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Bit.Trip games 25-to-75% off on Steam until May 20
Nearly everything in Gaijin Games' esteemed Bit.Trip series has been marked down on Steam, from now until Monday, May 20. For instance: Bit.Trip Collection, which includes Bit.Trip Beat, Bit.Trip Runner, Bit.Trip Core and Bit.Trip Void, has had its price cut by 75% and is now just $11.98. Likewise, all of those games can be purchased individually at a discounted price of $2.49. Even last year's gorgeous Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien has had its price dropped to less than $12 – we recommend gettin' while the gettin's good, as our very southern mom would say.
Bit.Trip Core joins Beat and Runner on Steam
The Bit.Trip series continues its strange, out of order journey to PC and Mac. Following successful releases of the first game in the series (Beat) and the fourth (Runner), Bit.Trip Core is available today on Steam for PC and Mac. It's $9.99 alone, or $11.99 with a downloadable soundtrack.The chronological second game in the pixelated series uses nothing but a D-pad (or, we suppose, keys to represent four directions on a D-pad), and involves deceptively simple rhythm gameplay. All you have to do is press a direction when a dot reaches the middle of the screen. Of course, it's a Bit.Trip game, so you'll be screaming and wailing at that "simple" gameplay within a few minutes. In a fun way.
Bit.Trip Saga UK launch pushed forward to March 16
Ah, the rare anti-delay, a happenstance so seldom seen in the gaming world that its occurrence should be marked by fireworks and a ticker-tape parade. Those things cost money, though, and our budget is still tapped out from smuggling our Editor in Chief out of South Africa, so this post will have to suffice.Bit.Trip Saga's UK release date has been changed from March 26 to March 16, according to Pocket Gamer, and while that's still 6 months after the North American release, it is earlier than we were all expecting.
Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2, Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
Gaijin Games has announced a sequel to the fourth entry in its lauded Bit.Trip series, Bit.Trip Runner, entitled Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2, Future Legend of Rhythm Alien. The first direct sequel in the Bit.Trip series, Runner 2 sheds the 8-bit graphical motif so closely associated with the titles in favor of something else, preliminary hints at which can be seen in the concept art gallery below. Still in the extremely early stages of development, Runner 2 returns Commander Video to action with at least 10 new abilities, HD visuals, support for "Achievements/trophies/leaderboards," unlockable costumes and "LOTS more to be revealed later." The game will arrive sometime in 2012, as a download (in true Gaijin fashion), though this time on PSN and XBLA. If the brainstorming session above is any indication, Runner 2 may feature some paradigm-shifting design choices.%Gallery-136099%
Bit.Trip Saga brings all six of CommanderVideo's adventures together on 3DS
Gaijin Games and publisher Aksys have revealed what those pseudo-cryptic Bit.Trip teasers were about: a retail collection of all six Bit.Trip games on 3DS, called Bit.Trip Saga. Saga contains Bit.Trip Beat, Core, Void, Runner, Fate and Flux, all of which have been updated with 3D effects. Because staring at Bit.Trip Beat for 15 minutes didn't already effectively pull you into a trance state! The announcement offers no indication of how the motion-based controls in Beat will work, other than that they're "ultra-precise."
Gaijin hints at Bit.Trip for 3DS (again)
Oh, Gaijin Games -- you truly are a cruel mistress. Not only have you teased us once again with the Bit.Trip franchise's arrival on the 3DS by emailing us the red-and-blue Commander Video posted below, but you've done so on the day where absolutely nothing is believable. This is Bit.Trip.Sadistic.
Bit.Trip Runner's bits take the trip to Steam today
Bit.Trip Flux isn't the only release in Gaijin Games' abstract series to arrive today. While CommanderVideo's journey is ending today on WiiWare in Flux, his highly-choreographed run is just getting started on Steam with the debut of Bit.Trip Runner for PC and Mac. Gaijin announced the surprise SteamPlay port for release today, currently on sale for $9 (the price will bump up to $10 on March 8). The Steam version of Runner features a graphical upgrade over the original WiiWare release to better showcase the IGF-nominated visual design, along with leaderboards, achievements and new Easy and Hard modes. According to Gaijin, Xbox 360 and Wii (via Bluetooth) controllers are supported, too, which is good -- forced keyboard controls wouldn't have been the best way to alter the difficulty level.
