Irrefutably antiquated but how on earth is that supposed to be a pejorative? Games aren't this unencumbered anymore. Visions aren't this uncompromised. When was the last time you played a platformer with this kind of rhythm, this much palpable momentum? I'm obsessed with the way things move. I've found myself drawn to platformers my entire life. They are one of the few arts that explore the beauty of motion. Playing this game is like looking into the inside of a watch, seeing all of the minuscule gears twist and turn in perfect rhythmic synchronicity. And there you are, a being of glorious human error trying desperately to survive. If gameplay is commentary then Crash Bandicoot has more to say about the sordid merciless momentum of life than anything I've ever seen try to communicate it through dialogue.
I've had a pretty strange relationship with difficulty in games. For the longest time, my brain simply rejected games of a certain ilk. If I'm not progressing often then I'm not having fun, and the higher the difficulty the more likely I am to be doing the same stuff time and again. That's boring. It's that simple. But eventually, I realised it was all about mindset. Difficulty can be incredibly fun if it makes room for mastery. It shifts the progress from the external to the internal. This was the shift required for me to get into FromSoft's games last year. I will game over and repeat large sections of levels, but I relish that when I redo earlier parts I'll blow through them to a degree I'd have previously thought impossible. The finish line is all the more satisfying when you know you've earned it. Few games make this experience so rewarding.
The level design is blatantly experimental. As embryotic as all 3D platformers of this decade are, this one feels far more alien. For every idea your Mario 64s of the world ingrained into the lexicon of the genre forever more, there is a level of Crash Bandicoot no one would ever again have the balls to try for. You'd have to be crazy to think you could pull off a 'The High Road' in a 2024 platformer. But here it is. Unreal! In many ways, it still feels futuristic. I can't name another platformer where your depth perception is a skill the game finds worth testing (not to be confused with games that test your depth perception because they fuck up the camera placement), and this game builds many levels around it. Initially, this game can feel like one big reaction time test, but the longer you play the more you learn it's about ingratiating yourself into its flow. If Sekiro is secretly a rhythm game then this is Space Channel 5. Part 2. It isn't offering you ways to play it. It's a sergeant barking an endlessly wonderful song of orders.
There are many things to say about this as remake, most of which I'll save for after I've played all three games. But the biggest feather in this version's cap has to be Stormy Ascent. For a bonus, cutting room floor, "too hard and too long," DLC level, it is the perfect ending to the game. A necessary payoff to every lesson you've learned and skill you've acquired. The experience would be incomplete without it.
I find the idea of 100%-ing this game at once cumbersome and totally insane but it's so good I may do it anyway. Either way, Any% (+ Stormy Ascent) is such a phenomenal experience that I am more than comfortable counting anything else as a bonus.
If you call this "imprecise" in your review, see me after class.
I've had a pretty strange relationship with difficulty in games. For the longest time, my brain simply rejected games of a certain ilk. If I'm not progressing often then I'm not having fun, and the higher the difficulty the more likely I am to be doing the same stuff time and again. That's boring. It's that simple. But eventually, I realised it was all about mindset. Difficulty can be incredibly fun if it makes room for mastery. It shifts the progress from the external to the internal. This was the shift required for me to get into FromSoft's games last year. I will game over and repeat large sections of levels, but I relish that when I redo earlier parts I'll blow through them to a degree I'd have previously thought impossible. The finish line is all the more satisfying when you know you've earned it. Few games make this experience so rewarding.
The level design is blatantly experimental. As embryotic as all 3D platformers of this decade are, this one feels far more alien. For every idea your Mario 64s of the world ingrained into the lexicon of the genre forever more, there is a level of Crash Bandicoot no one would ever again have the balls to try for. You'd have to be crazy to think you could pull off a 'The High Road' in a 2024 platformer. But here it is. Unreal! In many ways, it still feels futuristic. I can't name another platformer where your depth perception is a skill the game finds worth testing (not to be confused with games that test your depth perception because they fuck up the camera placement), and this game builds many levels around it. Initially, this game can feel like one big reaction time test, but the longer you play the more you learn it's about ingratiating yourself into its flow. If Sekiro is secretly a rhythm game then this is Space Channel 5. Part 2. It isn't offering you ways to play it. It's a sergeant barking an endlessly wonderful song of orders.
There are many things to say about this as remake, most of which I'll save for after I've played all three games. But the biggest feather in this version's cap has to be Stormy Ascent. For a bonus, cutting room floor, "too hard and too long," DLC level, it is the perfect ending to the game. A necessary payoff to every lesson you've learned and skill you've acquired. The experience would be incomplete without it.
I find the idea of 100%-ing this game at once cumbersome and totally insane but it's so good I may do it anyway. Either way, Any% (+ Stormy Ascent) is such a phenomenal experience that I am more than comfortable counting anything else as a bonus.
If you call this "imprecise" in your review, see me after class.