Both a love letter to videogames, and a bold experiment in gameplay as storytelling, the Bit.Trip series is a truly unique, expertly crafted force in gaming today.
I'm hoping that more people will find out for themselves how amazing Bit.Trip is now that all the games in the series have been compiled for the 3DS and Wii at retail.
If you like Guitar Hero, Rhythm Heaven, and/or Parappa the Rapper, you need to try this series out. If you like any games from the Atari 2600 era, you need to play this series. If you like Vib Ribbon, Rez, Child of Eden, or Super Meat Boy, you need to play this series. If you like good videogames, you need to play this series.
Thankfully, the controls for each game in Bit.Trip SAGA are just as engrossing and intuitive as they were in their original WiiWare releseses. In fact, I imagine that some will even prefer the controls of some of the games here, particularly Bit.Trip BEAT, FATE, and FLUX. Using the stylus and the touch screen to control the action on the 3D top screen works just as well as the pointer and motion-based controls from the Wii games, while requiring more in the way of fine motor skills, and less physical dexterity among larger muscle groups. Thankfully, the stylus controls don't provide a clear advantage, and therefore don't diminish the challenge of either game. Before I forget, you can also use the analog nub to control BEAT and FLUX.
The other big new feature here is the graphics. Of course, the games are presented with glasses-free 3D, and it looks great.[...] Some of the backgrounds there could give Child of Eden a run for their money. They are totally mind blowing, especially in 3D.
In fact, there are tons of little changes like that to be found in all the games on Bit.Trip SAGA. All the titles here needed to be recreated from the ground up, and Gaijin Games took the opportunity to tweak the visuals here and there, while taking advantage of some of the consoles superior processes, such as the 3DSs capacity for per-pixel lighting.
These little changes can be found in every game. The fog effects in CORE are gone now, which allows you to get a much closer look at the game's intricate backgrounds (which again, look amazing in 3D). FATE has some new animations, and the majority of the enemies now have a glossy, new car sheen. VOID has some alternate color schemes and some new background graphics, FLUX appears to have brighter, more saturated colors, and tons of new little detials. The sky in the first stage of RUNNER is now more blue than purple. The list of changes, both big and small, goes on and on. Some of these changes are clear improvements, some of them are just differences, but they are all worth checking out for true Bit.Trip fanatics.
Sadly, it's not all good news for SAGA. The multi-player options are completely gone, which is a major blow. Only five out of the original six games had multi-player in the first place, so those of you buying this game just for RUNNER probably won't notice, but as someone who's hooked many a skeptic into the Bit.Trip series by tempting them with some four player BEAT sessions or two player CORE and VOID run throughs, the loss of multi-player is major.