Bit.Trip Flux keeps CommanderVideo alive Feb. 28
CommanderVideo, hero of the Bit.Trip series, will finish his journey through psychedelic techno-scapes of attacking pixels on February 28 in North America, and February 25 in Europe, according to developer Gaijin Games. Those are the dates when Bit. Trip Flux will be released on WiiWare. In the announcement of the release dates, Gaijin's Alex Neuse revealed that there is no "Game Over" result in Flux -- which is a pretty sharp contrast from the other five Bit.Trip games, in which "game over" is basically the natural state. "To help tell the story of CommanderVideo's transition back to The Source," he said, "we wanted to convey the point that it is an unstoppable pull which draws him home. For this reason, there is no Game Over." Flux is designed to be completed in a single session, something that "most players" will be able to do. The challenge will be in reaching and sustaining the "Meta Mode" for as long as possible by hitting consecutive beats. "But the primary goal of Flux is to be an exploration of visual beauty, aural splendor, graceful gameplay, and how it feels to be lost in the beauty of life," Neuse added, "while reminiscing about all the events that led CommanderVideo to this, his purest form."
Bit. Trip Flux trailer will delight and frighten you
Are you ready to be simultaneously soothed and terrified? This emotional paradox is brought to you by Gaijin Games, who released the first trailer for Bit. Trip Flux. The final Bit. Trip game, which returns to the Pongery of Bit. Trip Beat, is revealed in this trailer to have wonderful, dreamy visuals, catchy music with themes from previous games ... and insane patterns of flying Beat dots that makes the first game seem manageable. This game is going to kill us.
ESRB suggests Bit. Trip Flux returns to Bit. Trip Beat's style
The ESRB has rated Bit. Trip Flux, providing a content description that confirms what we suspected from the first screens: that the gameplay in Flux resembles that in the first Bit. Trip game, Beat. The ratings board describes the sixth WiWare game as a "musical paddle game in which players move a vertical platform to deflect waves of dots that fly across the screen." In addition, "musical tones" accompany each successful deflection. In other words, it's the same kind of extreme Pong we saw in Bit. Trip Beat. With similar gameplay, but in reverse (the screens show the paddle on the right side, whereas it was on the left in Beat) Flux appears to work with Beat to bookend the series. Even so, we expect a few significant surprises out of Gaijin Games (if it's possible to expect surprises) as no two games in the series have had even remotely similar gameplay to date.
Gaijin not done with Bit.Trip games yet, working on title for 3DS launch
Sad that Bit.Trip Flux is presumably the last game in the Bit.Trip series? Dry those eyes, pixel lover, because Gaijin Games seems to have something else up its sleeve. CEO Alex Neuse has confirmed that the series isn't quite over, though the developer is "not ready to make any specific announcements yet." Neuse also told EGMi that the company is working on a title that "will be out within the launch window" of the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo told Joystiq that it "can't wait" to bring Bit.Trip Runner to the new handheld, but Neuse also said that whatever Gaijin does after Flux will be "something totally different" from the standard music/retro games we've seen from the it so far. Gaijin's CEO does admit that he's making games for himself, and suggests that the next game or series the company puts out might put a twist on "a hugely popular game now," much like Bit.Trip Beat originally twisted the premise of Pong. So you heard it here first: the next game will be Red Dead Redemption, done Gaijin Games-style. We're looking forward to it!
Debut Bit.Trip Flux screens give us deja vu
You'll forgive us if we make an obvious observation here, but these first screenshots of Bit.Trip Flux look very ... familiar. Perhaps it's because of our recent proclivity to play Bit.Trip Beat on the iPhone every chance we get, but the images -- unlocked by Extra Lives after completing "Day 17" in the Flash-based indie game Mission in Snowdriftland -- look similar to the very first game in Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip series. One item of note: The Flux images appear to show a reverse version of Beat's right-to-left gameplay. We're not sure what other difficult twists Gaijin has in store for this sixth and final Bit.Trip, but we could use some reassuring right about now. %Gallery-111593% [Thanks Anthony!]
Indie advent calendar releases Bit. Trip Flux teaser image
A teaser image for Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip Flux appeared in Mission in Snowdriftland, the online advent calendar game created by Extra Toxic and originally used for Nintendo -- operating sans-Nintendo this year in an "Indie Games Edition." Each door that opens leads to a platformer level, and unlockable downloads for a certain indie game. This was the Bit. Trip image. As usual, we have no idea how to interpret it. In addition, Aussie-Nintendo posted some icon images of characters, like Commandgirl Video, Junior Melchkin, and even Meat Boy, all of whom appeared as powerups in Bit. Trip Fate. It also posted icons representing the previous games -- which could be interesting considering the line in the first Flux teaser that "all is in flux." Could "all" mean "all" the gameplay styles in the series?
Final Bit.Trip game is called 'Bit.Trip Flux'
Gaijin Games has (unintentionally) teamed up with the German USK ratings board to reveal the title for the sixth and final Bit.Trip game: Bit.Trip Flux. Yesterday, the developer put up a blog post titled "Flux," with poetic text that really looks like it's hiding some secret code. "A lesson is learned. Life is. Simply. There is no death. There is no before. There is no after. All is in flux. Simply." In addition, the USK posted a rating for an Aksys-published game called Bit.Trip Flux, which is a lot less cryptic. Even if we can't surmise any details about the game from this title or the blog post, it's basically enough to know that it's another Bit.Trip game. We're intrigued!
