Sukai
Smash Champion
Well-today I got Bit Boy, the only Wiiware title ever to catch my interest since Megaman 9, I was intrigued at the fact that you revisit older worlds of the VG realm including the 4 bit ways of the early Atari consoles, classic NES 8 bit, SNES style 16 bit, a Playstation parody 32 bit, a 64 bit area and a 128 bit one to finish.
Being a proud retro gamer, this did spark my intrest just hearing about it, so I bought it.
Getting slightly excited, I continued.
Story 4: Bit Boy (he has a name, but I can't remember it, it's not that good) is chill'n in a normal day, then a 4 bit monster comes out of hammer space, Bit Boy isn't threatened and because of that, the monster steals all of his friends, which there are apparently a lot of and now he goes in to save them.
Make what you please of this plot, but I could personally live without it.
Graphics 8: Intentional and beautifully simulated to their respective era, when you're in the 4-bit era, it looks like an atari game, save for the soundeffects and death animations, it's pretty spot on, same for the other generations, especially 32 bit, which I swear was a parody of the Playstation. The colors are well placed and it's easy to distinguish one thing from another.
Music/Sounds/Voice work 7: I enjoy that they tried really hard to capture the music of each respective bit era, and they did this well. However that's where the praise ends, the music is bland, and the sound effects and voices, unlike the music, doesn't age with the bit era, I found that to be rather dull. Most points here go to the capturing of the musical eras, which was delightfully successful.
Controls 5: There are two control schemes, control pad and "joy stick", both using only the Wiimote, Control pad is basic, D-pad moves you and 1, 2, A and B attacks (exclusive to 8-bit or higher), + pauses, - changes camera angle/view (exclusive to 32-bit or higher), flick the Wiimote up to jump and you can tilt the Wiimote back and forth to zoom in and out (last 2 exlcusive to 128-bit).
The zoom function I found to be really really bad, because the camera view doesn't stick, it literally reacts to you tilting the Wiimote every single time, you can't zoom in and keep it like that, unless you hold the Wiimote exactly they way to need to, which should not be necessary, especially when you're busy saving friends, attacking, collecting fruit and dodging enemies. Joystick mode is absolutely monotonous, simply put you hold the Wiimote straight up and tilt it like a Joystick (the game automatically detects the Wiimote position), this moves your chatacter and the other controls are basically the same. This, I believe was a really innovative way to bring the right feel to the whole retro thing (especially with the 4-bit), but it's so badly done. Unlike and actual Joystick, which is retractable to the center, the Wiimote lacks that kind of pressure needed to properly guide your character, and it is pretty wreched, this wouldn't be so much of an issue if it wasn't mandatory for the 4-bit era, the only era where you have no attack.
Gameplay 4: It's playable, you basically save your friends in an overhead view and once you're done you warp to the next stage, simply put, it's an overhead version of Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle minus the staircases.
It's not bad really, but it gets zetta old, zetta fast, there is no other variety in the gameplay, perhaps expect the map is different, and you are given more controls through specific bit eras, but you're doing the same thing from start to finish. You have infinite continues and a set number of attacks when given the ability to do so, there is a high score ranking which, I guess has a similar arcade feel to it, not bad actually. But because of the stale gameplay, it really fails here.
Replay Value 3: There are no bosses or anything, once you do the last stage in the 128 bit era which is arguably the easiest stage in the game, you're done, you get to speed run through the stages while viewing the credits, and the first thing I said to myself was, "I most likely won't be playing you again" It didn't leave a powerful impression on me, despite it's interesting theme, which actually has a lot of potential.
The gameplay is too stale to get into again.
Overall 4/10: I'll be honest, Bit Boy was a dissappointment, I was expecting a mix of 2D sidescrolling to 3D adventure maps, instead I got the same **** thing with progressively better graphics and more controls options, the music is unappealing and it really doesn't bounce any heads. It's a shame, because this concept had loads of potential, but it just wasn't there.
I recommend watching a youtube video of this game before buying it, it'll look as entertaining as it plays. Interpret that however you please.
Being a proud retro gamer, this did spark my intrest just hearing about it, so I bought it.
Getting slightly excited, I continued.
Story 4: Bit Boy (he has a name, but I can't remember it, it's not that good) is chill'n in a normal day, then a 4 bit monster comes out of hammer space, Bit Boy isn't threatened and because of that, the monster steals all of his friends, which there are apparently a lot of and now he goes in to save them.
Make what you please of this plot, but I could personally live without it.
Graphics 8: Intentional and beautifully simulated to their respective era, when you're in the 4-bit era, it looks like an atari game, save for the soundeffects and death animations, it's pretty spot on, same for the other generations, especially 32 bit, which I swear was a parody of the Playstation. The colors are well placed and it's easy to distinguish one thing from another.
Music/Sounds/Voice work 7: I enjoy that they tried really hard to capture the music of each respective bit era, and they did this well. However that's where the praise ends, the music is bland, and the sound effects and voices, unlike the music, doesn't age with the bit era, I found that to be rather dull. Most points here go to the capturing of the musical eras, which was delightfully successful.
Controls 5: There are two control schemes, control pad and "joy stick", both using only the Wiimote, Control pad is basic, D-pad moves you and 1, 2, A and B attacks (exclusive to 8-bit or higher), + pauses, - changes camera angle/view (exclusive to 32-bit or higher), flick the Wiimote up to jump and you can tilt the Wiimote back and forth to zoom in and out (last 2 exlcusive to 128-bit).
The zoom function I found to be really really bad, because the camera view doesn't stick, it literally reacts to you tilting the Wiimote every single time, you can't zoom in and keep it like that, unless you hold the Wiimote exactly they way to need to, which should not be necessary, especially when you're busy saving friends, attacking, collecting fruit and dodging enemies. Joystick mode is absolutely monotonous, simply put you hold the Wiimote straight up and tilt it like a Joystick (the game automatically detects the Wiimote position), this moves your chatacter and the other controls are basically the same. This, I believe was a really innovative way to bring the right feel to the whole retro thing (especially with the 4-bit), but it's so badly done. Unlike and actual Joystick, which is retractable to the center, the Wiimote lacks that kind of pressure needed to properly guide your character, and it is pretty wreched, this wouldn't be so much of an issue if it wasn't mandatory for the 4-bit era, the only era where you have no attack.
Gameplay 4: It's playable, you basically save your friends in an overhead view and once you're done you warp to the next stage, simply put, it's an overhead version of Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle minus the staircases.
It's not bad really, but it gets zetta old, zetta fast, there is no other variety in the gameplay, perhaps expect the map is different, and you are given more controls through specific bit eras, but you're doing the same thing from start to finish. You have infinite continues and a set number of attacks when given the ability to do so, there is a high score ranking which, I guess has a similar arcade feel to it, not bad actually. But because of the stale gameplay, it really fails here.
Replay Value 3: There are no bosses or anything, once you do the last stage in the 128 bit era which is arguably the easiest stage in the game, you're done, you get to speed run through the stages while viewing the credits, and the first thing I said to myself was, "I most likely won't be playing you again" It didn't leave a powerful impression on me, despite it's interesting theme, which actually has a lot of potential.
The gameplay is too stale to get into again.
Overall 4/10: I'll be honest, Bit Boy was a dissappointment, I was expecting a mix of 2D sidescrolling to 3D adventure maps, instead I got the same **** thing with progressively better graphics and more controls options, the music is unappealing and it really doesn't bounce any heads. It's a shame, because this concept had loads of potential, but it just wasn't there.
I recommend watching a youtube video of this game before buying it, it'll look as entertaining as it plays. Interpret that however you please.
