What kind of genre would you call this? It's all chiptunes, but with more current-day twists. I'd like to call it ChipStep because of the soft dub-bass but I dunno. Also, what do you think of it?

Night Drive

It's not all chip-tunes. That track uses reverberation and a synth kick; these are modern features that can't be reproduced in original hardware sound chips.

It's not that it gets "bad" for this, it's just that some bitpop\synthpop (the most common names for this style) artists prefer to keep with the constraints of old hardware to the point where their song could even be reproduced in it. However, this is very limiting - polyphony and delay (echoing) for instance, you can only fake them with the two Pulse channels of the sound chip and that is not much if you want to have a lot of couterpoint going on, or you want richer detail, so you have to compromise at some point. In any case, have your insipiration and creative-will pick a direction for you - some artists are pleased with just having a few voices with these nostalgic qualities, with the rest being all modern sampling, as you can hear in the "Fixa Halvljuset" track below.

A selection of tracks of this scene (some more faithful to old hardware than others):

- Invaders: Corruption (background music by Carlo Castellano)  

- Sunny Road (by yours truly)

-  Wind Garden - chiptune-style (DJBouche) (Listen also to the original by Nintendo)

- Fixa Halvljuset (Slagmålsklubben)

+ anything from the NES library.

See ya,
Rafael.

The kick isn't synth. It's a chiptune. I just boosted the frequencies though to try and be a bit heavier.

I'll take a listen to the songs you gave me later. I don't have access to a headset at the moment.

What would be wrong with not being faithful to the old software exactly? They, like you said, limit what you can and cannot do. Is there any name to this?

I didn't know you created this; good job man!

Call it a bitpop track. You're using chiptune-sounding instruments, while making use of additional modern instruments, automation, filters and effects (the "current-day twists" you mention). This is the textbook definition of this genre.

What would be wrong with not being faithful to the old software exactly? They, like you said, limit what you can and cannot do. Is there any name to this?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with not being faithful to what the old hardware can reproduce. It's a matter of creative choice.
Choosing to use only the amount of tracks and effects a certain chip can reproduce (most commonly the NES) will give you a different sound than going straight to modern FXs, filters and other types of virtual instruments.

The only time it matters is when you're deciding which genre your creation belongs. 

Thanks for the compliment.

Bitpop. Awesome. Until now I have called it "Chiptune-esque" since I never knew what to call this stuff because I'm adding reverb and other effects that weren't available when true chiptunes came to be.

I can make true chiptunes, but I really like giving it a 3D feel if that makes any sense. Thanks a lot for bringing me to this definition!