Gamesugar

Over the last few days I’ve spent time catching up with the fifth installment in the Bit.Trip series, the shooter that straps Commander Video to a physical rail that rises and falls to create a roller coaster ride through an aptly named game, in the sense that it was inevitable that Gaijin Games would evoke the shooter spirit as a part of this series given it’s role as a fundamental pillar of the medium.

I’ve also spent a ridiculous amount of time fighting with the mechanics of the game, wanting to rip the Commander free of his structural chains to reclaim the mobility of the shooter. Conscious and continual effort became a concern, the focus on minding the heights of the rail behind and ahead of my position while simultaneously gauging the space between the bullets covering the screen for a chance to push ahead without piercing the Commander’s hitbox heart – the visibility of that ticker fading in and out to test my memory.

The game forces a level of concentration that makes me feel lazy, which I probably am, I do in fact spend a lot of time these days wondering how modern gaming so subtlety fed slothful habits that leave me resenting any game that requires me to sit up and pay close attention. Perhaps as a result, my fingers want for the option of taking the long road around a cluster of bullets, but Fate demands finding a path through the mess of small blocks, and I can’t deny that I initially resented the commitment.

Fate still knows how to tickle the shooter sensations, with power-ups that make a player feel like a golden bullet spewing God and boss patterns that require one earn the chance to shoot the core.

Making a long story short, or at least more relevant to the moment, this latest installment kicks my ass with fresh vigor, leaving me thinking less about controls and more about how I deal with rules. That said, there’s still something sticking in my teeth about this game, I’m just utterly clueless as to what exactly that is.