Bit trip fate demo is on the wiiware service right now. I tried it out, the visuals and sound, although retro is really futuristic and cool.

I understand why it's called bit trip as it's retro 8-bit graphics and sound effects yet in a futuristic cool way that makes you zone out and feel like you are on a drug related trip.

But fate only allows you to travel horizontally along a line. Otherwise the visuals and controls are great and it's piqued my interest in this series of games.

I'm woefully unfamilar with this series apart from Fate and the platformer which looks good but very tough.

Metacritic has all the games hovering on an average of 80 so I don't know what to get.

http://www.metacritic.com/search/all/bit+trip/results

Any reccomendations.

Did not like the demo at all, why am I stuck on a weird curvy line.

Dvader said:

Did not like the demo at all, why am I stuck on a weird curvy line.

Yeah that was my sticking point. If I could move freely about like an old schmup and yet have the independent IR aiming it would be a buy. Also sometimes bullets hit you and sometimes they pass right through you. I couldn't work out why and which ones wouldn't affect you or not.

Agnates said:

For challenge/originality? At least you can shoot anywhere, not just forward.

The most conventional and easy to get without so many abstract concepts is probably Runner so try that GG.

I hear that Runner is like really hard, you get hit once and have to restart the level or something? Does the character move by himself and you just duck or jump?

Agnates said:

I haven't played the game but bullets probably hurt your heart, not anywhere else (otherwise why show it?). Like bullet hell shooters where only a small central part of your ship is vulnerable. You're the dot on the line.

Yeah, I said easy to get, not to beat. They're all hard.

I didn't even think about the heart, I will have to try that out. The guy has a big yellow bubble around him so I thought maybe it was the bubble, then I thought it must be the outlines of his character model. It's just the heart? Doh!

bugsonglass said:

I have only played Beat so far.  Really liked it but it was a little too hard.  Took me many attempts to get past the second level and I don't think I have beaten the third level yet

I think I played the beat demo when Nintendo had them up ages ago. I didn't like it. I just read a couple of runner reviews and being hit once and restarting the level would drive me mad.

gamingeek said:

I think I played the beat demo when Nintendo had them up ages ago. I didn't like it. I just read a couple of runner reviews and being hit once and restarting the level would drive me mad.

I found that criticism to be rather lame. Each level is all of 2 minutes long. Most are even less. So if you get hit and half to restart at the beginning it's not like you're losing an entire day's worth of work. Dying in DKC or Yoshi's Island before a check point is a longer stretch of gameplay than an entire level of Runner. That being said, the game is hard and you die A LOT trying to learn the patterns. The boss fights in it are fun as hell though. OF all the Bit.Trip games I'd say Runner is by far the most accessible.