Working Title 08.31.06: Underrated/Overrated - Platform Games
Posted by Jordan Williams on 08.31.2006
Tropical Storm Ernesto is to blame for this weeks lateness. Stupid Florida... Anyway, this week Working Title looks at the most overrated and underatted games in the most generic genre on Earth (and not Pluto). Platforming.
Welcome back to Working Title: Underrated/Overrated. This is Week Two of my four-week look at games in a certain genre, telling you if they didn't get enough respect or got WAY too much respect.
Last week was a pretty good success as I looked into the genre of fighting games, this week I look at what right now is quite possibly the BROADEST and MOST DIFFICULT to categorize genre: platforming.
The Genre of the Jump
Platforming. It's a fairly basic idea put into obscenely complex games, but there's always some sort of static idea with all the games:
-You need to get from Point A to Point B while taking out anything in your way.
-You need to collect a lot of things that have no real impact on the game itself outside of extra lives.
-Jumping on an enemy most of the time will inexplicably kill it.
-Gaps are bad, mmkay?
So, now, you might be asking yourself, "How can he narrow ALL of the platforming games down to just a simple two?"
I can't.
Platforming has gotten SO broad and complex that it is downright IMPOSSIBLE to try to get all of them, shuffle them up, and say which ones deserve more praise. I tried the best I can, but now with 3D having taken over, we are seeing a massive shift, a shift that is breaking the genre itself into segmented parts and making my job even HARDER.
2D and 3D
Ever since the Genesis and SNES retired, 3D platformers started popping up all over the land. Now, these 3D platformers really bend the realm that is the platform game. It used to be you running along a side-scrolling track and jumping over gaps. Now with games like Jak and Daxter, Bomberman (64), and Ratchet and Clank, it's getting a bit harder to just say "platforming." This is why, after the urging of some of my readers, I decided to split this u/O into two sections in the same issue. You will get an Underrated/Overrated 2D AND 3D platform game. Double the fun!
Yes, there IS a difference.
2D and 3D platformers are VASTLY different. While the style of gameplay stays largely the same, you are able to explore vast worlds and levels in a 3D realm much better than you could in a 2D one. Whereas 2D offered (in my opinion) a better sense of fun, 3D offered a little bit more art and depth. Thus, there's no way I couldn't really loop these games into one solid section without splitting them. So enough of this jibberjabber; might as well get onto the stuff everyone wants to read about.
Underrated 2D
Honorable Mentions: Vectorman, The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare, Contra: Hard Corps.
Tomba! Remember when I said most underrated platform games tend to be obscure? Here is one right here. Just look at the damn cover. Do you have ANY idea what the bloody hell is going on with this picture? Do you? OF COURSE NOT. That's part of the reason Tomba! was a lot of fun in the first place. My mind is OBSCENELY fuzzy because I haven't played this game in almost a decade, but I remember the general story is that Tomba! is trying to save his people from a race of evil pigs. There's a lot of high-pitched screaming and wonderfully cartoony pig violence.
Really, pig violence. What the hell is better than that?
Tomba! is sometimes panned as more of an adventure game since it has a fair amount of text and some general adventure game elements (the game was actually mission-based), but there was PLENTY running and jumping to thrust this into the chasm that is the platform game. If you still have a PS2 that's functioning, I suggest you nab this gem from some bargian bin or online for cheap. It's pretty easy and not all that long, but it's one of the best platformers you've never heard of. Plus the high-pitched "TOMBAAAAA!!!" yell will NEVER get old.
Verdict: TOMBAAAAAAA!!!! (Underrated)
Oh no...do you hear that? ...Fuck, it's the Nintendo Fanboys.
"WHAT!? NO MISCHIEF MAKERS!?"
Yes, I know. Mischief Makers is probably not only the most underrated platformer of all-time, but it's also probably the most underrated GAME in the past decade. So, why didn't it get my vote?
Simply put,
I NEVER PLAYED IT.
MM was a rare game already, and it was downright IMPOSSIBLE to find around here when it was out. I -NEVER- got a chance to play this game. I cannot justifiably put a game that I never played into this. Now, I did give one of my readers a chance to write up a larger blurb about the game so I could post it here and give them credit, but I never heard back. It's a shame, too. I KNOW this game is underrated, but I've never played it; therefore, I can't pass judgement on it. If he gets back to me next week, I'll post it.
Verdict: ???
Moving along...
Overrated 2D
NOTE: While DKC3 is the one being seen. This overrated is pretaining to the ENTIRE Donkey Kong Country series up until Donkey Kong 64.
Honorable Mentions: Megaman X4, Super Mario Bros 2, Pitfall
You damned dirty ape. This game had all the essentials of being a good platform game. In fact, it WAS a good platform game...but it had NO. FRIGGIN. POINT! All of a sudden, you are Donkey Kong, taking a break from kidnapping blondes and avoiding irate hammer-wielding plumbers to go...fight crocodiles and eat bananas?
