Before I played Final Fantasy VII and became some kind of RPG obsessed nutbar, I loved a romp through a platform game. After being brought up on 2D platformers, the move to 3D was an inevitable source of joy.
The Playstation, N64 era had loads of great ones, if I stored games in my brain they would be literally coming out of my ears. It seemed like every week a new character was coming out with a new platform game.
And then... Nothing. I realise there's been loads of games since then but they've all been not good enough. Either they've been genuinely rubbish, or they've been full to bursting with annoying gimmicks (weapons! buddies! magic special moves! vehicles!) - just not traditional enough. I realise also that there's loads of other games one could class as kind of platformers (Tomb Raider? Prince of Persia? Uncharted?) but they're wrong. I want to play as a cartoon character and collect 100 things for an extra life while jumping on enemies heads, or something.
So far this generation, I count Super Mario Galaxy among the good, traditional platformer. Where have they all gone? When did platform games start becoming universally ****? Why can't anyone but Nintendo make a good one anymore?
Am I to play Mario64 every single time I want to play a platformer? There's only so many times one can complete that game.
The Playstation, N64 era had loads of great ones, if I stored games in my brain they would be literally coming out of my ears. It seemed like every week a new character was coming out with a new platform game.
And then... Nothing. I realise there's been loads of games since then but they've all been not good enough. Either they've been genuinely rubbish, or they've been full to bursting with annoying gimmicks (weapons! buddies! magic special moves! vehicles!) - just not traditional enough. I realise also that there's loads of other games one could class as kind of platformers (Tomb Raider? Prince of Persia? Uncharted?) but they're wrong. I want to play as a cartoon character and collect 100 things for an extra life while jumping on enemies heads, or something.
So far this generation, I count Super Mario Galaxy among the good, traditional platformer. Where have they all gone? When did platform games start becoming universally ****? Why can't anyone but Nintendo make a good one anymore?
Am I to play Mario64 every single time I want to play a platformer? There's only so many times one can complete that game.
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