I was going to resurrect a 7-month-old thread on CORE, but felt wiser for doing it this way.

Just on a whim I fired this up again yesterday and after getting a new score on the board (not my highest, though) and getting my ass presented to me nicely giftwrapped I decided to go back for seconds. Incredibly I not only reached the boss for the first time, but beat it (though I think I was in Nether at the time -- I kept going back-and-forth).

I was mentally exhausted and had a serious case of "Nintendo Thumb" afterwards and really didn't care to continue, but the game does that for you anyway. Cannot say I'm as thrilled with the music in Growth, but I didn't last too long anyway.

Whilst I really feel like I've been through a rite of passage, I have to ask the guys at Gaijin Games, what were you thinking here? It's so much harder than BEAT I couldn't believe it when I finally got to the boss. Of course I still have yet to get to the boss in Growth on BEAT (though I think I've come close), but man oh man is CORE brutal in an old-school 8-bit way. The rapid fire beats I can handle, it's when a second set comes in at the same time with a different pattern such that you're in Nether before you can get to grips with what the pattern is that's too much.

Still, I do enjoy the game. Having a strong first track is key to any of these games as you can enjoy the tunes on repeat plays. I'll have to give VOID another go; I think I only played it that one time for the First Impressions article. Whether or not I can beat track 2 in any of them remains to be seen!

Core was far easier for me than Beat, but it also helped that I looked at youtube videos of the stages before I decided to buy it, so it was probably easier to learn after seeing other people do it.

I found Core significantly harder than Beat, too, especially level 2, which has a huge ramp in difficulty.

However, I have to wonder if the problem is more that after mastering Beat, I expected to be better at Core despite the skill set required being so different.

If level 2 weren't so unreasonably hard given its placement in the sequence, this would be my favorite Bit Trip easily, especially after seeing how beautiful level 3 is.

So I basically have no chance of seeing level 3 is what you're saying?

I'm still playing this game, too. Void didn't really hold my interest, but I find myself returning to Core to work on high scores. The second track gets really good after the first couple of transitions, so don't give up on it. And then the third level of Core is my favorite level of the series! I would recommend NOT looking at youtube videos unless you get really stuck and are thinking about giving up... because it's better not to spoil the surprises.

Well, if you can't get to level 3 on your own, you can always check the previous thread or contact TBD. I sent her a save file with level 3 unlocked and I think I posted it to the other thread. Surprisingly, level 3 is much easier than level 2! In fact, I got to the boss on my very first try and beat it on my second. Absolutely beautiful level. Took me months and many, many plays to beat level 2, though.

Don't get me wrong, level 1 was no cakewalk either. So just because you struggled with level 1 doesn't mean level 2 will be impossible... It's just nearly impossible, haha.

@Sean: if you want the save-file, just let me know and i'll send it to you. Control is an awesome song, it really is, and it wasn't half as hard as Exploration is/was. it took me maybe three tries to beat Control, whereas Exploration took both me an' Adam days to beat, lol. it was so bad, we agreed that whomever beat Exploration first would send the other their save-file, because we couldn't find any available save-files for Core on the web. :3

it was worth it, though, to be honest -- after all that time practicing Exploration, i think it took me like two or three tries to get through Control, and then out of curiosity i fired up Exploration again, which i finally then beat on my own. Control is a beautiful song, and i can see why they would want the game to end on it instead of Exploration, but Exploration was ridiculously hard, hahaha.

Thanks for the offer, but I've yet to resort to a completed save file in a game -- walkthrough videos yes.

Of course musically I can wait for the the soundtrack to get released (I've still got the Bit.Trip BEAT soundtrack on my iTunes wishlist; waiting to see if the family gives me an iTunes gift card for my birthday).

Hey I just did too. We have great timing.

Adam or tbd, could you repost the Control save file so I can have it in case I ever brake down on Exploration, which seems very likely?

EDIT: Sweet I found it! Thanks Adam. You may save me so much pain that you had to experience one year before on the same level. That's awesome.
http://willhostforfood.com/access.php?fileid=91352
private / wii / title / W8CE / [save file goes here]

congrats... CORE beats the crap out of me, i feel like my brain is damaged hahahah

Well it's definitely no easy level, so don't feel that bad. I got CORE maybe almost a month ago now, and playing it off and on it took me this long to beat it! Really good game, though.

lol oddy, glad to see you're having fun with Core :3

Originally wasn't going to pick this up for a while because there are so many WW games I want that will come out soon, but I decided as long as I save enough for FATE than who really cares? So I bought this today and it's a lot of fun and REALLY hard. I'll agree with the general consesus that this is the worst in the series but that just means it's not AS awesome as the others.

Did I mention it's hard??

@SuperMarioFan Contrary to popular belief CORE is the second-best of the series. _{imo anyway, lol}
Exploration is nigh impossible for any human on earth to get past the third section, though.

@Odnetnin If you say so. It's pretty close to VOID and perhaps could even pass it if I start improving my skillz at CORE, lol. But there's almost no chance I will ever consider this better than BEAT.

And then of course RUNNER is just flying high in the sky, on a completely different level than pretty much everything.
_{But emphasis on the pretty much}

???? (BIT.TRIP 6) > RUNNER > FATE > CORE > VOID > BEAT
My current rankings.
_{and yes, i know fate hasn't come out yet and we know nothing about six--they're that awesome.}

Once you figure out what you're doing in Core, and you kind of "zone out" it gets easier. With Core, you actually have to pay attention to the music, and listen to repeat tunes. All the music is really awesome in it to, so it's easy.

While I am never ever going to beat Exploration, I just slayed Descent in BEAT last night (ok not really slayed; my mom helped and we beat the boss in Nether, lol).

your mom?
you're 11?

I think he's like 14 or something. Hey, some people have gamer moms! (I am not one of them).