Wtf?
Sure, there was jumping, running, climbing, and jumping on enemies to kill them, but the whole series was covered with this air of...nothing. They never sat down and explained what exactly you were doing or WHY you were doing it. Hell, all you really got from the story was that one fat, naked king reptile with freakishly large man-breasts stole your precious bananas; now go get them back. That's it.
Oh, did I mention they just HAD to drag this game out to TWO more sequels?
The first one introduced the only new character who had any real longevity in the series, Diddy Kong. We like Diddy, and of course, as per a rule of platformers, the second player either needs its own character or clone. Diddy was the definition of "Second Player." (Jis the Editor's Note: Thank you for avoiding the "second banana" pun.) He had no real reason to be there outside of just being the second player. It's not a bad thing.
Until the "Donkey Kong" series no longer had...Donkey Kong.
Someone explain to me why a game with the guy's friggin NAME in the title warrants he makes no more playable appearances in the rest of his franchise, hm?
We got Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Funky Kong, Cranky Kong, Kongy Kong, Newby Kong, Csonka Kong, Candy Kong. We got too many goddamns KONGS and not enough GAME. Shit, you'd think these weren't apes but jackrabbits!
And as a little note, you know your game isn't doing well when YOUR CREATOR says the game was mediocre (Yes, I know he took it back, but still...)
Verdict: Overrated...Kong
One more thing...who the hell puts a rhino in a box and leaves it in the middle of nowhere!?
I swear to Zod, I must be the ONLY Castlevania fan in the WORLD outside of Frank who LOVED this game. I mean, I really LOVED this game. It was the first (second, technically) jump into the 3D world of Castlevania, bolstering with some impressive landscapes and some pretty badass characters. The game for some reason failed to catch on. To this day, I really don't know what everyone else DIDN'T like in this game. I mean, let's look at the checklist:
I mean, hell, it even had a fairly decent cast of characters. You had Reinhardt, who admittedly was no Belmont, but he flung that whip with the best of them. You had Carrie who made the game downright stupidly easy. In the 'expansion,' you had Cornell, who singlehandedly started the "long white hair bisho protagonist" cliche that has been in EVERY CV game since. (But he makes up for it because he is a werewolf.)
And there's Henry. We can't forget Henry. Who needs whips and magic when you have a flintlock?
The levels were large, the puzzles were good, and the bosses were great. It even had a great Castlevania soundtrack. But like most N64 games, this game just got left in the dust and almost torn apart of critics. It was (and still is) a great game, and none of the other 3D CV games (all one of them) have been able to capture the ambience and fun that this one had to offer. I hope we get a CV game for the Wii in the vein of this. It's a shame they decided to retconn the events of this game out of CV canon. They had a pretty good story built up here.
Verdict: Critically Underrated
Seriously, you can't go wrong in a game where, if you spend too much money, a demonized mix of Charlie Chaplan and John Lennon decide to kick your ass.
Overrated 3D
Honorable Mentions: Starfox Adventures, Megaman Legends 2, God of War(I consider it a platform game.)
Yep, remember what I said about Nintendo Fanboys and their rated M games? This is a SHINING example. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Conker's Bad Fur Day.
The N64 was all but dead when this game hit the markets, being one of the few rated M games for the console, and having all of the hype of being ADULT. Yes, adult. Because leading a bee to a big-breasted flower and pissing on little fire demons is 'adult.'
You see, Rare though it would be mighty adult of them to make a game that is pretty much every 10th grader's wet dream: lots of potty humor and lots of bouncing boobs. They gave it to you in shitloads here. Conker is a fairly mild-mannered squirrel...or chimpmunk, whatever the hell he is. He enjoys hanging at the pub, pissing randomly, beating stuff up with a frying pan, and vomiting.
There's a story in here somewhere.
Oh well.
Really, when you mention CBFD, all you will really here about is one thing and one thing only, which outside of the multiplayer is REALLY the only redeeming quality of the game. I won't even bother to use words to describe it. Just look.
Moving along. Like I said, once you got to the above part, the shit hit the fan. Seriously, the game is pretty much NOTHING beyond that. It's like when there's a prize in the cereal box and it's laying right at the top. You have no real reason to finish the rest.
The multiplayer was unexpectedly good, I'll give you that. If it's one thing 3D platformers don't do, it's that they don't give you enough of a co-op experience. While CBFD didn't do the same, it gave you a nice third person shooter-style of gameplay which made the game somewhat bearable. Was it a bad game? Yes. Did it deserve all of the praise it got? Hell no.
Verdict: I...am...The Great Mighty--OVERRATED!
One thing I always find funny is how the Xbox port of this game ended up being more censored than the Nintendo version. How's that for kiddy?
Agree? Disagree? Drop me a line and let me know.
Congratulations!
Hey! People actually DO read this! The last issue of WT got me a whole THREE mail-ins, breaking my record! Yay! Let's hope this one gets even more, because this batch was REALLY good. Now, onto the reader mail.
