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Bit.Trip Void Review for Nintendo Wii

Bit.Trip Void Review for Nintendo Wii

It’s a well known fact that most video game sequels do not make a big habit of straying too far from the creative boundaries established by their predecessors. Most of the time, in place of true innovation there’s simply a refinement or improvement here, and a new feature or gameplay element there. After all, publishers like to play it safe with their hard-earned investments-particularly when they cost millions of dollars to make-and if something’s already selling, why take a gamble on anything new?

Bit.Trip Void screenshot

This is exactly why the indie game scene has proven to be such a fertile ground for new, bold ideas. When not saddled by big budgets, the demands of publishing execs and the threat of looming deadlines in the face of ambitious projects, developers are free to experiment with exactly what a game can be, and how exactly they want to go about constructing it-one of the many perks that seems to come with not being locked into the same generic variation on a theme.

There is probably no other stage than that of independent game development that Gaijin Games’ Bit.Trip series could successfully have been made and distributed on. Of the games made so far, each is an intimate exploration of one or more throwback genres, a simultaneous homage to gaming’s rich past and a hybrid of old-school mechanics fused with modern-day design. What makes the Bit.Trip games really special, though, is the attention Gaijin pays not just to making each game its own experience, but how their design has followed an evolutionary path. Take the first two games in the series, Bit.Trip Beat and Core. On a base level, these took the genes of Pong and vintage arcade tube-shooters like Tempest, respectively, and combined them to one degree or another with rhythm game design to create two wholly unique games.

Bit.Trip Void expands even further on this idea, and thus represents the series’ biggest evolutionary leap yet. Whereas Beat and Core were both bound by their design restraints-namely, being anchored to a paddle or a shooting from a stationary crosshair of sorts-Void is the first game in the series to incorporate a full, player-controlled range of movement. And with this newfound design maturity, the game takes on the by-comparison-advanced characteristics of a side-scrolling shooter in the vein of Gradius, albeit one whose mechanics have been flipped on their head.

Bit.Trip Void screenshot

Like other Bit.Trips before it, Void’s gameplay is relatively simple. Essentially, players control the titular void, which looks more or less like a pixelated black hole. Levels consist of a long series of patterns made up of black and white dots. It’s your job to avoid the white dots and pick up the black ones. Collecting multiple black dots initiates a combo chain, so the more black dots you collect, the higher your score. Black dots also expand the size of your void, which further increases your score, but at the cost of your movement. Basically, a void becomes increasingly sluggish as it fills more and more of the screen. You can evade the white dots as a bigger void, but not forever; eventually you will have to eject all your accumulated growth (bringing your void down to its small, default size) in order to, say, fit through a tight space between two white line patterns of white dots. At the same time, if you accidentally miss a black dot or hit something white, you’ll lose your size and multiplier, and may even be knocked down a health tier, which the game measures through your collection and evasion accuracy.

Bit.Trip Void screenshot

Less immediately noticeable to the game’s depth-of-field design is its musical element, a trademark of the series. If you’ve played a Bit.Trip game before, you already know the drill: at the game’s start, every black dot you collect makes a tonal blip. As you increase your score and multiplier, the sounds ‘evolve’ from flat-sounding chiptune beeps to full-bodied melodic notes. The idea is to improve your score and accuracy to bring out the musical progression of each stage in Void’s three levels. Indeed, the synchronicity of every void-to-dot interaction you make within the game has been designed around a rhythmic skeleton of a larger musical whole, so doing your best job is key to fully experiencing the game’s aural design. Where Void differs is that it seems to put less of a focus on music than previous titles have, as the musical tracks, even when going at full tilt, still seem less subdued and harder to pick up on.

The focus, then, is more on the design’s evolutionary leap, and the newfound self-awareness it provides by allowing you full control over your void, a concept interestingly reflected in the game’s Freudian level names (Id, Ego, and Super-Ego). The control you’re given is a double-edged sword, though. In previous Bit.Trips, the core design focused entirely around pattern memorization. One could only learn how and when to react to each game’s increasingly complex maneuverings, and act accordingly. Not so in Void. Since your void goes anywhere you move it, the opportunity to screw up is vastly higher than in past iterations. Rather than being tied down to a design track, you’re free to tackle any pattern in any way you see fit. It’s still pattern memorization at the end of the day, but with the freedom of movement, it can be harder to tell how to approach a particular pattern set.

Bit.Trip Void screenshot

Gaijin also seems to have been all too aware of this, and created some really devious obstacles to survive. Things may start off with long strings of white or black dots, but in later stages they’ll grow and change shape, alternate between black and white, swirl, spiral, clump together, and simply bombard the screen, usually at a pretty fast clip. Controlling the size of your void can be equally as challenging too, with special dots that vastly increase its size, or suck up all black dots in range. There’s no doubt that Void keeps you on your toes, and can actually be quite nerve wracking, until you fail a stage enough to remember the patterns. However, like Gradius or Contra, learning the necessary maneuvers to simply survive a stage often requires multiple playthroughs simply to figure out what the pattern is, and where safety lies. Things can get pretty hectic, but the level design is consistently well made, if for a few lulls every so often. In particular, the end of the level boss “fights” are also a treat, and pay homage to ingenious re-interpretations of Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, and, yes, even Gradius. Void is nothing if not humbled before a common arcade lineage, and it shows very prominently throughout the game’s design.

As a step in the series’ continued evolution, Void is both surprising and well done. It doesn’t quite top my favorite in the series, Core, which has catchier music that remains a larger part of its design, but it comes close (Void does have music from Nullsleep, a very good chiptunes artist, however). And for six bucks, you can’t really go wrong. I just can’t wait to see where the series goes from here. For me, the journey to get to how exactly how the Bit.Trip evolutionary track will play out, and what that could mean for Gaijin’s philosophical intentions, is worth every penny.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.5 Graphics
The Bit.Trip series has always had a clean, modernized Atari aesthetic, and it has never disappointed. Void does not buck this trend. 4.3 Control
Controlling the void is easy and intuitive, although it can be a little too sensitive when at its normal size. 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Music has always played a key role in the Bit.Trip experience, although the tracks here are slightly more subdued than in previous games. 4.5

Play Value
Void doesn’t quite beat Core for best game of the series thus far, but it comes damn close.

4.4 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Three multi-stage levels.
  • Chiptunes soundtrack featuring genre artist Nullsleep.
  • Four-player co-op multiplayer.

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