i grew up with N64 platformers and obviously have a lot of fondness for them, but this current wave of retro indie 3D platformers hasn't really excited me as much as i hoped it might. i guess it’s just not a genre i feel a great need to revisit that much outside of childhood especially now since the novelty of indie devs making this kind of game has worn off. so when i do see this kind of game, i really hope for it to add something significant or new, or at least be so tightly designed that i feel like this cannot be ignored.
in general this seems be some sort of compromise in between a N64-style collectathon that emphasizes exploration and a more Sonic-inspired speed game with more linear levels with some branching paths (which it tends to veer much more towards as the levels go on). at some level i’m not really sure i fully understand the compromise as a coherent design decision, because it’s hard for me to know whether to focus on collecting everything or just trying to beat the level as fast as possible is the better strategy, and which the game really expects you to do. over time this became less of a problem to me but i guess it goes back to the thing of a lot of indie games feeling "vibes based" the actual coherence of the ideas behind the design feeling a little loose and fussy. like it's several features of the era sort of crammed together in a nostalgic way but doesn't fully have a distinct identity of its own.
the controls were also kind of loose and oversensitive to me at first - it’s very easy to fall off surfaces accidentally and i’m not sure holding the “slow yourself down” button they try and give you for tighter jumps really alleviates that. i ended up having to turn down the movement sensitivity a lot to get through things effectively, which definitely made it better. the camera also can miss shifting at important points of the level that leads to deaths and randomly smashing into enemies you can’t see. having bigger character shadows like in Jumping Flash might help - it just felt sometimes hard to gauge exactly where you're landing, which led to a lot of cheap deaths. at least the game wasn't very punishing, but dying did feel pretty arbitrary at times.
a lot about this game would make more sense to me if this were a more tightly choreographed experience. i guess but it just generally lacks the tightness you want from a game like this - even 3D Sonic feels super tightly choreographed in comparison. it just makes everything feel a little muddled and confused, i guess, and less really conscious of what makes some of those other games work. there’s a reason why games like Crash Bandicoot or Sonic go in one direction, and games like Banjo Kazooie go in another.
that said, i do really like the sort of pleasant pastel color palette and the general visual vibe. it hits something for me that soothes me. the music is also very pleasant, and the level design gets a bit more interesting as it goes on. it seems like the developer does at least care about making a decent one of these games that functions well - this isn’t just a pure “vibes only” experience. i ended up having more fun at the end because of the general visual atmosphere/sound and the game's pace moved well enough in a way was pleasant to me.
but yeah - i might sound more harsh but overall i found this to be a pleasant, if not super memorable experience.
in general this seems be some sort of compromise in between a N64-style collectathon that emphasizes exploration and a more Sonic-inspired speed game with more linear levels with some branching paths (which it tends to veer much more towards as the levels go on). at some level i’m not really sure i fully understand the compromise as a coherent design decision, because it’s hard for me to know whether to focus on collecting everything or just trying to beat the level as fast as possible is the better strategy, and which the game really expects you to do. over time this became less of a problem to me but i guess it goes back to the thing of a lot of indie games feeling "vibes based" the actual coherence of the ideas behind the design feeling a little loose and fussy. like it's several features of the era sort of crammed together in a nostalgic way but doesn't fully have a distinct identity of its own.
the controls were also kind of loose and oversensitive to me at first - it’s very easy to fall off surfaces accidentally and i’m not sure holding the “slow yourself down” button they try and give you for tighter jumps really alleviates that. i ended up having to turn down the movement sensitivity a lot to get through things effectively, which definitely made it better. the camera also can miss shifting at important points of the level that leads to deaths and randomly smashing into enemies you can’t see. having bigger character shadows like in Jumping Flash might help - it just felt sometimes hard to gauge exactly where you're landing, which led to a lot of cheap deaths. at least the game wasn't very punishing, but dying did feel pretty arbitrary at times.
a lot about this game would make more sense to me if this were a more tightly choreographed experience. i guess but it just generally lacks the tightness you want from a game like this - even 3D Sonic feels super tightly choreographed in comparison. it just makes everything feel a little muddled and confused, i guess, and less really conscious of what makes some of those other games work. there’s a reason why games like Crash Bandicoot or Sonic go in one direction, and games like Banjo Kazooie go in another.
that said, i do really like the sort of pleasant pastel color palette and the general visual vibe. it hits something for me that soothes me. the music is also very pleasant, and the level design gets a bit more interesting as it goes on. it seems like the developer does at least care about making a decent one of these games that functions well - this isn’t just a pure “vibes only” experience. i ended up having more fun at the end because of the general visual atmosphere/sound and the game's pace moved well enough in a way was pleasant to me.
but yeah - i might sound more harsh but overall i found this to be a pleasant, if not super memorable experience.