The "Bit.Trip" series has always been about melding music and gameplay. Rarely, however, did any games in the series embrace a traditional sort of gameplay to promote the music. Most often it was a rudimentary kind of setup, as simple as batting away floating notes with a pong-style paddle or sucking them up into a two-dimensional sphere. It was always obvious - these are the notes and this is how you play them - until Gaijin Games proved they had more to offer than some very cool dynamic music makers.
With "Bit. Trip Runner" Gaijin threw in your classic side scrolling hero, dashing through stages, hoarding collectibles. What made it stand out was everything he did was a musical note. It was pretty good, if a little grueling, but now we have "Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien." It feels like the first fleshed out "video game" from Gaijin, and it's an absolute triumph in doing that thing they keep trying to do - melding music and gameplay. Neither exist in any meaningful way without the other, and when you're jamming, and I mean that in the coolest way possible, it feels like the team found the perfect formula.
Level variety, for the most part, is handled with rising difficulty and some well-considered, if quirky visual design. You won't have much occasion to spectate if you're on the controller, but any onlookers should be entertained by the frowning mountains, floating UFOs or any of the other odd touches thrown in. The look is clean, colorful and it gives the game a visual charm reminiscent of its music. Presentation outside of the game is complimented by a wacky narrator and some cartoonish, if disjointed and pointless, cutscenes.
And then it's on to 100 percent completion, climbing leaderboards and unlocking new characters and costumes. If you're looking for a reason to stay, there are plenty, especially considering the lower, download-friendly price point. "Runner 2" is $15 on Steam, Xbox Live, the Playstation Network and the Wii U eshop. And it comes highly recommended on any platform.
(Note: Gaijin is working on a patch for a couple versions of the game. I'd recommend heading over to their support forum to make sure the version you're looking for is whole)
