Gaijin Games has launched a free-to-play endless runner based on the Commander Video character, best known for its appearance in various retro-style Bit.Trip games.
The 8-bit 2D sideways scroller features the eponymous Commander Video jumping and avoiding obstacles, complete with 1980s-style sound effects. Commander Video most recently appeared in Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, released worldwide last March for multiple platforms, and still due to arrive for PSN in Europe and Australia in the weeks ahead.
According to developer Gaijin Games' co-founder Alex Neuse, new downloadable content will also be announced in the near future, but for the moment, CommanderVideo the game aside, Commander Video the character will be taking a break.
"Commander Video and the Bit.Trip series will always be one of the products that we work on," said Neuse. "I do think that we are going to take as break from Bit.Trip and Commander Video and move onto some other exciting stuff, that hopefully we'll be announcing very soon. The next big thing that we do will not be in the Bit-Trip world."
Neuse said that to some extent, the free-to-play online game is a marketing tool, but mostly, the Santa-Cruz, CA team just like the idea of putting the game out there. "We made Runner 2 and that was fun and everyone loved it," he said. "We had the retro art, which we redid, and we thought it would fit really well as a free online endless runner game. I hope it's a little bit of a marketing thing and people get excited about Runner 2, but honestly we just decided to release it because we thought it would be cute and fun."