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What's all the fuss about with the “BIT.TRIP….” video game series? Let's find out. “BIT.TRIP PRESENTS… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien” is one of seven games from the “Bit.Trip” game series by developer Gaijin Games. It was originally released as a downloadable game on the Nintendo eShop for the Wii U, and through “Steam” for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and GNU/Linux on February 26, 2013. The next day it was released for the Xbox 360 and in March on the PlayStation Network. Later in the year it was also released for iOS and PS Vita.
“Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future of Rhythm Alien” is a rhythm side-scrolling platform video game which can be played best if you have fast reflexes. I installed the game on my PC through “Steam” in less than 5 minutes, including downloading time. Currently, the game costs $14.99 on “Steam.”
After installing the game and starting it for the first time, I noticed the colorful cartoon-like graphics, driving dance beats and funny narration. As I was enjoying the first opening screens, I was told by one of the game's screens that the game is best with a game controller. Unfortunately, this is where I encountered my first hurdle; my Razer Onza game controller didn't work, nor did my MadCatz controller. Normally I wouldn't care if the game controller didn't work, however, I was sort of committed to making one of my game controllers work, since the game itself suggested one. I searched in various forums, especially on the Steam Community Forum, found that I wasn't alone. Apparently, many other GNU/Linux gamers have failed to get their game controllers to work with Bit.Trip. Oh well, I decided to play the game with my keyboard and mouse… no big deal.
I began playing the game and discovered that I had to have fast reflexes if I wanted to make any sort of progress. It didn't take me long to adjust my playing style and before too long I was moving my way up the levels. The object of the game, like most platform games, is to safely make it to the finish line without dying. The screen moves quickly from left to right, and your character goes along with it. At first, you have only one character to choose from, but as levels are unlocked, others become available. When you move, or rather, while you run to the right, you must jump over the bad guys or any obstacles that appear before you. If you don't jump over them, you die. You also must jump over any holes on the ground below you. Eventually, you are told about other actions as they become available to you. For example, you are expected to duck when necessary and later you can perform other movements as well.
While playing the game, I noticed that the obstacles I encountered were supposed to be conquered rhythmically. In other words, the soundtrack plays in the background and as different obstacles come up, your precisely timed movements make certain sounds that eventually create a pleasing symphony as you reach the finish line. Thus, the soundtrack plays a very important role in the game.
Unfortunately, I ran into many problems with “Runner2.” At first, the game would freeze at random times. There was nothing I could do with the game frozen except for Ctrl+Alt+F5 (or Fn) and then reboot my system. Even trying to kill the process was to no avail, which left me with no choice but to reboot. Then I'd go back to playing and everything would be fine for a while until again the game would freeze at some other random moment. I went searching for answers and ended up with more questions than answers. On the Steam Community Forums I found myself floating in an ocean of open threads. The forums are flooded with threads about “Bit.Trip.Runner2,” randomly freezing, crashing and/or failing to launch. If it were just me having these problems, I would keep looking for a fix for my problem. You bet I searched for a way to fix it, I just couldn't find any answers. My PC well exceeds the minimum system requirements as well as the recommended system requirements for this game. In fact, my PC meets the requirements for other games that demand much, much more than “Runner2”, and I haven't had these problems with them. Thus, it is my conclusion that, until a fix, patch or workaround is offered, the game is almost unplayable. You may gamble if you like and you might just get lucky in getting the game to run smoothly on your PC, but, unfortunately for myself and many others, nothing has helped thus far. I will periodically keep trying to see if the game becomes playable again. If and when the game begins to run smoothly on Ubuntu, I will gladly inform the readers of FCM and change my current low rating of it.
“Bit.Trip Presents….Runner2” is a great and fun game to play, but it is simply a headache trying to get through the game without running into problems. I have a feeling it may be a dependency issue, and I know it's not on my end, but rather on the developers. For now, I have to give the game a 2½ rating due to its poor playability on GNU/Linux. Until the developers issue a fix, the higher rating I'd like to give “Runner2” will have to wait.
My Gaming Setup
I played “Bit.Trip Presents…. Runner2” with my custom made desktop PC consisting of an AMD FX-6100 3.3GHz CPU, an Asus M5A97-EVO motherboard, a Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 graphics card, 8GB of Kingston Hyper X RAM, and a 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive. The software used was Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS with Unity and AMD 13.1 proprietary graphic drivers.