Topic: Bit.Trip: Core

I've just spent about an hour with it...and I'm sure to have many more goes in the future...but I have to admit I'm somewhat disappointed.

The "trigger" nature of the controls is probably what's getting me most, because it can result in 3 (or more) consecutive misses for a single missed pixel. The margin for error is pretty slim, but I could deal with that on its own. What seems kind of cruel to me is that they count it as a miss if you activate your trigger and it doesn't hit anything.

So if you hit the trigger just a moment too soon, you get a "miss" penalty. So you think, hey, I'll hit the trigger again real quick to catch that sucker. But there's a delay between the first time the beam lights up and the second time, meaning the pixel has already passed through, and you've missed it again. That's two "miss" penalties.

And THEN the pixel disappears off the side of the screen, and you get a third miss!

And, hey, okay, we all knew it was going to be hard, but this is borderline unfair (IMHO). Also, because of the vastly rectangular nature of most TVs today, the pixels moving top to bottom move at a different rate than those moving side to side, so that they can fit into the beat of the song.

And that's cool, but it makes timing your trigger presses very hard. When you see something moving more slowly than the other things, you expect you'll have to account for that slower pace. Which screws you up, because accounting for the slower pace takes you out of the rhythm of the song!

Also, the pixels can cross several different paths for the beam before they leave the screen. In Beat, you only ever had one chance to strike a pixel. In Core, you can have many. Again, that in itself isn't a bad thing, but it does make strategizing a heck of a lot more difficult. In Beat you knew you had to hit a certain pixel at a certain time, so you worked that into your strategy and kept going. In this, you've got several chances much of the time, which means creating a working strategy won't be so simple. Couple that with multiple "misses" for the same single pixel, and you'll find your game ending before you even realize what you did wrong.

It's not a bad game. I still like it. But in my eyes, it doesn't hold a candle to Beat.

I'm fine with that. They're going the route of different control styles for each game. That's cool. I like that. And it does mean that some control styles won't be as appealing as others. I think this one might end up toward the rear of the pack.

Again...IMHO.

Anyone else grab it yet?

I'm gonna download it soon. I will chip in my thoughts later boss.

I got it and only played for a few minutes so far. 0 for 2 attempts on the first level. I love it. I think it's harder than Beat and that's a good thing for me. I love challenging games and don't think there's really anyting unfair about this. Practice makes perfect.

I Beat it the first part compared to beat though Brutus is Right Sorry to say but its true Beat is still better but Core takes the controls better.

Funny. While I do find it to be difficult, I also think it's slightly more enjoyable than Beat.

Lost on level one five or six times so far and haven't even gotten to the boss. I'm in complete agreement with Brutus. It's a good game, but it's not beat.

It could be that I'm expecting to be a master at it already because I've played Beat so much and beaten each of its levels, but that's unfair because it's quite a different game. Maybe my opinion will change as I get better at it (and I am making progress each time I play, which is a great sign).

What's weird is the developers said this is supposed to be easier than Beat, but I just don't see it.

Two other problems not mentioned:
1) The game feels quite slow. Of course, if it were the same speed as Beat, it'd be unfair because the pixels have a much shorter distance to travel due to the nature of the game, but it still takes away some of that frantic feeling that's important to the series.
2) Nether mode actually makes it harder, which is ridiculous. Unlike Beat, Core doesn't have a lot of confusing background stuff, so changing to black and white doesn't help. Removing the background track is very punishing though because you often need the rhythm to stay on beat. I almost always lose when I get to Nether mode.

There's a lot good about it though, too. The bomb is a great addition, despite the fact that I always forget to use it. Memorizing patterns is much easier when you just have to press one of four buttons instead of precise positioning like in Beat, so even though it's really difficult, I think practice will help a lot more in Core. The HUD (I guess you'd call it) is also much improved. I love the level progress marker -- it really should have been in Beat. Having four "degrees of play" (Super, Mega, something else, and Nether) beyond the normal play is also nice, and I like how they are all faded in the background. I think these extra degrees of play also make it take longer for you to get into Nether, which is of course great.

And it's a Bit.Trip game, so despite a few complaints, it is great. I just have to learn to stop comparing it to Beat. I will definitely be playing this game all afternoon, so don't get the impression that being maybe a step down from Beat means it's anything less than awesome.

Yeah, Beat was a lot better than this.

I'm glad I read this thread, because I loved Beat, but was a bit skeptical about Core. I will probably just save my points for Tales of Monkey Island. Although, Core still sounds like an okay game, nothing I need right now.