3D platformers are dead and that's not a bad thing

There was a time in the 90s when platform games were the marquee titles, specifically those that were made with a mascot in mind. There was always Mario, but it really started after the birth of Sonic the Hedgehog. In time and with the advent of 3D gaming, Mario 64 really changed the landscape and gave us the beginnings of the collect-a-thon.

Looking back I was always more of a 2D platformer, there were exceptions though. I loved Mario 64 and the early Spyro games, Banjo Kazooie I played but never completed. Sonic Adventure and Jak and Daxter also bring back fond memories, and for a bit of a difference there was Conker's Bad Fur Day, which was released in the dying days of the N64.

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About two years ago I got a chance to revisit some of these old games when Rare Replay was released for the Xbox One. I was a huge Rareware fanboy in its glory days of the N64, so the opportunity to go back to them was a no brainer, especially with the cheap launch price.

To my disappointment I was surprised at how badly dated most of the games were, I had more fun with Battletoads than any of the N64 classics. In fact the only 64 game I liked was Perfect Dark, and that was a first person shooter. The most striking thing about playing the old platform games (Banjo Kazooie titles as well as Conker) was how completely uneven the level design was, and the general shallowness of the experience

These issues can be blamed on the technical limitations of the time, which is why 3D platformers are never likely to make much of a comeback, and why I was massively disappointed with the recent Yooka Laylee, and slightly underwhelmed by the remastered versions of the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy only just released for the PS4.

Yooka Laylee suffers the many faults of the old collect-a-thons from the 90s. With extreme padding, tedious gameplay tropes, frustrating boss battles, nauseating camera work combined with unresponsive controls. It was a game that I played for no more than four or five hours before giving up and never returning.

Crash: N.Sane trilogy is not a traditional platformer like some of the others on this blog, but much like Yooka Laylee it is a throwback to the past. Overall it's a fun game that oozes visual charm and I enjoyed a lot of it, but by god is it a bloody frustrating experience. The enemy detection is poor, the jumping mechanic often doesn't feel suited to the level design, and without sounding pretentious, it too is a shallow experience. This is stating the obvious of course, because the Crash Bandicoot titles are just cartoony, get from point A to B games, and there really is nothing wrong with that.

It's just something that I have personally outgrown I suppose.

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From recent memory the only platform game I've liked was the Ratchet and Clank remaster on the PS4. But even that is more of a third person shooter masked as a platform game, there is elements of collecting stuff but it's a bypass of the game rather than an essential element of it.

Which is how platforming is best used in a game, for example, the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot has some of the best platforming that I have ever come across, and that isn't even a platform game. It just has many segments of platforming between the vast exploring and shooting.

3D platformers were good for their time, they were a great a toolbox that showcased the capabilities of where gaming could go. But with the expanse of technology and the power of new consoles, games became more creative and mature, leaving the old 3D platformers dead.

And it's only now that I've realised that that's not necessarily a bad thing.  

Spider-Man Homecoming review

Director: Jon Watts
Running time: 133 minutes

The third best Spider-Man film


Spider-Man has finally joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Homecoming is of course not the first time that we have seen the web swinger in the MCU, as he made his first (and arguably scene stealing) appearance in Captain America: Civil War.

He is without doubt one of the stellar Marvel characters in their vast ensemble, so his lack of presence was always a missing cog in the successful money machine that is the MCU. So has it been worth the wait? yes and no. Homecoming is without question an entertaining action movie and worthy on its own merits, but it ends up lacking an identity, and to some extent I came away thinking it was a little forgettable.

The central cast is near perfect and full of charm, Tom Holland's interpretation as a young, high school attending Peter Parker is both sympathetic and endearing. Although time will tell, he doesn't have the sappy demeanour of Tobey Maguire's interpretation, or the aloof and unsympathetic Andrew Garfield take on the character. The same can also be said of Michael Keaton, who plays the central villain, Vulture. A blue collar contractor who wants to get his revenge on the Avengers. His motivation might be weak and underwritten, but they are at-least understandable, Spider-Man villains tend to pose threats that are smaller in scale compared to other comic book villains, so it follows that tradition.

Robert Downey Jr makes a cameo as Tony Stark, and it is just a cameo. It is nothing like the screen time that the trailer's might've suggested.

While the supporting characters feel like a big part of the story, none are that interesting, Peter's main love interest is just that, his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) is a little annoying. And I was surprised by the minimal screen time of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), who as impressive as she was, couldn't have shared more than two or three scenes with Peter.

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Another surprise was how passable the action scenes are, none were spectacular and all were a relative decline compared with any of the previous Spider-Man movies. Which links in with my next point, the movie feels peculiarly TV-esque. This might be because there is more of a focus on Peter Parker as a high schooler, it's a central part of the movie, whereas in the past movies it was kind of there in the background with little effect on the main plot outside of the characters interacting with each another.

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While there's nothing extraordinary or even bad about the direction, or the way that the movie's shot. I was also surprised that the cityscapes of Manhattan were not used, there's boundless ways to be creative with Spidey swinging through the skies, especially in action set-pieces. I'd imagine that this will change in future sequels.

The small scope of the movie isn't entirely bad, the diversity of Queens shines through, and it feels like a character within the story, a place where people actually live rather than just a setting.  

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The movie fails to be bigger than the sum of its parts, the understandable absence of an origin story and uncle Ben do make the plot feel a little weightless. Which means that the only motivation Peter Parker has is by trying to impress Tony Stark so he can join the Avengers.

However, the movie is well worth your time and money for the entertainment factor alone, it's the funniest of all the Spider-Man movies so far. And none of the humour feels forced, and none of it outstays its welcome. But, above all, it successfully lays the seeds for what should be a promising line of sequels and a deeper take on the mythos of the character.

Verdict: 7/10