Bit. Trip Beat destroys Steam users' self-esteem tomorrow
Even if you don't have a Wii or an iPhone, chances are you still have a computer, which means that starting tomorrow you'll have very little excuse for never having tried Bit. Trip Beat. Gaijin Games announced that the first game in its six-part series, a sort of hypnotic rhythm/chiptunes Pong adventure (also an absurdly, wonderfully difficult game), will be released on Steam tomorrow for both Windows and Mac, with upgrades over the original including online leaderboards, easy mode, and achievements. You'll be able to play the Steam version using a keyboard, mouse, gamepad, or even (with a planned update) the Sixense TrueMotion thing. The regular price for the Steam release is $9.99, but it's a dollar off through November 9.
Bit. Trip Fate review: A trip to bullet hell
Bit. Trip Runner, the last game in Gaijin Games' six-part WiiWare series, appeared to be about freedom, with blue skies and open spaces abounding -- but there was literally only one correct path through any level, and the game dictated with exacting detail the timing of your movements on that path. In contrast, Bit. Trip Fate is all gloomy, subterranean worlds, with Commander Video trapped both inside a glowing sphere and held to an explicit path -- but the player has both more freedom of movement and more freedom to make mistakes. I don't really have a point to make here; I just wanted to start my review with something other than "Bit. Trip Fate is so hard."%Gallery-105917%
Gaijin Games planning something 'totally different' after Bit.Trip
Bit.Trip Fate just hit WiiWare and developer Gaijin Games still has another, unannounced Bit.Trip title to complete -- but that doesn't mean company CEO Alex Neuse isn't already looking even further into the future. In an interview with Extra Guy, Neuse teased, "After the Bit.Trip series is complete, you're going to see something totally different from us." Rather than detail the studio's 3DS ambitions, Neuse chose to give an idea of what type of games Gaijin could work on next. "We definitely aren't a retro studio -- we don't only make retro games; we don't only make rhythm/music games. It just so happens that's the first thing we did." Other than that, though, Neuse kept coy, only offering, "We're going to try to branch out a little bit and flex our creative and business muscle a little bit, and do something a little bit more ambitious than the stuff we've done so far." So, we're going to see Commander Video enter a fully-realized 3D urban sandbox crime drama, you know, with hookers? Is that what he's saying?
The date for Bit.Trip Fate is October 25
It's not the October 18 release date we expected, but it is "thereabouts," as Gaijin Games' Alex Neuse put it. Bit. Trip Fate, the fifth entry in the outrageously difficult WiiWare game series, will be released in North America on October 25, for 800 Wii Points ($8). Fate is "a much darker episode in our hero's life," Neuse said in the release date announcement, "and is full of depressing themes, dreary hidden messages, sad music, and an overall gloomy theme. YOU'LL LOVE IT!" It's also a side-scrolling shooter that uses the Wiimote's pointer to aim. And it's (we're guessing) painfully difficult.%Gallery-101433%
Gaijin Games expects Bit. Trip Fate to be out on Oct. 18
When asked by Nintendo Life to comment about the early release of Bit.Trip Fate's soundtrack (CDBaby, $6), Gaijin Games' Alex Neuse also offered a probable release date for the WiiWare game itself. "We don't have the final release date for Bit. Trip Fate just yet," Neuse said, "but if I were a betting man, I'd put my potato chips on Oct. 18 for a North American release. Or thereabouts." As for that early soundtrack release: it was intentional, done partially "because we'd never done it that way before!" and because it was designed to help players "[build] a relationship with the more somber, darker theme."%Gallery-101433%
Nintendo dates Q4 lineup, announces Bit.Trip Fate
Nintendo sent out one of its seasonal mega-press releases, announcing pretty much everything at once. Its whole fall Wii lineup now has solid release dates, with newly dated games including: Kirby's Epic Yarn: October 17 Wii Party: October 3 PokePark Wii: November 1 FlingSmash: November 7 Donkey Kong Country Returns: November 21 On DS, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem has been given a November 14 date. But Nintendo didn't stop there with the announcements: we now know we can expect Super Meat Boy for WiiWare and Shantae: Risky's Revenge for DSiWare this holiday season (which was previously announced, but it's good to know that game is still on track). Also ... Bit. Trip Fate this fall! That's right, not content with merely giving release dates to games we knew about, Nintendo went ahead and announced someone else's unannounced game. And that's why we love these press releases.
