SlushieCat

Slushie

@SlushieCat

just a silly little creature

  • they/them

a 30-something cat creature with gender confusion
I really like PSO1, Elder Scrolls, weird old games, prog music, mac and cheese, and other things but I'm really bad at remembering stuff when I want to make a list
I wish I could be isekai'd into a world that sucked slightly less

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SlushieCat
@SlushieCat

3d platformers

talk to me about your favorite 3d platformers and what makes them just as good, better, or worse than the classics. if they are the classics then tell me about them anyway! I like hearing how people feel about things that are important to them.

I love Mario 64, obviously. it's probably the best 3d platformer, though not by a huge margin. my personal favorite though is Spyro 2. I love the characters so much. The different worlds are very fun to run around in, the power up gates are such a neat little mechanic, and certain worlds being incompleteable without later upgrades is a fun little way to encourage not sitting in one level to 100% it before moving on. that particular design choice works perfectly for my brain because normally I do absolutely finish everything in a level before moving on to the next, and that has often made me burn out on a game early. Spyro 2's design really helps me not fall into that particular brain trap.

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DeathBecomesDavid
@DeathBecomesDavid

Sackboy is def among the best modern platformers I’ve played. Despite being a Sony exclusive it leans towards Nintendo’s efforts: isometric, movement chains, dense environments. I love it, but bc I grew up playing Insomniac and Naughty Dog platformers I would give Sackboy up in an instant for Astro.

Astro on PS5 is a perfect marriage between 6th gen gaming philosophies and a tech demo. Feels like that should be derogatory, right? Its a free game meant to show off a controller most devs barely play with. But no. Its the sublime of 3D movement thru wholly contextual environments. And those transitions between modes (hopping, climbing, shooting) are dressed up wonderfully thru the haptics. It’s bliss every moment.

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SlushieCat
@SlushieCat

It's interesting to hear someone talking about Sackboy. I've never heard anyone talking about it at all. It sounds pretty cool and maybe some day I'll be able to check it out (my computer is bad).

I've seen a playthrough of Astro and it seemed kind of boring but if I do ever end up with a PS5 (which I hope to, at some point), I'll definitely check it out.

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DeathBecomesDavid
@DeathBecomesDavid

Astro is one of those “you have to play it to feel it” experiences. Only game I’ve touched that really sells haptic feedback.

Sackboy is also a throwback right down to a steep rise in difficulty later on. Something both games really nail is that feeling of playing with toys. There’s a crunchy feeling to control with instant response. Animation never feels labored, just immediate.

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tubular
@tubular

i don't know about favourite, i might have to say a classic like sunshine, or sonic adventure 1 or 2 if i have to give an absolute favourite. but i love all my children equally! have you heard of here comes niko? very cozy and friendly little game, right down to all the mechanics being friendly, maximizing do-what-you-want-ness and minimizing harshness of punishment.

while i'm naming games i'd also like to namedrop the toree games! as well as siactro's rareware pastiche, super kiwi 64, that's a fun little jaunt. oh and toree was featured in lunistice which i liked a fair bit too.

i don't mind just combing through and exploring spaces, though, and in fact i think i prefer it, because i like to depth-first-search when i'm learning things and places. i don't think collectathons should put obstacles in front of this if you want, though i don't usually find myself burning out so i guess i don't know what the other side is like. niko puts up a bit of a wall in front of that in terms of requiring a second loop, but it's mostly just something you can comb all the way through, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. i guess its brevity is an advantage in this department and maybe it'd be a problem if it tried to be any bigger?

i agree that it's nice when the game gives you an excuse to come back later, especially if you are noticably better than before. though i think if you wanted to distill that experience into a game genre/subgenre, it would be metroidvanias. ...actually, is metroid prime a 3d platformer? can i go back and change my answer??

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SlushieCat
@SlushieCat

I have heard of here comes niko! it's been off and on my steam wishlist and I'll definitely play it one day.

Toree and Lunistice didn't really grip me, I think mainly because the levels are kind of just 2d platformer style levels in a 3d space. A couple of my favorite games are also like that (super mario 3d land and super mario 3d world) but I think those have the Mario bias that carry them.

I think I ended up realizing the burnout aspect of my time with collectathon style 3d platformers with Mario Odyssey. It might just be an aspect of Mario Odyssey itself, since that game has so many moons and such large levels and trying to 100% it is fucking exhausting despite how great it feels to move around in that game. I dunno, it's something I'm still trying to figure out.

I haven't played much of Metroid Prime, mainly because of the control scheme. I'd really like to play the remaster, and will one day.

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tubular
@tubular

"2d platformer style levels in a 3d space" — are you talking about the levels being more-or-less linear? toree and lunistice have some occasional dalliances with nonlinearity but they're largely just linear progressions so i can understand them not being enticing.

on that note i've remembered another excellent game, prince of persia: sands of time (2003). there's a fair bit of combat in it too but the puzzle platforming is so powerful. extremely expressive set of verbs there. it's fairly linear but works to obscure that constantly with large setpieces and levels and so my early brain it succeeded, so i wonder whether it would fit your sensibilities or not

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