![]() ![]() It’s the same game as before, but with all of the dials turned up to 11, and then turned all the way around again until the dial breaks. ![]() Instead, what Derek Yu has made here is essentially Kaizo Mario 64. I think I would have understood if Spelunky 2 had ended up being the Spelunky series’ Mario Sunshine I would have been a little disappointed, sure, but I would have respected the attempt and probably, eventually, enjoyed the game for what it was, just like I did Mario Sunshine. You can’t make every game a classic, and Mario Sunshine is still a lot of fun to play and a very worthwhile experience even if it ended up standing in the shadow of its predecessor. Mario Sunshine was a decent game which tried some new and interesting things with its water-spraying mechanics but which, ultimately, did not come together anywhere near as elegantly as the dead simple 3D platforming mechanics in 64. Having to make a sequel to a perfect (or almost-perfect) game is not something that happens often of the few examples that do exist, the one I’d point to is when Nintendo had to follow up Super Mario 64 with a launch Mario title for the Gamecube. Doing the usual sequel thing of adding new levels, items and features is going to be like adding a fifth wheel to a car, while taking anything out to make room for those new features is just going to create the dreaded Reliant Robin of games. Everything in Spelunky meshes together so well to create an endlessly replayable dungeon-delving platformer roguelike, and there’s no wasted effort on extraneous, unnecessary features that bloat the game and don’t contribute anything to those design goals. However, I struggle to think of a game that hits all of its design goals with the unerring accuracy that Spelunky does. Art is subjective, and not everyone likes Spelunky, and that’s fine. Note that by “perfect” I do not necessarily mean “the best”. Spelunky 2 poses a problem rarely encountered by videogame developers: how do you follow up a game that’s already perfect? ![]()
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