Bit.Trip Beat review

“My eyes! My poor eyes!” This is what you’ll be crying after ten minutes of playing this superb reinvention of Pong. It’s unashamedly retro in all departments, from concept to sound and graphics, but the sheer speed of play and required concentration once you get a few levels in, coupled with the explosions of primary colours, issues you a one-way ticket to Migraine City.

Much like in Pong, you control a small bat that sits on the far left of the screen, and the aim is to knock away the blips that are fired from the right of the screen. You hold the remote horizontally and tilt it up and down to move the bat up and down. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is in theory, but once you’re facing multiple blips that are oscillating on their journey across the screen while pixel-chunky fireworks are decorating the background, it becomes the very antithesis of simple. It’s cruel but fair, though. Unfortunately for your retinas, it’s also almost criminally addictive.

There’s much to like here. The techno beat that plays when you bat away the blips, gradually rising to an end-of-level crescendo is a particular highlight. There’s co-op play, too, but don’t expect it to make things any easier.

Jul 8, 2009