bit Generations

July 30, 2006 2:11 PM

bit Generations is a line of Japanese budget-priced Game Boy Advance games Nintendo released these past two weeks. Most of the titles feature minimalist graphics combined with simple but engaging gameplay, echoing the company's recent philosophy. Perhaps the most intriguing of the games is Soundvoyager, in which the player relies almost entirely on audio positioning to progress- a bit reminicent of this. No word on a US release yet, but if Electroplankton made it out here, maybe there's a chance.
posted by Dr-Baa (10 comments total)

Great post, Dr-Baa! A couple of friends of mine have been playing these for the last few days, and apparently Soundvoyager, Digidrive and Dotstream are the picks of the bunch. Supposedly it's perfectly possible to play Soundvoyager without looking at the screen at all, which sounds intriguing. I'm getting seriously tempted to import them...
posted by terpsichoria at 2:16 PM on July 30, 2006

That dotstream game looks totally sweet.
posted by delmoi at 2:19 PM on July 30, 2006

Yeah... these combined with a Gameboy Micro are a seriously tempting prospect.
posted by nthdegx at 2:22 PM on July 30, 2006

The games are going for close to their price in Japan on ebay if people are interested.
posted by ejoey at 5:29 PM on July 30, 2006

Lik-Sang appears to be selling them for $30, with free shipping. That's a little less than the going rate on eBay.
posted by Sibrax at 6:03 PM on July 30, 2006

The excellent 1up Show coverd this a couple weeks ago, here's an excerpt on bit Generations. Not particularly my cup of tea though.
posted by bobo123 at 6:27 PM on July 30, 2006

Since 1up did that video, the final four games (Soundvoyager, Coloris, Orbital, and Digidrive) were released. Where the first three were variations on familiar themes (racing, puzzle, and "Pong") these last four (perhaps with the exception of Coloris) are a bit more "out there" in terms of gameplay.

Yes, terpsichoria, you can play Soundvoyager without looking at the screen, once you get out of the game menus of course. In fact, playing with eyes closed and a nice pair of headphones is probably the perfect way to play.

While I enjoy every title in the series, I've put the most time into Dialhex. But, that will most likely change now that I've been playing Soundvoyager and Digidrive.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:26 PM on July 30, 2006

Thank you, this would have totally slipped under my radar.
posted by furtive at 7:31 PM on July 30, 2006

I really hope these make a US release. I love all the quirky, innovative games being released for the Nintendo handhelds.
posted by graventy at 8:29 PM on July 30, 2006

That dotstream game looks totally sweet.

i can confirm that it is in fact totally sweet. it's surprisingly deep and hectic, despite being just a couple of multicolored lines. it easily stole a few hours away from me, when i'd only intended to play for a few minutes.

the other game i've played, Orbital, is also ridiculously fun. the soundtrack isn't as impessive as Dotstream or some of the other games, but it's like a minimal katamari damacy in space. you utilize the gravity of different planets/objects to manuever around a system, either absorbing smaller objects or grabbing satellites by pulling other masses with your own gravity. simple, yet tremendously fun.
posted by lotsofno at 5:28 AM on July 31, 2006