When I first played Bit.Trip BEAT, I had no expectations. The game ended up being one of my favorites of 2009. From there, my expectations for the series were set high, and thankfully, those expectations were always met. I definitely have my favorites among the games that followed BEAT (CORE and RUNNER), but each game in the Bit.Trip series is unquestionably inventive and well-crafted.

So when we come to FLUX, what are we supposed to expect? Inventive and well-crafted again, right? Well, for some, those expectations are not going to be met -- at least, not at first. On the surface, FLUX appears to be exactly like BEAT, except with the screen orientation flipped. That technically makes it the least inventive game in the series. Artistically, though, nothing could be further from the truth.

Even more than any other Bit.Trip game, or most games of this console generation, Bit.Trip FLUX is a work of expressive game design genius.