Bits & Bops Review (PC)

There’s nothing quite like a chick-tune rhythmic bop to help put a spring in your step for whenever you’re feeling down. A gleeful exchange between birds; a nail on a 4×4; a dog-bear named Bop to keep you company whilst you mindlessly chime and sling your hook to the bashful tunes of a hand-crafted choir. Bits & Bops finds its place there—in the clutches of a 2D sphere of kooky characters and nonsensical patterns, sprightly scores and comical mini-games. Between these lines is a simple yet easy-to-digest one-button rhythm game that knows how to charm you with the dazzle of its  critter-centric bouquet of activities. It’s a basic gig — but it works wonders on the senses.

Etched into Bits & Bops’ tapestry of two-dimensional wonders are twenty mini-games for you to carve out, each of which lean into a quirky setting of whimsical critters and rhythmic elements that you would have seen before. Like countless others that have sprouted up from the ashes of a rhythmic homage, the game opts to abandon the hustle and bustle of a mechanic-heavy beat-bashing romper, and instead chooses to settle for a beginner-friendly button-tapping affair that, frankly, anyone can pick up and play. Granted, it doesn’t do a lot to challenge the average veteran, but it does make a commendable effort to appeal to the general demographic with a mix-and-match system that gives just as much as it takes.

While Bits & Bops isn’t likely to quench your appetite for a relentlessly competitive rhythmic excursion, it is likely to give you an excuse to flex your fingers and wax your inner beat-addled musical prowess. Could it do with a few extra stages to help broaden its appeal? I mean, I personally wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the notion. But, for what it’s worth, Bits & Bops has a lot of great entry-level fittings and off-the-cuff activities for you to jump into right off the bat. And, when all’s said and done, isn’t that all that truly matters when it comes to rhythm games?

A Bop to Behold

Bits & Bops took me back to the heyday of old-school rhythm battlers; I immediately thought of PaRappa the Rapper, weirdly. And, to be honest with you, it didn’t take much for me to accommodate that feeling, either, as the prelude wasted no time in trying to slot me into the rhythmic nodes of a familiar setting of 2D visuals and chiptune bops. Somehow, I knew all too well how to nail a beat, and how to accumulate points in a world that favored the classic progression of a one-note arcade romper. It didn’t need to introduce me to any mechanics; it just needed to give me a beat.

Thankfully, Bits & Bops brings a ton of original ideas to an otherwise familiar genre. For example, one stage requires you to time the shutter of your camera with a one-trick aquatic pony, whereas another requires you to carefully hammer nails into a seemingly endless conveyor belt of wood. And then there are the other bits and pieces; a level that requires you to execute dialogue prompts with a cheerful chick, for example. Add the fact that you also have a trove of additional levels, each of which invite you to flex your beat-matching abilities and wax lyrical with chip tune ideologies, and you’ve got quite the collection on your hands, truly.

There’s a lot of talk about Bits & Bops being on par with Rhythm Heaven — and I can attest to that, as it is, more or less, an alluring spiritual successor that captures all of that same joyful energy and tongue-in-cheek humor as its counterpart. Maybe it does it even better, given that it doesn’t shy away from cramming in twice the amount of visual cues and gags as the cult staple. Either way, Bits & Bops delivers a happy-go-lucky rhythmic punch that will make even the biggest die-hard Rhythm Heaven fans jolt their heads — and that’s a testament to the studio’s commitment to evolving the blueprint in itself.

Delightfully Tuneful

Bits & Bops is a real delight to blitz and blast through, with its unique 2D art style and springy sound design offering a lot of satisfying gameplay moments and a cheerful atmosphere that harkens back to the golden age of upbeat chiptune ringtones. It’s fresh, crisp, and above all, a laughably good earful that manages to put a hop in your step from the moment you hammer your first nail to the second you capture that near-perfect shot of a flipping fin gracefully nosying the ball.

Would Bits & Bops benefit from another handful of stages? Maybe. Does it bring enough to the table to keep you busy for an hour or two? Absolutely. And I guess that’s that we ought to take away from all of this: Bits & Bops isn’t with the gift of longevity, but it is with a generous selection of sprightly hand-crafted levels that each house an original idea and a reason for you to come back. To me, that feels like enough of an incentive to warrant the price of admission. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, true. But, when it does open its doors to you, it does more than enough to keep your attention before ushering you back out.

Verdict

Bits & Bops finds comfort in a neatly crafted rhythm toy box that knows how to exhume all of the lovable qualities and pulpy characteristics of a faithful ode to classic bop-and-bash one hit wonders. And again, while it doesn’t flaunt the breadth of a jam-packed tribute to bottomless orchestral masterpieces, it does deliver a seamless experience that not only feels good to chime into, but oddly satisfying and even rewarding  to complete.

It goes without saying at this point, but if you did want to step into an alternate universe where musical nodes wax the familiarities of Rhythm Heaven’s cult-like format, then there’s a good chance that you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for in Bits & Bops’ world of crafty tunes and harmonious rhythms. It’s a simple affair, true, and it doesn’t feature an enormous array of mini-games for you to dabble in. That said, if you’re all for the idea of quickly slipping into an afternoon session to appease your inner beat-bopping virtuoso, then you should definitely consider sticking around to hit the nail on the head here.