BIT.TRIP CORE is a music/arcade action game where dots are flying around the screen, and you have to shoot them down by firing from the centerBIT.TRIP CORE is a music/arcade action game where dots are flying around the screen, and you have to shoot them down by firing from the center of the screen. CORE is the second game in the BIT.TRIP saga, after BEAT. If this premise sounds similar to Bit.TRIP BEAT, well, the similarities don't end there. Like BEAT, doing well in CORE makes the music sound better and the graphics look better, but more distracting. Doing poorly makes the music worse and the graphics simpler, and when you're close to death, the game drops to black-and-white mode and removes all but the basic beat of the music, so nothing is left to distract you.
I think BIT.TRIP BEAT is wonderful because of the game's elegant game design. CORE is more of the same, but clunkier. To hit the dots, you have to hold a direction and fire, and the fact that you have to worry about two button presses per shot makes all the difference. It's hard enough keeping with the rhythm when the dots start hitting your line of fire on the off beat (which can be difficult even when there's enough warning, but is much harder when CORE starts throwing them in with no warning), but it's a lot more work also figuring out which direction to fire in when the game starts moving the dots around in an erratic pattern. I feel that the gameplay in CORE is a bit too unfair... you have to either have incredibly quick reflexes or simply memorize the tough parts to do well. Some of these same criticisms apply to BEAT as well, but the superior game design in BEAT makes up for some of those issues.
Ultimately, BIT.TRIP CORE is still a decent game, and if you liked BEAT, you'll probably like CORE well enough to tolerate its faults, because when you get right down to it, CORE is really just more of the same. Get BEAT before CORE, though. BEAT is much better.… Expand
