bit Generations [GBA] Mini-Review - Part 1/2

[Wrestlevania]

• dotstream
  You can read my earlier impressions of this bit Generations title on the Idle Forums.
  
• Dialhex
  A deceptively simple-looking puzzle game. Play occurs in a haxagonal grid. Triangular tiles fall from the top of the grid until they come to rest against other tiles already in play. You rotate a hexagonal selection of tiles until you match up six same-coloured tiles within your reticle. Once you have dispensed enough tiles of a particular colour, tiles of a new colour begin falling into play. The game simply continues until the board fills with tiles. Music and sound effects are suitable, but will start to grate slightly after prolongued play.
  
• Boundish
  A collection of five quite different mini games, which share a common theme; deflection:
  
  • Pool Flower
    An incredibly simplistic - and therefore somewhat dry - clone of Pong; the only difference being giant sticky blobs which roam the screen and slow your movement. Painfully simplistic and not much fun.
    
  • Box Juggling
    You move your stickman character left or right in order to keep a bouncing box up in the air for as long as possible. Over time more boxes are gradually introduced. Fun for a few minutes, and maybe one which score whores will find appealing.
    
  • Power Slider
    Another variation of Pong, this time played on a unique figure-of-eight court. Either player orbits one half of the figure-of-eight, and is able to adjust the attitude and aftertouch on the puck by angling their pad higher and sweeping the contoller as the puck is rebounded. Enjoyable enough against the computer, but requires a second human player to get the most fun out of it.
    
  • Human League
    Another weak Pong clone, which this time puts each player in charge of two bats. Both bats are controlled simultaneously by the player, and... that's about it. Provides entire seconds of gameplay before rapidly becoming extremely dull.
    
  • Wild Go Round
    Similar in principle to Power Slide (above) but this time both players orbit what looks like a giant vinyl record. Players influence the rotation of the court depending on how much impact they put into the puck. The twist comes from how the rotation of the court dramatically alters the trajectory and destination of the puck. Playable, but certainly nothing special.

Of the three, either dotstream or Dialhex would definitely be worth consideration--depends on whether you prefer action or puzzles on the final choice, but I'd recommend getting both. Boundish, while polished enough, is just far too basic to warrant any recommendation from me; even though you get five games on a single cartridge, the games themselves are so weak that they only serve to cheapen what looks like a bargain. So best avoided.

Overall: dotstream 3/5, Diahex 3/5, Boundish 1/5

[miffy495]

Thanks man. Looks like about what I gathered from the online vids. After reading IGN's thing, it seems Boundish improves dramatically with multiple players, but as I know very few people with gameboys, it's probably best to avoid it.

[SpiderMonkey]

None of those sound desperately appealing, but thanks for the write-up.

[miffy495]

Got it in the mail today:

Orbital

An interesting little game. Kind of like that Flow In Games thing, but involving planets. You go around absorbing smaller planets and trying to avoid smashing into larger ones. It uses an interesting kind of control system. You press the A button to attract yourself into the orbit of the nearest planet and the B to repel. While kind of cool when you can get it to work properly, this method also lends itself to much frustration. Combined with the fact that when colliding with a larger planet, you are sent in the opposite direction from where you hit, a single collision can often send you ricocheting back and forth between planets with no way to change course quickly enough to avoid losing many lives in a matter of seconds. Still, there are many worse games out there and solving some of the levels can be quite rewarding. I'll follow Wrestlevania's scoring method here and give it a 3/5.

[Wrestlevania]

Still, there are many worse games out there and solving some of the levels can be quite rewarding. I'll follow Wrestlevania's scoring method here and give it a 3/5.

Sounds like it's got some potential, so I'll try to pick this one up too. Thanks for the review.

[miffy495]

No worries. Just remember that the controls really can be shite at some times. It took me about 4 levels just to work out that I was manipulating the pull from the planets. For a while there it was "Why does B make me go to the right now when earlier it was making me go left!?"

[Wrestlevania]

Just remember that the controls really can be shite at some times. It took me about 4 levels just to work out that I was manipulating the pull from the planets. For a while there it was "Why does B make me go to the right now when earlier it was making me go left!?"

Yeah, I can see that being a real head-fucker.

[Wrestlevania]

Soundvoyager

A very intriguing audio-based game, which uses the stereo sound of the Game Boy Advance to full effect. Play takes place across three main different types of stages (outlined below), with the overall game structure being a series of branching levels. Each level may lead you to two more continuing branches, allowing you to progress further into the game. However, always pursuing the same branch (i.e. selecting the left-most branch every time) will a shorter game--some branches end naturally at the very edges of the playing field.

• sound catcher
  Move yourself left or right across the playing field in order to collect incremental samples and create the tune composed for that field. Once you have completed the composition - and you have not reached the end of a 'branch' - you may choose which 'branch' to tackle next by orientating yourself with the sound of the branch you want.
  
• sound chase
  Racing up a five lane "carriageway" you must catch the target sound whilst dodging unwanted sounds. Set against the clock.
  
• sound drive
  Very similar to sound chase but without the necessity to catch something--you must simply complete the length of the course without 'hitting' any oncoming sounds.

