Game Feel: A Tour of Virtual Sensation
The games here contain at least one outstanding example of game feel. Either the feel they have is exceptionally unique or they are still the premiere examples in the genre or they revolutionized the type of feel they were aiming for (and still feel incredible today.)
The notes try to specify what the special kind of feel is for each title is and why they are worth experiencing for yourself.
The notes try to specify what the special kind of feel is for each title is and why they are worth experiencing for yourself.
30 Games
Wave feel still unmatched (and maybe even unchallenged.)
“Doing dangerous things with style is art,” the game tells us when we start it up. And while playing a video game about rally is not quite as dangerous as rally itself—this one is pretty demanding. The cars are challenging to control, but the gradual mastery you achieve becomes all the more rewarding for it. Gripping, drifting, cornering a hard turn, slaloming through S curves, snapping through a hairpin— all feels interesting and wonderful (when done well.) Sliding off course, spinning tires, hitting those very solid trees, going a bit too fast and spinning out of control— all feels interesting and very bad (which is as it should be.) Different terrains and conditions make things more or less slippery or drift-inducing in different ways. Snow, dirt, gravel, and rain soaked tarmac all force you to slightly modify your timings and approach to a track— and it seems like this would be so even if all the curves and grades were the same.
The game is—like several others here— all about striking a balance between speed and control. And beyond the times achieved, the game feel that emerges as you try to strike that balance is it’s own reward (or punishment.)
The game is—like several others here— all about striking a balance between speed and control. And beyond the times achieved, the game feel that emerges as you try to strike that balance is it’s own reward (or punishment.)
This is the Doom shotgun of tennis rackets. The ball on racket on court on racket rhythm— those thwacks and pops have never been so satisfying. And no tennis game has ever been quite so convincingly kinesthetically responsive again.
(The Dreamcast pad and it’s hard snap-like buttons may further heighten these effects.)
(The Dreamcast pad and it’s hard snap-like buttons may further heighten these effects.)
R4 is beyond a cult classic at this point. It almost has the status of a religious text in some circles. And that’s for many reasons—the atmosphere, the soundtrack, the visuals, the speed, the little stories (the menus.) But what matters here is the handling. They have two types of cars with distinct underlying models. Grip and drift type cars have completely different feels (and different uses.) But the feeling of drifting in this was innovative at the time and still feels remarkably rewarding now. Drifting flows out of a small sequence of inputs and is a small achievement, not an always available instant single button press away. And once drift has been achieved it has to be properly sustained and then exited to take a corner well.
This feel as a reward for good play, like argued elsewhere here, is one key to why this particular action feels so satisfying. Even if you held the animations and sound effects fixed— it would be less satisfying to pull off if it was always guaranteed to happen.
This feel as a reward for good play, like argued elsewhere here, is one key to why this particular action feels so satisfying. Even if you held the animations and sound effects fixed— it would be less satisfying to pull off if it was always guaranteed to happen.
The greatest game requiring only a single analog stick.
First-person pixel perfect parkour
Shift weight to maintain balance and maintain balance to maintain speed— and do it well to get a better medal. The idea is simple and the game is straightforward in a way that will push some away— but it feels incredible. And the skill ceiling here is essentially limitless. All mastery is largely driven by increasing one’s finesse with these very simple controls.
What it’s like to move around underwater in full diving dress—with the help of a limited use jet pack. Comparisons are reductive, but this approximates what it might feel like if Sam Porter Bridges got sent to the bottom of the ocean with a Lunar Lander jetpack strapped to his back.
Maybe no racing game feels quite as good as this. The pinnacle of rally games to date. And rally games are more about interesting gamefeel than most other genres.
There’s something going on here. Must replay it to find out exactly what. The way the water can propel you further in a jump, make for more forgiving landings, and also create a makeshift slip n slide on the spot is what I remember after 20 years.
The camera’s distance from the player character here is a virtue here. It makes some very satisfying sensations possible as fluid and complex character animations spill across, over, and through the stunning architecture. With just a little practice, these elegant acrobats start to emerge seamlessly from your fingers. And unlike “auto-parkour” so common for awhile in later action games—there was always a strong sense of control surrounding your acrobatic movements. This stylish mode of traversal is a reward. If you select and time your inputs well, you are rewarded with a sequence of successful acrobatics. If you failed, the prince would fall to the ground disappointed and defeated or worse. The design is famously generous with the number of attempts it offers the player, but the success of your attempts was not something you could take for granted.
