The final verse is similar to the first.
Gaijin Games have efficiently started and finished a six-game series on WiiWare in a two-year span with the release of Bit.Trip Flux. The game, which is the culmination of the intrepid Commander Video's tale, is very similar to the initial game in the series, Bit.Trip Beat, but it brings about a lot of new twists and improvements that make it better than the company's 2009 debut.
In case this series passed you by, Bit.Trip Flux, like Bit.Trip Beat, is similar to Pong. You control a paddle on a side of the screen and bounce back blocks, called beats. The game is also based around music, and as you hit the beats, you play the music.
The mechanics of the game are simple, but addictive. The layout of the beats is interesting for the visuals and the gameplay, and since the beats are all one color, it's much easier to follow their movement, which was an issue in earlier games.
The biggest difference between Beat and Flux is the fact that your paddle is on the right side of the screen instead of the left side. While it seems to have a story-related purpose, from a gameplay perspective, it's a little more confusing. We've been trained look game worlds left-to-right, and Flux's small alteration makes the experience a little more difficult and frustrating.
To combat the difficulty, which is quite high, there are numerous checkpoints. While the game is broken up into three levels, each level has multiple checkpoints that, when you fail, you restart from. It works, actually, in a similar way to the restart system in Bit.Trip Runner, though there is more of a delay between restarts. While this does alleviate difficulty, it doesn't throw it away. The checkpoints are still spread apart, and unless you're a Bit.Trip savant, you'll likely get stuck on one section for a while. Luckily, you won't have to restart the entire level every time.
Flux also adds in a few new mechanics. There are beats you have to avoid, which is a concept that Gaijin Games introduced in Bit.Trip Void. Additionally, Flux eschewed the four-player co-op from Beat, instead focusing on a less-confusing two-player experience.
Bit.Trip Flux is greater than the sum of its parts, though. It might be very similar to Gaijin Games' first title, but it shows growth - both in the character arc of Commander Video and the evolution of the series. It's a deliciously devious game with interesting level design and addictive mechanics. If you enjoyed Bit.Trip Beat, you'd be foolish to not get Flux. Every game in the Bit.Trip series is fun and intriguing in its own way, and Bit.Trip Flux lives up to that.