What do you get when you cross Kraftwerk and Pong? Probably something a lot like the retro-cool BIT.TRIP BEAT, the newest game for the Nintendo Wii. But you won’t find this cleverly constructed diversion in stores. It’s a WiiWare title that’s available only as an inexpensive download on Nintendo WiFi Connection, one of the online video-game networks that I wrote about in today’s Technobabble column (“Get connected with your game system”). Even better, BIT.TRIP BEAT (pictured) was created by Twin Cities native Alex Neuse, 35, who heads his own game company, Gaijin Games, in Santa Cruz, Calif.

In BIT.TRIP BEAT, you (and up to three other players) move a Pong-like paddle vertically to hit blips that move horizontally across the screen. You control the paddle by holding the Wiimote sideways and rotating it forward and backward to move the paddle up and down. The blips and your paddle deflections groove in time to an ’80s-era electronic soundtrack, which gives you a clue when to position your paddle to make a strike. But it doesn’t tell you where on the screen the increasingly faster-moving blips will appear. As the levels increase the patterns of the blips grow increasingly complex. Then their numbers change. Then their sizes change. Then their cadence changes. And, well, soon you’re doing all you can just trying to keep up. Suffice it to say that BIT.TRIP BEAT is wildly addictive, even if the repetition harks back to the Atari 2600 days — which is intentional.

“My inspiration for the game came from my love for classic games and video game music,” said Neuse (pictured), who attended Irondale High School in New Brighton and Hamline University in St. Paul. “I’ve always thought that the music in games plays a much larger role than a lot of people give it credit for.  Games like Rez, Parappa the Rapper and more recently Guitar Hero (and the like) draw players in just as strongly, if not more so in some cases, than games with the deepest, most intricate stories.  This inspired me to tackle the challenge of creating a game that could draw people in on an emotional level through music alone.  And not just any kind of music either. We decided to go with chiptune music as our inspiration, which helps to maintain the ‘classic’ vibe that we’re trying to rock.”

BIT.TRIP BEAT sells for 600 Wii Points, equal to $6. (To purchase and download, go to the Wii Shop Channel in the Wii Menu and access the WiiWare section.) Neuse said he and Gaijin, as the developer, will get royalties based on sales, as reported to publisher Aksys Games by Nintendo.

“Developers can choose to self-publish on platforms like WiiWare and remove the publisher from the equation, but then they have to be able to incur publishing costs that the publisher would otherwise take care of,” Neuse explained. “In our case, we went the publisher route.”

Neuse said Gaijin is working on a second installment of BIT.TRIP BEAT and plans more episodes “before we broaden our horizons and branch out into less classic genres.”

Neuse has been working in the game industry for more than 10 years, including getting his start with the highly acclaimed LucasArts. After so many years in sunny California, it’s surprising to hear what he misses most about living in Minnesota.

“I miss the weather in the Twin Cities,” he said. “California is so great in so many ways, and a lot of people think that the weather out here is so much nicer, but there really aren’t dramatically different seasons where I live. I miss thunder. I miss inclement weather quite a lot, actually. Other than that, it’s pretty much Earl’s Cheese Puffs that I miss, too.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 7:37 am and is filed under Video games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.