Bit.Trip Beat (Wii, 2009)

One trend of indie gaming is the use of a retro video game aesthetic, which heralds back to the days of the Atari 2600 or NES.  This may be due to nostalgic love or limited resources, but has a negative tendency to date these games to a day before they were made, and become a cliche.  One game where this art style fits perfectly though, is Bit.Trip Beat (2009), a rhythm/music game based on the idea of the original Pong, and taking it to the absolute limit of what it can be.
You control a paddle that moves up and down, and must deflect squares that fly at you.  When you hit them, they beep, adding to the background music that plays, and forms the melody.  Simple in design, but complicated in practice.  There are a variety of squares, that move in a straight line, or zigzag, or split into multiples, or connect together to be knocked back in unison.  There are three different levels (or songs) and each plays for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  This may not seem like much gameplay, but the incentive to go back and improve how well you can do gives it replay value.
The quality of the music is another great reason to play this game many times.  The songs are a mixture of retro-video game and electronic styles, with blips and bleeps making up the notes, and a steady drum beat that grows louder and increases tension as the levels grow more difficult.  At the end of each level, there is a boss, based on different retro games, like a boss where you play Pong against four other paddles.  This game offers great difficulty and fun, that steadily increases as you progress.
Bit.Trip Beat puts you in a different plane of reality.  Its abstract visuals, simple-yet-addicting gameplay, and trance-inducing music begin to take hold of your mind.  Is there a real story to this game?  I don't think so.  The main character from the games, Commander Video, appears in cut-scenes in Bit.Trip Beat, but would not get any semblance of story until the later releases in the series.  Next would be Bit.Trip Runner, a platforming-rhythm game where you actually play as the Commander.
I would compare this game most closely to abstract art.  Pixel art would be what most people would instantly think of, but pixel art is itself, abstract.  An arrangement of squares meant to represent something else.  Many people confuse abstraction for being completely non-objective, but no.  It is the most basic representation of its subject.  One scene from the game that impresses me is during the song "growth".  In the background, you can see a brain assembling, made of cubes.  First the brain stem is attached to the cerebellum, then the cerebrum slides into place.  A pair of optic nerves attached to cube eyes completes the surreal image.  Not that you would see that clearly while trying to deflect squares.