If you're not familiar with BIT.TRIP RUNNER, it's basically a platformer, but it's a platformer in which you are constantly charging heedlessly toward oncoming death. There's no stopping. It's all about reaction time, jumping, sliding, kicking, and blocking your way through a boxy pixel world full of obstacles. Well...it's about reaction time and learning from mistakes...lots of mistakes. Each level requires you to perform the appropriate action at the appropriate time or you'll bump into an obstacle and be sent back to the beginning of the level. There's no health meter. You touch anything you're not supposed to touch, and you start over.
This repetitiveness results in the user becoming very familiar with each level they're struggling with. I knew exactly which objects were coming up. I knew I had to jump, slide, jump here and slide, jump, block there. Each level you'd be faced with an entirely new configuration of obstacles, and many times, at first glance, they seemed impossible and you'd die immediately, but after failing a few dozen times, you'd be getting through those "impossible" bits unconsciously. Then you'd get to some unfamiliar territory, and start wiping again, slowly adding to your mental map of what you need to do. Repeat this learning process until you cross the level's finish line. Then you can start failing anew in the next level.
Some of the levels are surprisingly easy, and I would be waiting the entire level for the other shoe to drop. In these instances, I'd cross the finish line without issue and be perplexed, feeling a trick was about to be played on me. Other levels are ridiculously long and treacherous and make me want to punch babies and scream at the computer. Sometimes I did. The screaming part...not the baby punching part. Observe Exhibit A...
With this game being so much about timing, it got harder and harder the later it got because I was getting tired. My reaction time slowed, my eyes started getting bleary, and my left hand looked a bit like a claw when I removed it from the keyboard. I'm pretty sure I stopped blinking at times to keep an eye on what was coming up. Blinking...that's when they get ya.
Last night, I went to bed at 2AM, after playing for multiple hours. The second to last level kept tripping me up, but the stubbornness in me wouldn't let me quit even though my logical brain knew my level of accuracy was declining the later I played. I went to bed defeated, and when I awoke this morning, the first thing I did was play this damn game. After a night of sleep, I beat the level that was haunting my dreams in a few tries. Lesson Learned: BIT.TRIP RUNNER is not an "I'm about to go to bed" game. I needed to know when to cut myself off.
Overall, BIT.TRIP RUNNER was quite fun, but it was certainly frustrating and made me yell many obscenities. That type of passionate yelling is usually reserved for football season. Sorry neighbors.
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