Bit.Trip Core

Genre: Arcade / Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

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Review:

Note: Included in Bit.Trip Collection, along with Bit.Trip Beat, Bit.Trip Fate, Bit.Trip Flux, Bit.Trip Runner, and Bit.Trip Void.

Bit.Trip Core is an Arcade-style game with Music-Rhythm elements originally released on the Wii’s WiiWare service in 2009, gradually making its way to other platforms, and eventually finding its way onto Nintendo Switch in 2020. This game is the second release in the Bit.Trip series, and has gameplay where players shoot a beam in one of four directions to catch dots that cross it in time with a beat.

The presentation here is simple, but appealing, making use of low-res 2D pixel art visuals for the most part, backed by a nice chiptune soundtrack. It’s not quite as compelling as some of the other similar presentations in the Bit.Trip line, but it’s decent enough.

As for the gameplay, it’s deceptively simple – you’re just firing in one of four directions, or using a bomb when things get out of control. However, the game complicates things by overloading you with dots coming from multiple directions, in various patterns, and even moving deceptively. Because of this, despite its simplicity, Bit.Trip Core is surprisingly difficult, and often it feels like you’ve been cheated when you miss a shot because the game acted in some tricky way or another.

Without a presentation that’s quite as compelling as some of the other Bit.Trip games, and with a similarly punishing difficulty, Bit.Trip Core isn’t as appealing as some of the other games in this series. Fans of the other Bit.Trip games may want to give this one a try, but otherwise it isn’t a game that’s likely to thrill you.

tl;dr – Bit.Trip Core is an Arcade-style game that has you firing at dots in one of four directions in time with a beat. Despite its simplicity, this game is deceptively difficult, and its presentation isn’t as appealing as some of the other games in the series. As a result, this is a game I’d argue only fans of the Bit.Trip series should get.

Grade: C

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