BIT.TRIP SAGA

Review for BIT.TRIP COMPLETE

The BIT.TRIP series isn't just six well made faux-retro looking games. It's a symbol of a point in time in the history of indie gaming. It's a monument to one of the most importants periods of my life. And it's a masterpiece.

To explain what I mean, let me go back in time to 2009. I was 13 at that time, and I was still a "normal teenager". I had already played a lot of games by that time, starting from PS1, my first console, to, of course, the Wii. I didn't have much of a culture however. Not in videogames, especially, but not much in anything else either. I was just a normal kid who wanted to play videogames because they were fun.

Then I saw BIT.TRIP BEAT in the WiiWare (virtual) store shelves.

I'd like to say it was love at first sight but, uhm, it wasn't. I just thought it was a neat thing at the time, bought it, played the first level and promptly got stuck. And since at that time getting stuck meant I 9 times out of 10 dropped the game that's what I did. This was just the beginning however...

It took another year for me to return to the series. I had basically the same situation as before, just with the newly minted out game, BIT.TRIP RUNNER. At that point, something clicked, and, little did I know, I made one of the most important decisions of my life...: "Hey, why don't I go back and really explore the series now that the fourth game's out?"

Now, I might have costellated my review up until now with hyperboles, but this was really the beginning of something new and great to be.

I threw myself face first into the series and now that I had some more sense on me (crazy how just one year changes your body of knowledge), I fell in love with the series, hard.

I was really really obsessed with it. In hindsight, it was probably my true first passionate love for anything ever. I "stalked" the Facebook page for the series (and the makers at that point) for a very long time, merging myself completely with the fandom. Then, since RUNNER had a very special guest in the guise of Meat Boy, and so I explored his new game too. And since that had a shitton of characters from other indie games I explored those too.

Basically, I didn't know it, but it was my first real foray into "indie gaming" as opposed to just some indie games. It wasn't just that, however.

It was, most importantly, my first time developing critical skills, both for appraising the gameplay and the intricate but minimal mythology of the series. I became much more attentive for subtler things, and I enjoyed it much more than the pure, but shallow fun I previously had had with videogames. I started actually creating an idea of the culture of videogames, both indie and non, and while that in itself was rather rivelatory, I also went on to explore the internet in whole new ways thanks to my newfound knowledge. There I encountered TVTropes, from which I then met RYM itself (fun fact: the first band I ever saw on RYM was Bull of Heaven, just because of their ludicrous hijinks. Kinda stupid isn't it?).

Basically, from that single encounter, the fundaments of my thinking and life in the future (and english skills now that I think about it) were shaped, in a Butterfly Effect of massive proportions.

Buuuuuuuuuut, none of that would have happened if the catalyst didn't have the punch needed to it to kickstart everything.

That's right, even if I could be here forever talking about the Good Old TimesTM, I will actually start talking about the games now! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay

What can I say? These games are pure brilliance. The core (heh heh) of them is their fantastic gameplay, of course, but basically everything in them has a purpose towards the style of the series. The palettes, the different states that go one further for each game, the pings and bleeps. What makes this more than just good games thematically related is that each and every game builds upon its predecessor in great ways, so, even if the gameplay is always different, you always feel like it's the same series. There's always a purpose to everything.

The story, of course, is the main collagen between tha games. And I love it's not explicit, too.
Not only are the cutscenes full of great symbolism, the levels themselves are part of the story instead of just gates for new bits. By that I mean that what happens in the background is actually part of the whole saga, too.

Evolution is the name of the game. The story is built on it, the gameplay is built on it. And this makes the otherwise very abstract characters... strangely relatable. Even if CommanderVideo is basically just another version of the guy from the Arecibo message, I can feel him much closer than other "more defined" characters.

And while the series on the whole is excellent, there are some moments that are stinging in their greatness. The bosses, for example, and to be honest, the whole entirety of FLUX, as it's a perfect bookend to the series and brim with the most "feels".

I could go on to highlight certain parts, but I feel those are better served for singular game reviews. This is a collection after all.

Oh right, what about the content of the collection itself?

Well, it's flourishes to the saga, basically. For every game there's new unlockable "missions" which you have to complete flawlessly. There are also six unlockable letters from Alex Neuse, CEO of Gaijin Games (now Choice Provisions), talking about the games and providing another kind of Bookend for the series as a whole. There's also a plethora of different unlockable media. Videos, music, pictures, not only "official" but also from the fans.

And this is what it's all about. Other than being a fantastic series by itself, there was always a connection between the creators and the fans, the same connection that gave way to my "evolution", in the same way CommanderVideo himself evolved through the games.

...To be honest, this review is probably just incoherent and messy ramblings and observations and is not particularly good. But in a way, I needed to let it out and to actually write about what the series means to me.

I really recommend the series, and this collection in particular. You won't probably have the same feelings towards it as I had, since they were born from a really specific events of time, but I hope you can still appreciate the brilliance of it that inspired my fondness in the first place and that I tried (badly) to explain here.

For its merits, and the connection I have with it, I can't but give this collection the maximum possible rating: Five fucking circles.