Bit Generations #2

Posted by oddbob on July 28, 2006 · Lovingly Filed Under Other peoples games, Personal, Things I Enjoyed 
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So, the second batch has landed and I must confess to not having enough time at the moment to dedicate to them proper unfortunately - what with still playing Dotstream and Boundish a few weeks on (so glad Swith managed to convince me to persist with it) for my handheld kicks, major upgrade stuff over at RR and flitting between Gibbage and Deadeye for PC gaming time - I’ve only had a quick glance over them so far.

Coloris is nice, someone on RLLMUK described it as “It’s Zoo Keeper + 1st Year Art Class.” and I can see where they’re coming from. In many ways, its what DialHEX should have been instead of the unfriendly mess that it turned out as. Like TCK’s Stack Attack (which is still in limbo pending score code, sadly the link is down but there’s a screeny there somewhere) it proves that you don’t need to shoehorn in an Aztec theme or a million and one special effects to make a game lovely. I’m a bit scared of pointing this in Mrs Bobs direction as its tough enough reclaiming any handhelds in this house as it is.

Orbital, I was really looking forward to as it looks great from the video’s and screenshots - game wise, I dunno. Something doesn’t feel right at all with it - the mechanics themselves feel counterintuitive and whilst I’m certainly in favour of slimlined control schemes - the RR One Switch competition produced games on a similar theme but actually managing to be playable to boot. Who knows, I’ll certainly be back to give it a second chance but for now, it seems the weakest of the batch (I’ve still yet to play DigiDrive)

The biggest treat comes in the shape of SoundVoyager, a ridiculously simple premise of having to locate objects and enemies via the position of sounds on the speaker. Possibly the first game I’ve actually played where its not necessary to rely on any visual stimulus whatsoever - its perfectly possible to close your eyes and just drift away and follow the sound. Very relaxing indeed and so far, easily the best of the second batch. I can see myself returning for many a chill out session with this.

So, I’ll have a peek at Digidrive tomorrow and attempt to revisit Orbital to see if there’s something I’ve missed - in the meantime, I’m still incredibly happy that Bit Generations exists at all. Whilst by no means a perfect collection - when you’re throwing concepts at the wall like these, there’s bound to be some that don’t stick - but none the less, great stuff and well worth the money.

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