And how would you rank the games overall?

For me, it goes:

6. CORE- Two forgettable songs, one great song, un-fun gameplay 90% of the time. The other 10% you just sort of enter a Zen-like state and have full control over the whole screen. Despite being my least-liked game in the series, it's the most rewarding to be awesome at.

5. FATE- The music isn't that memorable, but FATE isn't really a rythm game. I'm not a big fan of shmups, and I found FATE to be the hardest BIT.TRIP game. The game's dark mood and atmosphere fit the story perfectly though.

4. BEAT- Great music, great gameplay. This might be higher if it weren't for FLUX basically being a better version of it.

3. VOID- It's kind of like BEAT, but in both axes. Out of all the games, it has the most unique visual style. The music isn't really memorable, but it's really awesome stuff. EGO is one of my favorite BIT.TRIP songs.

2. RUNNER- The music, visuals, controls and gameplay all blend perfectly. Playing this game seriously makes me feel happy. It can be super-hard at first, but if you take the time to stick with it you'll master the game in no time.

1. FLUX- Easily has the best soundtrack in the whole series. Its audio and gameplay throwbacks to the other five games make it a great conclusion to the BIT.TRIP saga, and the final "level" is brilliant. Getting to META mode, hearing the strings kick in and having the entire background change completely is surreal.

I've only ever played BEAT and... it was alright.

*shrugs*

Runner was amazing. The others I've played, not so impressed to be honest.

1. FLUX
2. BEAT
3. RUNNER
4. CORE
5. VOID
6. FATE

BEAT is my favourite right now, but I still need to play FLUX.

1. BEAT
2. RUNNER
3. FATE
4. CORE
5. VOID

Beat > Void > Runner > haven't played the rest

Here's how I rate them:

1. RUNNER
2. BEAT
3. FATE
4. FLUX
5. CORE
6. VOID

@ludist210

You're weird. BEAT and FATE over FLUX?

RUNNER!!! Love it so much.

BEAT and FLUX come next. FLUX is probably a better game than BEAT, but I haven't played it enough to say for sure. Plus it lacks the freshness of BEAT.

After that probably VOID. Then FATE I suppose, though I never got super into it. And then CORE which I just can't get at all.

I actually can't answer this. Give me a few more months with VOID and FLUX.

I would love to be in the situation where I can reply to this poll. But I have only played Beat so far...

I desperately need to continue playing the Bit.Trip series...

@Secret_Tunnel

I did. FLUX was basically a revisited BEAT, and even though I had a much easier time beating FLUX, I enjoyed BEAT more. FATE and FLUX could have flip-flopped, but meh...they were about equal to me.

You thought FATE was the hardest in the series? Who's the weird one here?

You know, I was thinking before how I've spent 4200 points on the entire Bit.Trip series, which is equivalent to $42 (I paid a little less, since I often buy point cards on sale). If all six games were to be released as a retail Wii game for $42 it would seem like quite a bit to pay. But when you spend $6 here and $8 there over the span of two years, it doesn't seem so bad.

canonj said:

If all six games were to be released as a retail Wii game for $42 it would seem like quite a bit to pay.

And yet so worth it.

@Zero

Oh, definitely worth it. It's just that I doubt I'd be willing to risk $40 on such a strange looking set of games without trying them first.

See I think I'm the opposite. If SIX games came out on disk and the disk was getting praised and people were talking about the retro graphics and awesome soundtrack, it'd probably be a must buy for me. I even bought Geometry Wars Galaxies and that was only one game! And I was one of like what... 37 people who would have bought Super Meat Boy on disk if they could have made it happen.

@Zero

Count me among those 37 as well. I won't get it on PC (since I'm just not a PC gamer), and I don't own a 360. However, Team Meat does have a 3DS dev kit, so...we'll see what happens. I'd buy it on there.

I'd probably buy a BIT.TRIP disc as well. I was hooked on BEAT before I even played it, simply because it was a retro throwback with an awesome soundtrack. I'd not only get that, but five other games as well? Sold.

Mega Man 9 Killer.

@ludist210

CORE is the hardest to play, but FATE is the hardest to beat. Like I said, I suck at shmups.

@Simbabbad

Agreed, but I like that about it. CORE, like you always say, hurts my fingers. Quickly going from holding up on the d-pad to down just doesn't work well at all.

So I recently (well, it's been a little over a month) bought and have been playing all these games. I bought one, played it for a bit, then bought another one, and so on (I had only played a bit of Runner before). I beat all of them except for Fate and Core, but I still got a healthy amount of time with those. They're good games, and I love their names.

I'd rank them as follows (from worst to best):

Core: It's too basic for its own good. It's like a dumbed-down version of Guitar Hero. Still fun, though, I just wish you had more control over the gameplay.
Beat: Not a huge fan of this one either. The controls are kinda sensitive. Music's good, though. It's alright.
Flux: Pretty much the same thing I said above. This one's a bit better, though, because it starts off much more exciting and the visuals just seems more polished and appealing.
Runner: This one's pretty awesome. I get the feeling all the games try to do this, but this is the only one that truly got me in a rhythm while playing. It can get very enticing. I loved the boss battles and how you unlock new moves as you play.
Void: This and Fate are the real deal in my opinion. I guess I just like the Nunchuck lol. Void has amazing controls, so fluid. I also love the concept and its execution. The backgrounds are truly a delight - a bit more so than in the rest of the titles.
Fate: This game's the business. It's hard as shit but I love it. I'm a huge fan of shooters so I guess that helps. Seeing Meat Boy also helped, I wasn't expecting that, lol. It feels like the most complete and also most fun of the bunch. Great game.

After finally getting a lot of time in with FLUX, I think it's my favourite. It is objectively better than BEAT, which was previously my top BIT TRIP game. The pacing, the music, the backgrounds and ESPECIALLY the scoring system were improved. The paddle also seems less jumpy which is key.

@GelatinousEncore
FATE was pretty damn good, I must say. It's a little slow, but it's one of the most fun shooters I've played recently. I similarly liked CORE, and didn' t mind that you were locked to the center of the screen. I think your assessment is pretty spot on, it's a dumbed down (but somehow more fun!) Guitar Hero.

I personally didn't like VOID too much because of the controls. I think I just suck with an analog stick.

Going back to RUNNER has soured me somewhat on the experience. The bonus stages, in particular are too fucking hard and I have to go through the whole stage perfectly again to get back to the bonus stage. Frustrating!

Go ahead and post your high scores in the ultimate thread, if you dare