The animations were unrivaled at the time. And the sound design is still memorable for me. The patter of footsteps as the prince runs along a stone wall and the trailing echoes, the thud and grunt as he lands hard, the sound the tapestries make as they tear in two when he slides down one clutching his sword to slow his descent.
The animations were unrivaled at the time. And the sound design is still memorable for me. The patter of footsteps as the prince runs along a stone wall and the trailing echoes, the thud and grunt as he lands hard, the sound the tapestries make as they tear in two when he slides down one clutching his sword to slow his descent.
Trudging makes for perfect traversal. Walk slow, fall down, get up, dust yourself off, again and again—eventually you will run. Then you’ll drive a slow truck and probably get it stuck in a river. Then you’ll bike hop across a snow capped mountain range.
This contains multitudes.
This contains multitudes.
Melee action platforming in two dimensions has never felt better. The movement abilities are super smooth with lovingly done animations. And the speed bonuses accelerate play to an intense pitch. The wide variety of weapons and items that actually play differently can make each run feel very distinctive.
The purest and most mechanically satisfying 2d platformer. Spend an afternoon trying to reach a single strawberry and you might agree.
The core is simple, unstylish, and deliberate action: constrained movement speed, stamina management, uncancellable actions, and dodge rolls with precisely defined i-frames. Every action is a commitment.
And despite essentially inventing that excellent core, they still manage to introduce an enormous amount of variety. Be a clunky overencumbered tank with Havel’s armor and a greatshield or fast roll around au naturel.
This defined what was to come (and still encompasses more than much that comes later.)
And despite essentially inventing that excellent core, they still manage to introduce an enormous amount of variety. Be a clunky overencumbered tank with Havel’s armor and a greatshield or fast roll around au naturel.
This defined what was to come (and still encompasses more than much that comes later.)
Souls made smooth. To date the slickest and most refined implementation of this style.
The dodge step makes you feel like a human being, the trick weapons make you feel like a blood thirsty beast, the guns makes you feel like a hunter.
And the gun parry makes you feel like an old god.
And the gun parry makes you feel like an old god.
Perfect perfect parries, quick sword strikes, and high mobility shinobi movement with what is probably the greatest grappling hook in 3d environments.
This game is good— you might have heard. But there is only one reason this is on here: Torrent. Best double jumping horse ever born. Take some time one day to do some horse parkour around a platforming levels designed into rocky cliffs by the shore, up high towers, or down a deep shaft into the earth. Find wondrous vistas, strange secrets, powerful gear. Jump up a mountain to a place you are not supposed to be, fall, die, lose all your runes outside the intended geometry.
Perfection.
Perfection.
This is the best in class in the stylish action genre. Dante’s ability to quick swapping between four weapons, four stances, and using meter to enter two devil forms to build combos is probably the peak of Kamiya style combo heavy high score action. And Nero’s exceed mechanic is possibly the most interesting timing mechanic introduced to melee combat since the parry.
Other snowboarding games may accentuate certain aspects of the experience better: 1080 series has the speed, Tricky has the fluid and over the top chains of stunts, Shredders captures the surprising difficulty of simply staying upright much less landing anything at all.
Steep has the snow.
Snow you can feel underneath you, compressing, shifting—feel the boards/skis glide over and settle down into the powder, feel the corners catch in deep ruts. Watch snow spray in a small arc as you dig into a curve, leave a little snow angel-like indentation when you fall, stick to your clothes when you get back up, and form a beautiful path behind you as you find a line down the mountain.
And despite taking place in a non-snow medium, the wingsuit is well worth experiencing. The controls are natural and responsive. Gliding high and slow over the Alps is a serene sort of spectacle. Alternatively, diving down and flying a path a little too close to the ground for comfort—through checkpoints and around obstacles— is absolutely thrilling.
The sheer scale of the environment remains impressive. This is as close as games have come to bringing the sublime element of the great outdoors inside. Openness and a sense of freedom have sometimes been overvalued in design recently— but this was a welcome attempt. It works because that freedom is constrained enough by the natural constraints of the activities involved—ultimately you just go down the mountain (and then back up to descend again.) And readymade routes and events already dot the landscape and can be accessed anytime. These simple characteristics prevent the freedom from becoming a curse and allow you to really take in the pristine beauty of the world.
Steep has the snow.
