There was a communal quandry of "huh...what?" last month when Nintendo quietly unveiled the Art Style brand of WiiWare titles with Art Style: Orbient. Some immediately recognized the game as a hi-def update of the late Gameboy Advance genre-breaker Orbital (previously loved by me here) and asserted that Art Style is a WiiWare rebranding of the bitGenerations series. This theory was reinforced when it was confirmed that skip Ltd. would be developing the Art Style games (they developed six of the seven bitGenerations titles) and that two more Art Style titles would hit WiiWare by the end of October.
Let's take a quick step back here. For those unfamiliar, bitGenerations was an experimental series of Gameboy Advance games released only in Japan that favored style over substance. With smaller iconic packaging, minimal graphics and sound, and simple controls, these games almost all hid impressively deep gameplay. Much like Sony's PixelJunk series (developed by Q Games, who uncoincidentally developed DigiDrive, the seventh bitGenerations title). The games were never released outside of Japan due to the release of the Nintendo DS and unlikelihood that anyone would buy intentionally simplistic games with no corporate mascots attached, regardless of their low price point and critical acclaim.
Two years later, digital distribution has finally taken off as a means of selling "experimental" games. XBox Live Arcade's Braid and Playstation Networks aforementioned PixelJunk series would arguably have no success whatsoever in retail stores, but at the low price of a download direct to your console they are finding the gamers they so very much derserve, and now the Wii has a series of inexpensive, unique, and beautifully stylish downloadbale games to call its own. Orbient was a great start to the series, offering the same great "Katamari Damacy in space" experience as the original with improved graphics.The titles Cubello and Rotohex were revealed as the two upcoming Art Style releases for October and immediately gamers assumed these would be higher-def updates of bitGenerations' tile-coloring puzzler Coloris tile-rotating puzzler Dialhex. Imagine our surprise two weeks ago when Cubello was released and revealed to be a whole new game!
That's right, not an update or a remake but a 100% original brand new puzzle-shooter. Sure, there was still the color-matching element of Coloris, and even sound effects very reminiscent of Chibi-Robo, but the entire game was designed and built from the ground up to use the Wii controls in a way that none of the previous Gameboy Advance titles could. Launching colored blocks at a floating assemblage of similar bricks is incredibly intuitive thanks to the Wii's infrared sensor, but the added dynamic of the assembled mass rotating in space relative to where you hit it with a new block added a whole new level of complexity and strategy that knocked Cubello right over the line from "novel puzzler" to "compelling experience".
As today is the last Monday of October, it is very likely that today will see the release of the third WiiWare title, teased to be Rotohex. Having seen how well the update from Orbital to Orbient came along, I'm sure any other bitGenerations update will be a fantastic addition to the WiiWare library, but I would be lying if I didn't admit I'd rather another brand-new experience like Cubello. Still, skip and Nintendo have won me over yet again. Whatever they release under the Art Style brand, I am there with Wii Points waiting.
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