Bit Generations for Game Boy and Nintendo DS

Nintendo has pulled the wrapping off its bit Generations website, with a translation of its contents courtesy of N-Sider Samer. Nintendo announced it will release the bit Generations series in two sets, with each individual title priced at around $17. The three titles that compose Series 1 -- Dotstream, Boundish and Dialhex -- will be released in Japan on July 13. Series 2 will arrive two weeks later on July 27 with the games Coloris, Digidrive, Orbital and Soundvoyager. Bit generations is a line up of games that take a look back at the world of video games when it was depicted with simple lines and shapes and expressed with vivid colors and music.

Nintendo has launched three retro, stylized flash websites to accompany the coming release of Series 1 titles, detailing the games and their modes along with short movies and pictures. All titles feature a one-player and multiplayer mode, however multiplayer is only available via the GBA wireless adapter (no support for GBA cables or NDS download play). Descriptions and screens of the Series 1 release can be viewed below along with images of Series 2 titles.

Dotstream
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Dotstream is a colorful race of six rainbow beams of light. Your aim is to simply dodge obstacles along your speedy travel to the finish. Three modes include: Campaign Mode is a five-course Grand Prix where you compete for the highest points, Spot Race is a single race on one of the campaign courses, and Formation Mode is where you will control the flight of the beams of light, beginning with one and gradually increasing as you progress.

Boundish
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Boundish is a glorified version of pong. Strike the ball or box back and forth. There are five courts providing a variation of the same gameplay; these include Pool Flower, Box Juggling, Power Slide, Human League and Wild Go Round. Boundish features a single cartridge two-player mode for all courts except Box Juggling.

Dialhex
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Match and erase like-colored fallen triangles in the triangular grid into monochromatic hexagons by rotating them with a hexagonal curser. There are two single player modes: Solo and Endless. In Solo mode a target meter indicates which color hexagon the player should make, for each marked hexagon six hexagons should be made after which the target meter is completed and more target meters appear for different colors. As target meters are accomplished, more triangle colors appear thus complicating the hexagon alignment process. Endless, as the name implies is an endless mode that ends when the grid is filled with pieces and the highest score is recorded. Just like the typical falling block puzzle games, as time passes, the speed of descent of pieces increases and difficulty ramps up. There is also a two-player VS mode which requires two cartridges.

Coloris
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Digidrive
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Orbital
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Soundvoyager
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The bit Generations is a sister to the Nintendo DS "Touch Generations" line-up of software. Bit Generations evolved beyond Touch Generation's goal of expanding the gamer population; bit Generations is here to illustrate the beginnings of videogames. Nintendo is also continuing on the trend started with Mother 3, of marketing the games as playable on five consoles (GBA, GBA SP, GBmicro, NDS, NDS Lite). In fact, Nintendo has expanded on that functionality by referring to an "on the Television" option via a GameCube and Game Boy Player combination.

The bit Generations series was first unveiled at the May 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo where they were displayed with the Game Boy micro under the name of Digitylish. Earlier this year, Nintendo registered the series with the ESRB-ratings website under the Digiluxe moniker. There has been no further word on a North American release. However, N-Sider will keep you posted.

Trailer for Bit Generations