And the beat goes on

Okay, so picture this: You take a day off, and decide to go and visit an i am 8-bit art show that just came to town. After this, you go out clubbing with some friends and dance until the wee hours of the morning, finally falling asleep to the sound of your roommate playing Pong. That night, your dreams would probably look something like Bit.Trip Beat, a brand new WiiWare title developed by Gaijin, and published by Aksys Games.

First, I should say that, yes, you heard me correctly: I'm actually playing a Wii game. It's been quite a long time since I felt the need to fire up the little white box under my TV, but I just have a hankering for anything rhythm-based, and it gave me a chance to try out Nintendo's online marketplace, after two-and-a-half years of owning the console. No, I haven't spent a single Nintendo Point up 'til now, but my experience with the Wii Shopping Channel should be left for another time; right now I'm here to discuss my first purchase.

So as I said, Bit.Trip Beat is a strange mix between Pong and clubbing. Holding the Wii-mote like an NES controller, you twist it forward and backward to move your panel up and down the left side of the screen. From the right side of the screen come little pixely blocks, and you must move to the right place in order to bounce them back. The thing is, the blocks all arrive in time with the music, and hitting them correctly plays a chiptune over the top of the beats.

The music is really the first thing I noticed in this game, except for maybe the visual style. It's awesome electronica that builds up more as the stages go on. There are also three "levels" within those stages; you start in the middle one, but by hitting many blocks successfully you raise up to the top one, where all of a sudden the music becomes more full and your chiptune more melodic. However, miss too many and you drop back down. Miss many more and you drop down even lower, into the bottom of the three levels, in which the visuals are vastly degraded and the only sounds emanate from the Wii-mote, not the TV. Not only is this a very cool effect, but it makes me want to hit those long combos in order to hear the excellent music as it was meant to be heard.

At first, the blocks simply fly from right to left at you, but very soon it starts to get tougher as they start bouncing off walls or coming at you at different speeds. This is where the real challenge lies; keeping your combo up with things flying at you from all directions. You really have to get yourself "in the zone" if you wish to proceed, as casually playing will no doubt find you at the game over screen before too long. Finally, just to make things a bit harder, you will occasionally be issued "challenges" (in the form of white blocks), that will make your panel bigger or smaller for the next ten or twenty seconds. Although these can lead to big points, they can also lead to death if you find yourself with a tiny panel just before a really difficult section.

This leads me to my first gripe. There are only three stages to unlock in the game, all of which are about ten minutes long. It can be a real pain when you fail nine minutes in and have to start all over again, and I feel that the game would have been better if the stages had each been split, with some kind if checkpoint half-way through. However, since they are the same every time, it just comes down to memorization in order to pass (as well as quick hands).

Another aspect that's a little disappointing is the lack of online leaderboards. With it's score-based gaming, Bit.Trip Beat would have been ideal for this, but unfortunately, it's local leaderboards only. The lack of online functionality also means that we probably won't be seeing DLC in the future, which is a shame. However, it does offer a multiplayer option, but this is only for people in the same room as each other.

Ultimately, though, Bit.Trip Beat isn't about online multiplayer or DLC, but harks back to an older era of gaming where visuals weren't what drove the industry, but rather fun, addictive gameplay. That's not to say the visuals aren't impressive, but it's more of a Geometry Wars kind of impressive, not a Gears of War kind of impressive. The music is great however you look at it, though, and I found it equally awesome the tenth time I played a stage as the first time. It's also nice when you can keep your combo going during a difficult section, just to hear the fantastic chiptunes emanating from your speakers.

So overall, I would definitely recommend Bit.Trip Beat. However, I can't say it's ideal for everyone. If you have slow reflexes, an aversion to electronic music or, heaven forbid, epilepsy, then maybe you should give this one a miss. However, for everyone else out there who's noticed that there haven't been a whole lot of original games on the Wii, I seriously suggest you check this one out. It's just a shame that it had to arrive so close to the start of my vacation, as now I won't be able to finish it until I get back. However, it's certainly shown me that WiiWare can be awesome, and I'm excited to see what else is in store for the future.

Bit.Trip Beat is available now for 600 Nintendo Points ($6).