As may (or may not) be apparent from the bit Generations prefix, music throughout Soundvoyager is heavily electronic. I would advise that only people who appreciate artists such as Orbital or The Chemical Brothers pick this up, as the arguably simplistic and stepped nature of the tunes involved may grate otherwise. This is an interesting and somewhat compelling 'game', but it's very niche and quite limited. I'd recommend that you spend your money on Rhythm Tengoku instead; it's much more enjoyable.

Overall: 2/5

[miffy495]

I've ordered Coloris as well. I'll let you know how it is when it arrives. Oh, and now that I've gotten the hang of the controls and replayed the first 10 or so levels, Orbital is really quite meditative and impressive as a game. It's just that initial "holy fuck how do I move this thing around" that you need to get past, then it's great.

[Tommy Gun]

Orbital is the best! I wrote a huge FAQ for it!

http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/guides/gba/orbital/faq/

Seriously awesome, and tons of levels to keep you busy.

Soundvoyager may not be the greatest, but you need to play at least once! You can play it with your eyes closed! In fact, you should play it with your eyes closed!

I also noticed something interesting about the games.

[miffy495]

Hmmm... so there ARE another 5 stages. I've gotten the first five unlocked and beaten, but still have to get two more moons to unlock the final set.

[Aussie Ben]

Coloris, Soundvoyager and Dotstream just arrived today (along with Rhythm Tengoku). My god, these bit generations boxes are cute as a button!

[Tanukitsune]

Does anybody know what price they will have? The should cost at least the same as the NES Classics, but less would be better...

[Tommy Gun]

Hmmm... so there ARE another 5 stages. I've gotten the first five unlocked and beaten, but still have to get two more moons to unlock the final set.

Yes, and a few of them are crazy hard. Spoiler only if you don't want to know what the Final levels are like:

Final 1 isn't too bad. It has a lot of planets moving through each other, but it's manageable.

Final 2 has a million ring hazards, and only ONE planet, so you barely have control. The moon is stuck between two rings, and so is the sun. I actually just played it and beat it on my first try (and got the moon), but I only had one life left. I seriously don't know if it's possible to get the moon without crashing, there's no space.

Final 3 has planets moving really really fast, with tons of loose hazards. Hard.

Final 4, again, only one planet, and you can't even orbit the whole thing because there are huge rocks on both sides! Possibly the hardest stage in the game. I just figured out some better strategies for it, though.

Final 5 is quite easy. There are tons of planets. Maybe they were just being nice after the last two.

I'm going to put up maps of those stages with tips.

Does anybody know what price they will have? The should cost at least the same as the NES Classics, but less would be better...

Well, if you convert the price they're $18, but if they're released here maybe they'll be $20? It would be really awesome if they're $15 (if they're released here at all). I still think they should be $10, then everyone could justify them and probably buy them all. $15 or higher, I'm only buying a couple.

[Aussie Ben]

Because I can't be bothered rewriting how Coloris works, take a look here.

I'm having some fun with Coloris - nice and simple to play, but it gets pretty hectic later on, believe it or not. The closest game I could compare it to would be Zooo/Zoo Keeper, because you have to get three or more of the same colour in a row - but even then, it's not quite the same as that. The Score Mode that you unlock adds some nice replay value - you have to play endlessly instead of trying to just clear the round.

Overall, I give it about a 3/5.

[Tommy Gun]

Finished with the Orbital Final Galaxy maps! Tons of tips and routes to take, etc. Check it out! I won't post any of the images here just in case you don't want to see them.

http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/guides/gba/orbital/final-galaxy/

After practice some of them aren't as hard as I first thought.

[miffy495]

Today was the arrival of Coloris, Dialhex, and Digidrive. As noone else seems to have written anything on Digidrive, here it is.

Digidrive

A bit complicated and intimidating at first, the game does have a demo mode where you can watch it play for a while to get a feel for the game. This is very, very useful as otherwise the game is completely baffling. Essentially, you're being bombarded from all sides by different coloured arrows. It starts with just black and red, but more are added later. You need to press directions on the d-pad as arrows approach the centre in order to send them to one of the points of a cross. Once you've built up a large enough clump of the same coloured arrow, the point turns that colour and a geometric shape appears next to it. Keep on sending more of the same colour down that point to fill in the shape. At some point, a flashing arrow will appear. Send this down that point to clear it and add all the arrows you've thrown in previously to your score.

Your score needs to be constantly going up. There's a circle on the right side of the screen that moves up with your score, and there's always some plunger thing chasing it. If the plunger hits the circle, game over. If you go long enough without filling a shape and sending the score over, you lose.

So yeah, very complicated for a Bitgenerations game. Is it fun though? Yeah, once you get into it. Really allows you to zone out once you get to the point where you're not focused on how to play anymore. I can definitely see it aiding with long train rides and the like. As seems to be tradition with Bitgenerations games at this point, I'll give it a 3/5, although this would be higher if it weren't such a bitch to figure out initially.

[Tommy Gun]

I just finished getting every moon (all 40) in Orbital legitimately* on my GBA SP! Yay! I did the first 30 stages in one run. A couple of the Final stages took me a bunch of tries to beat with the moons.

* Previously I had used an emulator while writing the FAQ for it.