Ceildric
Benjamin joined
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Reviews
This game is much more challenging than one might expect from screenshots or even short game clips. However that is meant mostly as a compliment, not as a detraction. It is an interesting physics puzzle game that finds new ways of challenging the player to complete a time trial in each of 50 levels.
The game lacks a little polish in the execution however. Although I don't expect especially fancy graphics for something of this nature, I think Colour Bind could have improved theirs a bit. Also some of the concepts in one or two levels passed challenging and bordered on the obtuse. A more gradual learning curve, or slightly less cryptic instructions may have been in order.
Despite those minor complaints, the game is solid and presents some great ideas and puzzles. These are backed up with tight controls which are a must for a game of this genre.
Bit Trip Runner is an incredibly simple, yet incredibly addictive game. The developers have taken five actions, mapped to five buttons, and created a challenging and rather complex (for the genre) on-the-rails platformer (though it is truly in a category of its own).
I find myself coming back to this game frequently and in the long run will probably have played it more than most other games, indie or mainstream. Sometimes I find myself wanting to play it just to listen to the soundtrack, and to experience that feeling of sharing in the creation of the music which this game grants.
The only reasons I hesitate to give this title a 10/10 are the ultimately simple and repetitive characteristic of the game, and the sometimes sadistic level of difficulty. While I am obviously more than happy to play and enjoy games with simple designs, they do get repetitive after awhile and require more breaks. Also, it is hard to grant them quite as many points as something with more depth (assuming the deeper game brings it all together well). As for the difficulty, while I am happy for a challenge, and even embrace the level of difficulty necessary to complete the individual levels, the challenge of 100%-ing the levels and then doing like-wise with the bonus stages is immensely daunting. Having the ability to retry the bonus levels without retrying (and 100%-ing) the main levels first would have reduced the difficulty enough for me to rethink giving this a 10.
