling across the screen leave faint ghosting trails behind them – the same you’re get on an older television. The lack of sensory overload during this portion of game-play is a greater punishment than dying in-game, and presents a curious case of self preservation for the sole purpose of ending this sudden loneliness. It’s this point during the game where it becomes a case of “do or die.” Missing bits now will mean the game will end in defeat, but hitting as many as possible will bring back the bright colour and thumping 8-bit sound with the virtual flip of a channel. The only apparent positive aspect of playing in the black and white plane is the absence of distracting background elements that can often obscure the projectile paths of the bits during the regular colourful and musical mode.

While playing BIT.TRIP BEAT, it is easy to feel lost within it. The constant flurry of oncoming bits compels you to stay focused to such an extent that you will forget to blink and you will stare into your screen – possibly past it, too. It’s a game that will take older players back to a time when they first discovered videogames. It may even make them feel that same sense of selflessness they felt all those years ago, as they are pulled into it, aware of their bodies only because it’s their hands that move the paddle up and down. BIT.TRIP BEAT is a rhythm game that balances game-play with minimalist graphics and sound to create something bigger than the sum of its parts, and it is therefore not only worth the 600 Wii points it costs, but also worth the effort it takes to clear off some system memory for it.

Posted in Art, Awesome, Music, WiiWare |