Capsule Review: BIT.TRIP RUNNER
A rhythm platformer with an Atari 2600-inspired aesthetic. Your character runs automatically, you avoid obstacles and collect gold by jumping, sliding, kicking or blocking at the right time, and your actions affect the music. It’s really good at creating flow, and to avoid breaking that flow, messing up causes the level to immediately restart. This works great for short levels, but the levels get longer and longer, meaning that it’s increasingly the case that when practicing a difficult challenge, each attempt is preceded by a minute or so of platforming you’ve already mastered, which can get quite frustrating. Aside from that, it’s a great way to zen out as long as your reflexes are up to it and you can groove on chiptunes.
I Stopped Playing When: The game’s final levels are incredibly long for not having any checkpoints, and I got stuck on one of the very last ones. I got tired of replaying the first part just to even have a chance to try again on the part that was tripping me up, and sadly put the game down.
Four Stars: Great. Not only did I finish the game, I probably played through the whole thing again and/or completed any optional objectives. It's an easy recommendation for any genre fan.