Bit.Trip Fluxes Its Muscles

Heart-warmingly retro with enough spunk and new-age wit to keep gamers busy for a few minutes or a few hours, Aksys games’ “Bit.Trip Flux” is a great example of what a high quality download title should be.

The sixth game in the series, “Flux” is just as cool and quirky as its predecessors, which all have gotten some kind of critical acclaim from one place or another, mainly due to the addictive gameplay that combines simplicity with great tunes. While it essentially garners most of its inspiration from the first game in the series, “Beat,” it’s simple and accessible gameplay makes it the type of title that can be enjoyed by anyone, but mastered by only a select few.

In the end, while you may get more satisfaction out of “Flux” than your parents or even your grandparents, it’s the type of game they’ll get a kick out of too, simply because it possesses venerable gameplay that is never broken or sluggish. Add in killer difficulty and you have one of the best games available for download on the Wii.

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise though; this is what happens when you build a game that does what it’s supposed to do. It may not have bells and whistles, but when it’s all said and done, there’s an inner beauty and a foundation here that most big name games never have. Combining elements that made games such as “Frequency” and “Pong” cult classics, “Flux” gets it done and then some.

Easy enough to play, all you need to do in “Flux” is hold the wii-mote horizontally and tilt it either up or down to move the pong-esque paddle to hit the incoming blocks. The ability to do this will only guarantee you about five minutes of gameplay however. After that, the action speeds up and game becomes more about having your senses align with one another than simply moving your hands.

Incorporating electronic tunes, the sounds in the game are equally as important as matching up the paddle to the blocks. Essentially, the more you play “Flux,” the less you actually focus on the titling, as you become so into the flow of the music that your hands are essentially bouncing by themselves. Kind of like “The Magic Eye” [you know those pictures that used to be in the Sunday paper that you had to stare at in order to see a hidden picture] for the hands and ears, Flux is a complete blast to play.

Incredibly simple, but simultaneously vivid, Flux is a gem of old-school goodness.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13802 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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