by: Michael Barnes

Gaijin Games’ suite of ex-WiiWare Bit.Trip titles now collected for the 3DS as Bit.Trip. Saga, are routinely regarded as “retro” or “throwback” titles in reference to their no-bit graphic style and gameplay that hearkens back to times when color palettes were in the double digits and the superstar designers were mavericks like David Crane and Larry Kitchen. But I think it does these minimalist, very postmodern designs a disservice to simply relegate these six designs to the nostalgia shelf.

What’s more, these games simply could not have existed in the 1980s and not only because the Atari 2600 and its immediate console successors would not have been able to handle the deceptively complex visuals, but also because these games are built on decades of game design concepts. The brilliance of the Bit.Trip games is in reducing modern gaming to sharp, focused points of single-mechanic gameplay paired with a highly stylized look and feel that quotes everything from Pong to the trademark Activision rainbow.

Antecedents and touchpoints are mostly clear: Beat and Flux obviously refer to Pong (with Flux recursively referencing Beat and the other games in the series), Core is a subtle reflection of Imagic’s classic four-way shooter Cosmic Ark, and Runner calls back classic platformers from Pitfall! to Super Mario Bros. to Canabalt. Void is a little more obscure, but its gameplay vaguely recalls the classic arcade and 2600 title Reactor. Fate is something of an on-rails twin-stick shooter that may or may not be satirizing today’s linear level design paradigms.

Each game also features pronounced rhythm game elements, with exceptional “chiptunes” providing a sort of guideline for the timing and skill based gameplay. The game sounds outstanding overall, but again don’t let the crunchy, bitcrushed music and old school bleeps and bloops fool you—it’s all rather more modern than its face value atavism suggests.

Visually, the game looks great on the 3DS and the glasses-less 3D effect really does add another dimension to its look. The simple graphics pop off the screen, and the sense of depth is genuinely cool. It doesn’t affect gameplay, aside from an unfortunate degree of slowdown caused when playing with the 3D slider turned up. It’s noticeable and it could bother some players- particularly because the game runs so smoothly in 2D.