Snow you can feel underneath you, compressing, shifting—feel the boards/skis glide over and settle down into the powder, feel the corners catch in deep ruts. Watch snow spray in a small arc as you dig into a curve, leave a little snow angel-like indentation when you fall, stick to your clothes when you get back up, and form a beautiful path behind you as you find a line down the mountain.
And despite taking place in a non-snow medium, the wingsuit is well worth experiencing. The controls are natural and responsive. Gliding high and slow over the Alps is a serene sort of spectacle. Alternatively, diving down and flying a path a little too close to the ground for comfort—through checkpoints and around obstacles— is absolutely thrilling.
The sheer scale of the environment remains impressive. This is as close as games have come to bringing the sublime element of the great outdoors inside. Openness and a sense of freedom have sometimes been overvalued in design recently— but this was a welcome attempt. It works because that freedom is constrained enough by the natural constraints of the activities involved—ultimately you just go down the mountain (and then back up to descend again.) And readymade routes and events already dot the landscape and can be accessed anytime. These simple characteristics prevent the freedom from becoming a curse and allow you to really take in the pristine beauty of the world.
This did not invent the parry, but it did allow Daigo to invent the Daigo parry. A virtuosic event turned into a legend and now is the one thing that people know about this game. But it’s a testament to just what can be achieved here. And such things would not be possible if the controls were not absolutely rock solid and the basic actions did not feel just right. The responsiveness on display in this game is still impressive. There’s something so quick and snappy about it all. Like people often say about 2d platformers vs 3d platformers— there’s a feeling of lightness and a level of precision here that maybe cannot be achieved in a 3d fighter (or a 2d fighter with 3d models .) The snappy inputs and fluid animations gives a sense of perfect and immediate control. The sprites and their very clear outlines makes everything very legible and more predictable as a result. You know exactly where the hitboxes are—where your body begins and ends. And we can’t even fully know ourselves just how responsive it all really until without the high level players show us what is possible. But internalize the moveset on your favorite character and you can get a glimpse of how quickly those highs, lows, combos, blocks, and parries spill from your fingers. My pick in this roster is Dudley. He’s nothing but punches and it feels like you are playing the greater boxing game ever made. Just don’t let it make you late for tea.
Still the most sophisticated fighter in the 3d space. Sidesteps, counters, and grabs are unparalleled.
Notable for its brutal, slow, clunky, bolt action blasts.
CoD is maybe a bit too familiar to be here. But, as I remember it, this one felt different.
CoD is maybe a bit too familiar to be here. But, as I remember it, this one felt different.
The classic trinity: shoot, melee, grenade at exactly the right moments. Plus you can still swing swords and now bang hammers. The deliberate almost strategic pace of play made possibly the shield system makes for pitch perfect competitive play.
Bullet time and cover mechanics make for an excellent blend and turns firefights in brutal stop-and-go ballets. Take cover, blindfire a few rounds to push enemies back, time dive out into the open—aim well and the room might be clear when you land.
A sense of speed unsurpassed in a third-person shooter.
The pinnacle of feel when it comes to pure action shoot’em ups. Seamless transitions from one handling model to another by swapping from bullets to lasers and back. Using the bullets lets you fly very fast and go for big dodges (or macro-dodges), the laser slows you down but grants you finer control over your positioning.
And then the hypers just go wild.
And then the hypers just go wild.
This is an interesting example of something like abstract feel. It is not quite abstract, but you are working in a minimalist space— a single screen with a working area defined by some boundary lines. And you are just placing a few different types of falling blocks. Yet they’ve given the core gameplay of this classic a very tactile feel. You are messing around with little blocks, you are in control and it feels like it. And the details and accompanying effects are about as juicy as it gets. The way blocks rotate quickly and constantly project a matching silhouette below them so you’ll know exactly the place they’ll fall, the little sounds they make as they fall gradually, the way they hard drop with a boom and the impact makes the screen sink down a little before it bounces back up into the usual place, the way they eventually (and irrevocably) snap into place with a unique sound and then subtly darken to color match the other blocks, the way a line turns into pure light when cleared, and the way getting a tetris makes things gratifyingly psychedelic for just a moment.
Put that core feel together with the synaesthetic spectacle evolving through each stage and you have something that is as special as everyone says it is.
Put that core feel together with the synaesthetic spectacle evolving through each stage and you have something that is as special as everyone says it is.
Just try the ice skating. Feel the dualsense adaptive triggers, hear the little gliding whoosh sounds emitting from the control. Real magic if anything is.
