So, Bit.Trip VOID is coming out on Monday, and I'm totally psyched. In fact, I'm so preoccupied with excitement over the game, that I just had to through out a quick Cblog on the topic in order get my mind off of it, so I can get back to "real work".

So, are you up for a two day countdown? I sure am. But, what do I countdown with? A clock? That seems sort fo unofun, right?

Instead, I thought I'd just do a couple of posts that talk the games that seem to be a major influence on VOID. Like the other two Bit.Trip games, VOID takes it's visual cues from the 2600 era, with the monochrome Pong feel being more prominent than ever here. That's just surface level stuff though. In terms of actually gameplay , I just can't shake how much Void reminds me of Ikagura... and how awesome that is.

Why didn't Treasure ever make a sequel to Ikagura? Surely it would have sold well,or at least, as well as the other games they make. Kenta Cho gave one of his freeware shmups an Ika-mode (the name of exactly which shmup escapes me at the moment) but other than that, VOID is the first game I've seen to take the "hit one color, avoid the other" concept into full swing.

There is something so simple, so elegant about this gameplay design. It just resonates on a very primitive, visceral level to want to collect the things that match you, or in the this case, your color, and to avoid the things that are the opposite of you. I'd say that along side Pac-Man and Tetris, this type of play may be the most pure and streamlined out there.

Of course, that concept alone wouldn't be enough to make Ikaruga and Void great games. It takes amazing bullet patterns arranged in an alternating succession of "good" bullets and "bad" bullets to make that happen.

Take a look at the video above, and the video of Ikagura below, and tell me if I'm crazy for seeing the connection between the two games.