Bits & Bops
The Summer of Demos : Day Ten
Welcome back to another instalment of “Why are you previewing a rhythm game, Catherine?”. Today, we’re looking at a solely Rhythm Paradise/Heaven-inspired game, so I at least have some experience (i.e doing so badly on the 3DS game that it let me skip the easiest mini-game to carry on in Story Mode). There are three of the planned 20+ games available in the full release in this demo. Let’s break them down one-by-one.
First up is Flipper Snapper, a photo-taking mini-game where you take a photo of a seal bouncing a beach ball on the beat. When the bell rings, you need to take three photos in a row. It starts simple, with the cat taking the photos telegraphing when the seal is coming, along with the bubbles in the water, but the mini-game soon iterates on this so you need to be able to keep the beat without training wheels to get a good score.
Next we have Hammer Time, the mini-game I struggled with the most out of the ones in the demo. With the appearance of a flat-pack furniture instruction leaflet, you whack nails in on the beat, echoing the rhythm they were placed at. To complicate this one, the game occasionally covers up the nail placing or hammer whacking side with a helpful cat so you have to play it by ear. I…did not. After a few attempts I was able to scrape a “Cool” ranking, but missed so many nails.
Finally we have Meet & Tweet, a mini-game about a pet canary talking to an outdoor bird. Here, you tweet on the last beat, with the other bird tweeting the rest. Sometimes, you need to pause after the other bird tweets three times in one go before tweeting yourself. The more you miss a beat, the more annoyed your new friend will be. The tutorial and start of the game shows you a ball bouncing on subtitles to visualise the beat, but quickly phases it out.
After every mini-game, you’re shown a new image of the characters and a short message about how you did, along with a grade. “Try Again” is pretty self-explanatory, “Cool” means you’re at least hitting some notes, “Amazing” means you’re hitting most notes and “Perfect” means you did better than me. I knew you had it in you.
Inputs are as simple as bashing the Spacebar or Enter key, which should translate well to the console ports the game’s Kickstarter managed to hit. The in-game custom level maker tier was not reached, but the team seems open to mods, much unlike their inspiration who shut down a Rhythm Heaven level maker recently.
Outside of their greater community engagement, everything I’ve seen of Bits & Bops could be from a new Rhythm Heaven/Paradise game. The art and animation from Rose Hammer is expressive and adorable, while the music from lead composer Julian Sanchez is lively and easy to follow. Despite having two left thumbs, I’ll be one of the first in line when this comes out.
In a word : bopping.
Bits & Bops is an upcoming rhythm game developed and published by Tempo Lab Games for PC via Itch and Steam, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5, and XBox Series consoles. Preorders for $24 AUS are open on their website.
This article is part of the Summer of Demos series, where I’ll be releasing a Demo Diving preview article each day in July. If you liked this article, be sure to share it with a friend or enemy. If you back me on Patreon, you get access to articles one day before they release anywhere else. If we reach £25/month before the end of July, I’ll extend the Summer of Demos into August. This is the first article I’ve done that’s “Too Long For Email” on Substack, so thanks for clicking through if you’re reading this!