The story of Bit.Trip Runner is one of the more interesting gaming success stories to exist in the past decade. What was once an obscure and underground series soon turned into something that was featured as an Easter egg in games from Super Meat Boy to Super Smash Bros Wii U, as well as boosting sales. With this new-founded prosperity, developer Giajin Games (now known as Choice Provisions) went all-out for a sequel to the entire franchise titled Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien which released on everything under the sun, including the WiiU and Playstation Vita. Now after nearly three years, does the game still hold up like it used to?
Gameplay:
A different departure from what’s typically known of the Bit Trip series, Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien takes the best parts of previous installments, and mixes it to create something new and refreshing. The wide variety of moves further strengthens the game’s addictive loop. It’s a smart idea that does wonders. As levels continuously become more challenging and complex, you have to get more attentive. There’s no sense of frustration, only a crave to learn what you did wrong, and implement upon it for later success.
Design:
Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien contains one of the best difficulty curves I've seen in the last five years of platforming. By slightly changing a small thing every level, developer Choice Provisions has figured out the science of removing frustration, and adding enjoyment. This enjoyment turns into a vast sense of addiction, and makes Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien a lot more impressive than what it seems to be on the surface.
Presentation/ Sound & Visuals:
One of the best aspects of Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien is how colorful the art design is, without being pretentious, or over-joyous. It’s just the right amount of color and poppiness, and is also augmented by a strong sound library. This way, every jump feels timed to perfection, as if it was on a subtle beat. This is one of the best tricks in the game, as it makes players eager to do it again, even if they finished or failed the level in question.
Conclusion:
Playing Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien reminded me of how much of a sleeper hit it’s meant to be. Although I knew about the game, I didn’t know how strong all of it’s portions were. Now after experiencing it, it’ll be hard to find anything that will come remotely close in the coming months, or even year.
Bit Trip Runner 2 gets an 8/10. (Very Good)
We’d like to thank Choice Provisions for sending us a code for this one!
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