BIT.TRIP VOID

Of the BIT.TRIP games released up to this point, VOID is probably the easiest. I was able to complete it on Normal without resorting to too much hair pulling. The "one-up" system does reward success, something the previous games did not afford to the player. The core concept is interesting, consuming black beats to grow the void whilst avoiding white beats, timing when to reset the size of the void to max score and avoid damage. A rhythm game this is not. But the tunes are still great

It's Good

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it's a well executed game in the arcade tradition. and the music is good

I can appreciate the way the BIT.TRIP games try to change things up and make small games out of novel ideas. They're basically lengthened mini-games with steep learning curves and high difficulty. My problem with the games has always been that at their worst (Runner, Core), they are memorization affairs where the challenge lies in trial and error. Otherwise the games typically have ideas that are unique, but clunky in their execution or with some drawbacks (Fate). Void falls somewhere in the latter. Void is a very simple game: you are a circle that can move all over the screen, and have to dodge incoming white dots whilst collecting black dots. The white dots and black dots tend to come in as pairs or in patterns. Collecting black dots increases your size, but also increases your score. You can always 'release' the black dots and fall back to a smaller circle, which allows you to move and dodge better. After all, a huge black circle on the screen can't dodge all the incoming white dots if it can't even move. It's clearly a score-attack based game. I can appreciate the unique concept, and unlike the other games this one relies less on memorizing patterns and more on an enjoyable balance of just reacting and moving whilst managing a want for a higher score with the need to dodge. I can appreciate the balancing act. I actually like it a little more than the other BIT.TRIP games because of that, but the easier game is also lacking in substance. Its an example in something that is interesting on paper but turns out to be nothing more than busy-work in-game. It's just not enjoyable or enticing enough to even finish. Ironically some sort of drawback or ability when coming back down in size would've provided some interesting pull and push with the game mechanics. The actual challenge and possibilities in how large you can get are finite, due to the incoming white dots and the impossibility of dodging them past a certain size. So the highest score possible has a ceiling anyway. It's not infinite possibility. Not bad, but also not enjoyable.

Tags: Shootemup & Bullet Hell Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Bullet Hell game without shooting. Dodge the white bullets while eating the black ones. Manage your hitbox by shrinking your ship on the regular. Bland and chaotic and unsatisfying Operating the shrinking mechanic just removes your current sprite and spawns the small one, while in movement especially it can be very unintuitive to guess where you will spawn and since you often have tight margins you will be in an impossible situation where you can either hit a while bullet and shrink, then on shrink be disoriented and eat another white bullet, or attempt to dodge a bulletrain, shrink on purpose in motion and still eat a white bullet due to disorientation. There are little scripted moments where you are obviously meant to shrink on regular intervals due to strict limitations and the bullets that are eaten do produce a blip sound but I would hardly consider the thing to be musical. The trippy effects of getting higher schores and being bumped to a higher mode have been toned down in comparison to other games leaving that feature feeling underdevelopped and pointless as well and it merely acts as a health buffer between getting hit and the game over. Conclusion: Not much that I enjoyed here, additionally I had one crash to desktop while first loading and after entering scores the game prompts you to press A but the correct key to press is START on the xbox360 pad. The kind of little details that further give a low effort impression on the title as a whole. Removed local content permanently and hiding from library due to saturation of high quality bullet hell games already in collection.

As far as Bit.Trip games go, this one is quite entertaining as one would expect though more abstract and probably shorter than its counterparts. It continues their trend of having a new ryhthm-based gameplay mechanic. Sadly, the way in how it is presented may seem confusing at first and probably won't come back in the near future. What's more, as with other games in the saga, in some instances the replayabilty is almost mandatory in order to remember how to get through them. Nonetheless, it stands out from the rest with its presentation, particularly its modes and how it displays its score. More so, due to some quite old events at the time of writing this review, it is also the easiest game to complete achievement-wise, which is not to say its difficulty is much lower in comparison. All in all, considering its price I'd say it's worth a try at the very least.

poo in the loo

VOID is your classic easy to pick up, hard to master arcade style game. The art and music are great as always and the loop is satisfying. One of the stronger early BIT.TRIP games and a good place to start with the series.