Demo Review 46: BIT.TRIP FLUX

Oh no, not those again! Let’s get this over with.

BIT.TRIP FLUX is another one of the six BIT.TRIP games, which are meant to be a musical arcade game if you were on an acid trip while playing. No really, that’s how they describe the whole thing.

I have no idea what the intro was supposed to represent. Too abstract for me.

As for the game itself, you’re a little white bar at the far right of the screen, and the point is to block the white squares – pixels – that are coming your way, by moving the bar up and down. How do you do that? By turning the Wii remote, held horizontally, on itself with your hands. Turn it towards the screen, the bar goes up, turn it towards you, the bar goes down. Basic controls, right? Yeah, except it’s very imprecise. Very easy to miss pixels with these controls.

The pixels appear. Some go in a straight line, though they don’t all come at the same speed. Sometimes, pixels will go in diagonal ways, bouncing off the top and bottom walls, and you need to judge where these things will be. Sometimes, big squares show up, and sometimes large white lines appear. Either way, you have to stop them in their tracks and push them back. Sometimes, a grey pixel will move on the screen at about the same pace as a white one; the grey is worth more points, but is it really worth it?

If you miss too many squares – and at one point, you will – you’ll end up with the game screen turning black and white. This means you’re about to lose, and the only way to get back to normal is to knock back enough squares. If you still can’t do that, game over.

That’s all I got to see, because I suck at those damn BIT.TRIP games. Seriously. I’m just terrible at those, and it must have reflected in these demo reviews. I mean, I understand the idea behind the games, and I like how the pixels are meant to turn into music as you knock them back, but no, this just isn’t for me. Just not a fan of those games. Go try them, and if you do like them, good for you. I just don’t. There’s still one BIT.TRIP game to try, I’ll review it soon then be done with them.