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BIT.TRIP BEAT is Hella Sweet

Posted by Bob Mackey


What makes Nintendo's complete neglect in promoting WiiWare so tragic is that legitimately awesome titles worthy of attention are sometimes released for the console's digital download service. Take BIT.TRIP BEAT, for example; it's a completely unique Rez-like take on the rhythm genre, yet you're probably finding out about for the first time by reading this blog post. Don't feel too bad; I just discovered the game today by reading a post about it on a message board. And that's a real shame, because BIT.TRIP BEAT is a Playstation Network-y little game that would definitely give WiiWare the same credibility that titles like Noby Noby Boy and Flower lend to the PS3. The game itself essentially plays like an advanced version of pong mixed with a horizontally-scrolling shooter; you control a paddle and hit incoming "balls" to the rhythm of some rockin' old school chiptunes.

Of course, a YouTube video is really the only thing that'll do the premise of BIT.TRIP BEAT any justice, so go ahead and take a gander at the game's trailer:



At only 600 points, BIT.TRIP BEAT is definitely worth looking into--especially if you're interesting in seeing similar titles come to the Wii's oft-ignored platform.

Related Links:

Chiptune Friday: Trip to the Beat
Style Over Substance: Why I'm In Love With WiiWare's "Art Style"
The Best News In Sixteen Thousand Years: Cave Story Coming to WiiWare
WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Isn’t Working Out


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT
Posted Mar 17 2009, 12:00 PM
Filed under: , , , , ,

Comments

Roto13 said:

You only just heard about it? I heard about it months ago. And several times since then. It's weird you're only just now hearing about it.

I didn't think the trailer looked very interesting, but I keep hearing it's good so I guess I'll give it a try.

March 17, 2009 1:42 PM

Derrick Sanskrit said:

I'm surprised you didn't hear about it as well. I posted about it three times before.

I love the hell out of it and look forward to the rest of the series. Finally playing it from the comfort of my own living room last night felt fantastic, much better than the crowded booth at New York Comic-Con. The game is hard as hell, but blissfully wonderful. Too bad I had to spend twenty minutes "cleaning the fridge" before I could download it.

March 17, 2009 2:12 PM

Bob Mackey said:

Not sure how I missed it--even on 61FPS--but my point still stands that Nintendo really needs to promote these games outside of the belated e-mails they typically send out.

Oh yeah, and I also had to delete a few things to download the game.

March 17, 2009 2:57 PM

Roto13 said:

How could it possibly take 20 minutes to make room for this game? Copying a game this size to an SD card takes about 30 seconds.

I downloaded it to try it. The levels are way too long and the dark purple dots can be hard to notice against those busy backgrounds. Otherwise, it's not a bad game. At least not for $6.

March 17, 2009 4:15 PM

Derrick Sanskrit said:

Yeah, I would have preferred five or six shorter levels, but I appreciate their commitment to grueling challenge and high score seeking.

Admittedly, most of that twenty minutes was comparing the number of blocks used by all the save files and channels I could possibly accept losing, though moving Mario Kart 64 to my SD card definitely took longer than 30 seconds. I almost deleted Tetris Party, a solid game but the WiiWare I play the least of those still on my Wii. Nintendo Channel and Elebits save file (over 100 blocks!) are friggin' gone, though.

March 17, 2009 5:09 PM

Roto13 said:

How big is the Mario Kart channel? I copied World of Goo (320 blocks) to an SD card when Nintendo upped the transfer rate in December. I timed it and it took almost exactly 30 seconds. When was the last time you updated your firmware?

March 17, 2009 5:36 PM

Derrick Sanskrit said:

Mario Kart 64 was somewhere around 120 blocks, and yeah, I was surprised it took that long.

I had to do the system update for MadWorld last week, which meant I hadn't updated in a while, at least. Maybe I haven't done that firmware update yet?

March 17, 2009 5:57 PM

Roto13 said:

Weird that it wouldn't be included in that MadWorld update. Go to your settings and check to see if there are any more updates available for you.

In other, more on-topic news, apparently the game doesn't save unless you get a high score. I beat the first level twice and quit, neither times getting a high score, and both times it didn't save. That means when I go back to play it again, I'll have to do the first level a third time. If I had known this, I would have waited for someone to upload a completed save file somewhere before buying this.

March 17, 2009 6:36 PM

jenn said:

Yeah, it definitely took about 20 minutes to clear that space up. A whole lot of copying channels, then deleting those channels, and sighing.

Totally worth it, though.

March 17, 2009 11:43 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

If unsatisfied, please return unused portion for partial refund.

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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