The first one is from Terence Tso about me putting VF4 in the Overrated slot last week:
Hiya Jordan,
I'm not going to flame you for calling VF4 overrated like I'm sure many will, but I just wanted to point out that if you really dedicate the time and effort to learn the game, it's definitely the deepest fighting game in pure technique, strategy, and timing. It really helps to have a buddy or two to obsess over the game with cause the single player does kinda suck...
I guess you could call it overrated since the learning curve is so steep, very few are going to have the patience for really figuring out how the game should be played, but it's incredibly rewarding if you put in the time.
Not trying to change your mind but from your review, but I would recommend giving it another look if you're an aficionado of fighting games cause it's well-worth the effort.
Cheers!
Thanks for the mail.
Now, about the depth of the game. I honestly didn't see it. Compared to other 3D fighters like DOA and SCII, this game seemed pretty shallow. The reversal system was more luck than skill and everything else was just a matter of who could push the button first. I didn't see much of a learning curve either; a few run-throughs in the training mode with your favorite character and you are pretty much set for life. Now, this might all change in tournament play, but for single and versus play? It didn't do it for me. Thanks for not trying to change my mind; next time I am near it I'll try to give it another look, but I'm not sure it'll be any different.
Our next one is a short and sweet one from Working Title regular Todd Vote:
Over rated game: Every single version of Street Fighter two that ever came out after the original.
Under Rated: Killer Instinct. KI does not get anywhere near the recognition it deserves. First game to use a combo system, and a lot of games followed suit, including a Streetfighter game, and MK3. We need Killer Instinct 3. On the Xbox 360!
I pretty much agree across the board on the Overrated, but I'm having a hard time calling Killer Instinct underrated, simply beacuse it did change a the genre with the combo system. It didn't get as much respect and it should've, but it got the right amount. Now, if you had said KI Gold, I would've been with you all the way. That game really got the shaft. I'm up for a KI3, but Rare just can't seem to do any of it's old franchises right nowadays. Thanks for the mail.
And finally, we get a nice long one from Doug Bernard. He writes in to tell us HIS picks for U/O of Platforming:
ok first of you have to sperate 3D and 2D, platformers
Platformers are my favorite type of game so you bet your ass I got an opinion on this one.
2D
Overrated:
Donkey Kong Country Series: this one was so overrated its not even funny, and when I read Miyamoto thought it was a horrible game as well it raised his stock in my eyes
Sonic Series: Fun, yes. Fast, yes. Overrated, hell yeah.
Underrated:
Mischief Makers: I had a ton of fun with this game and I bet not many people remember this early N64 title
3D
Overrated:
JAX games: personal preference really as I always preferred Ratchet and Clank and I always felt JAX games got to much credit
Some may say Mario but that's blasphemy in my eyes :)
Underrated
Banjo/Kazooie: one of my top five N64 games, and it would have been the best 3D platformer on that system if not for Mario, but for some reason I think people forget about it.
Plus two little side notes:
I too used to be a huge Nintendo fanboy, but I was also lured to SONY by MGS, FF7, and Tony Hawk. But like you I lost much faith in SONY with the PS2, and never plan on getting a PS3.
And did you write that you didn't like any Zelda game after part 2!!!
GET OUT OF MY HEAD. Seriously, I had the picks for this issue ready last week before you e-mailed me and you got two of my underrated 2D ones. That's pretty damn creepy. And like I said for MM, since I've never played it, I can't rightly call it. Maybe you'd be willing to write up a blurb for it so it can get inducted?
Mario...eh...the old ones are nice, but after 64, it went south. The Jax series was fairly solid. I wouldn't call them overrated since all of the sequels ran pretty deep under the radar, which was a shame because there was a pretty decent story in there.
Banjo/Kazooie wasn't much of anything in my eyes. It got the right amount of respect, but I'm not a big fan of the series so I really don't have much to say about it one way or another.
About the fanboy bit, Sony never managed to lure me over. I was never big into Metal Gear Solid, FF7...is...FF7, and SSX and 1080 snowboarding pretty much spoiled me in the ways of Tony Hawk games. The PS3 is looking more unappealing to me every day and not because of the price; just the fact that they are hyping it so much over NOTHING. The PS3 right now isn't bringing squat to the table other than its name.
And yes, I am one of those creepy people who don't like Zelda games. They bore me to tears. Sadly, though, it looks like Twilight Princess might be the one that breaks me. (Jis the Editor's Note: Children will dance in the streets on that day.)
Again, thanks for the mail.
Remember, always send in reader mail. If you don't, a poor kid plays a Virtual Boy.
That's all for this week, folks. Next week it's going to get pretty ugly as I break out the big guns. That's right, it's time to look at First Person Shooters. It's going to get pretty violent, so I'll go ahead and let you know what you are in for. A lot of grenades and someone who is a tad possesive.
Until next time, I am Jordan Williams, and this column needs a name. A manly name. Like...Francis.
