Rhythm Heaven

I just purchased this 4 hours ago (so mostly first impressions), but this game is really fun. The simple mechanics of tap, hold, and flick to the music make for a great time. The remix levels are fantastic and the game has a good level of difficulty.

My favorite game so far is the choir guys. I like how the other two glower at you when you're out of rhythm.

In this economy, you can't afford not to have this game.

BIT.TRIP BEAT

If enjoy rhythm games (and electronic music), then buy this game. If you enjoy the old Atari 2600 Pong/Breakout games, then buy this game. If you have a love of retro games, then buy this game.

What are you doing still reading this? You should be playing BIT.TRIP BEAT!

I'm going to assume the reason you're still reading this is because you want to know why you should buy the game. To start off, the basic premise of the game is pretty simple. Bits fly from the right-side of the screen to the left-side, and your job is to knock them back with your paddle. Knocking back bits will play a note of the song. The game is presented in 8-bit glory both graphically and musically.

You begin the game in hyper-mode, and by returning bits, which fill the mega-meter, you will enter mega-mode. When in mega-mode another layer of the song is unlocked and there are additional graphical effects. In addition, you have a new meter to fill which can increase your bonus. By missing beats you will drop from mega-mode to hyper-mode and from hyper-mode to nether-mode. When in nether-mode there is no music, the Wiimote's speaker emits the only sound when bits are returned, the screen is black and white, and missing too many bits results in game over. Hitting enough bits back in nether-mode will return you to hyper-mode. So, during a game you could transition through each mode multiple times depending on how well you are playing during certain parts of the song.

I'll be honest, as much as the concept of this game had me interested, I was concerned about the paddle being tied to motion controls. But, Gaijin nailed the controls and when playing the game it feels very much like playing with a paddle (Atari paddle, not ping-pong). The tilting works great and allows for very precise control.

The chip tune music is great and fits the game very well. My only complaint is there are only three songs. The songs are fairly long, in fact I still haven't been able to get passed the second, but I feel six shorter songs would've worked better. Due to the difficulty, I haven't been able to play more than one boss battle; but these are extremely fun. And I think the difficulty combined with the awesomeness of the boss battles, is why I would've liked to see more songs.

In addition, the game features four-player multiplayer, but I haven't had a chance to try it. I have read how some people have decreased the difficulty of the game by playing it two Wiimotes (essentially having one giant paddle made from two).

My only complaint is that sometimes the bits and paddle are hard to make out due to the background effects. But, it's something that doesn't happen too often and by your second or third play-through of a level it's easier to track everything.

Deadly Creatures

While I haven't completed Deadly Creatures yet, I have to give a shout out for this Wii game. The game is animated beautifully and very fun. As you traverse the desert in chapters you battle insects, spiders, scorpions, lizards and a variety of other desert creatures. The boss battles are enjoyable and the combat is satisfying.

The controls for Deadly Creatures are pretty solid and make good use of the motion control. Both characters, the spider and scorpion, play a little differently. With both, the control stick is used for movement, A is used for a weak attack, and swinging the remote is a strong attack. The scorpion, which is the tank of the two, can guard against attacks. But, the real joy of the scorpion is in the finishing moves when an enemy gets low in health. You initiate these moves by pressing C and then completing a series of motions and/or button presses. The spider has more mobility as it's faster, can jump, and eventually can shoot webs to reach places. The price of this mobility is that it can't take as many hits and must avoid attacks rather than block them.

The game is probably going to clock in around 10 hours based on how long each chapter is taking me. But, there's replayability with a higher difficulty and replaying missions to collect all the grubs. As you collect grubs you unlock artwork.

In the end, it's a worthy title that anyone who enjoys action titles and owns a Wii should play. And, I would love to see the concept revisited as a sandbox title. Climbing along the walls and ceiling to explore the giant world as the spider would be fantastic.


Hahahaha! Brilliant!

Bit.Trip Beat

It takes a minute before the video gets to any actual gameplay, but how can you not be excited for a game that is rhythm-based pong in all it's retro glory!? The game looks like a blast to play. joystiq.com has a great gameplay video that really shows off the game. I really like how the "boss" battle is breakout.

I only hope this game is successful as the developer has mentioned making other retro rhythm-based games.

Game Publishing

As a gamer, one thing that always sucks is hearing about an awesome game that can't find a publisher. You read the interviews and watch the videos and the game sounds awesome. But, because there's risk involved no publisher will touch it and the game becomes the dreaded vaporware.

The Idea
There needs to be a publisher that's funded by gamers. I know, you're saying that all publishers are funded by the gamers because the gamers by the games. This is true, but I'm thinking of a system where the gamer ponies up the doe before the game is completed.

Essentially, the gamers would be "shareholders" in the game. They would pay $10 for a "share" in the game plus $5 for S&H. For each share, the shareholder would receive a copy of the game once development was completed. One possible benefit of this would be additional sales could be split between shareholders as credits to invest in new games. This would allow the gamer to obtain discounted or possibly free games from good investments.

A Safe Bet
Gamers wouldn't simply be throwing their money blindly. If only 50 people were interested and willing to pay for the game, it'd suck for that money to disappear because not enough funding was obtained. Instead, the money would sit in a pool (sans a 10-15% publisher fee) until either enough money to develop the game was obtained or a specified amount of time elapsed. So, if the goal of $500,000 for development was reached, development would proceed. If 6 months went buy and not enough money was received, the gamers would either be refunded their money (sans the 10-15%) or allowed to invest in another project.

Funding the Publisher
I know the inability to refund 10-15% seems a bit harsh, but there has to be people working to ensure the developers are meeting deadlines. Someone needs to be working with the developers so that there's a game to play when all is said an done. There would be no greater crime than for you to put your money into this system and receive nothing in return because the developer doesn't have the game in a completed state. Think of it as someone ensuring there's a return on your investment.

There's always the possibility of a worst case scenario where the game is incomplete and all that can be provided is the latest build. In these situations, I think it'd be great if the gamer was able to receive a free copy of any completed game. Essentially, it'd be doing what was within the publisher's means to ensure the customer remained happy. Since this kind of system would require gamers constantly funding new games, it would be in the best interest to keep them as happy as possible.

The Hard Part
When you consider it'd take about 60,000 gamers interested and willing to "pre-order" a game to fund a $500,000 project (remember the 10-15% to the publisher) there's a definite question about whether enough funds would ever be obtained. When you consider even the online petitions are lucky to receive that number and they're free, it'd be pretty hard to get the first game off the ground.

Once the publisher had two or three games under their belt, I think it'd really start to gain momentum. There'd be proof that the games will be developed. The games would be extremely cheap for the gamer, but there is the risk that they wouldn't be good. And, the gamer would have a say in what games they want to see. I think it'd provide known developers with a means to develop the riskier projects.