I thought I’d do a mini review of the new Pokémon game that came out, on account of I think it’s really good and as far as I’ve seen it’s free from even a hint of woke nonsense. Very light spoilers ahead.
To start with, the game has jettisoned a LOT of the baggage built up over the years. I know that a lot of people have issues with Gamefreak, and some have dragged the graphics of the game, but in terms of gameplay and function there is a LOT that is done subtly and very well. Menus take far less time than ever, which have become one of pokemons most cumbersome things. Battles against wild Pokémon happen right in the over world and don’t make you wait through five seconds of starting animation. Level ups, evolutions, and new moves all happen seamlessly in the hud. You can move around during battles, making it so you are almost always able to DO something. You have the option to easily release multiple mons. These are all subtle but very good steps forward that show that Gamefreak is actually able to be competent a with game design when they want to be.
The mechanics of moving and catching Pokémon are great. You can do the usual battling, or surprise them and just Chuck a ball. You can just observe Pokémon, feed them berries, and much more. It just feels really fluid and most importantly it feels FUN. It makes me feel like a kid playing again.
This is good, because the gameplay loop has shifted more towards Pokémon research. Meaning you have to catch AND use every mon you catch (or at least catch and defeat a bunch of them in the wild) to get their Pokédex entries. To spice things up there are giant ‘alpha’ Pokémon who are bigger and tougher, and also add a nice element of potential danger.
The exploration is also very fun. You can catch Pokémon, gather items for crafting (surprisingly fun) or just explore. In a series first, Pokémon can attack YOU as well, which means you have to actually use some thought when traveling- you can’t just run through a swarm and assume you’ll be ok.
Speaking of, this is easily the ‘hardest’ Pokémon game I’ve played. I actually have to think and strategize a bit, because just running at some mons will result in you getting hit and attacked and losing some items. Now, I should contexuakuze this by saying it’s hard for a Pokémon game- most non game journalists will be able to do fine. But if you’re coming to Pokémon for a dark souls experience then you will always be disappointed. For what it is, I think it strikes a good balance between being accessible to kids and actually presenting a bit of challenge.
Finally the story! There actually is one, which is a nice change of pace. Without giving away too much (though I haven’t beaten it yet so I can’t say everything), it actually is pretty good. The motivation for making the dex is to help people who are just settling in the region. People are freaked out by Pokémon, viewing them as potentially dangerous. The village is safe, and those outside it on their own will likely die. You’re basically sent by Arceus (God) to help them out. All of this is actually fun worldbuilding, and above and beyond what happens in other games. In addition, there’s strong emphasis on helping to unify the local Diamond and Pearl clans, who have differing perspectives on the powers and abilities of god. Again, there’s a typical Pokémon emphasis on understanding different perspectives, and while not groundbreaking, it’s a nice little thing. Conspicuously absent is any polemic against ‘colonizers’ or anything remotely similar. Not a hint of wokeness have I found.
So all in all, I’d say that it’s a great game. It moves the franchise forward in huge ways, and I hope that it does well and that Gamefreak learns a good lesson from it. If you’re at all attached to the Pokémon franchise then I highly recommend it!
See, I disagree with a lot of what you say, not because its wrong but because the way you describe it makes it sound like an inherent bad thing when in a different perspective it isn't.
Most levels after the third (where you get the last Kong) require very little backtracking after the initial once over with any character, if you are capable of remembering a map in your head (this isn't an attack, but its a very necessary skill to the game itself). Its also meant to be attacked in chunks, instead of shotgunned. Most levels are divided into smaller pieces that you can break apart and finish before moving onto the next piece. If you pay attention to the locations of swap barrels, they are often placed to facilitate this and you will rarely have to go far to find one for a necessary challenge.
Most of them play the same to keep the overworld area traversable by any with little chance of getting stuck, while the gun/instrument locks block out tinier challenges specialized to each one. I agree having both guns and instruments to be useless, but I also found it absurdly cool as a kid so that might be their reasoning.
Coins and regular bananas are over placed intentionally to make you have to collect a little, but never be so lacking you have to leave and grind. As shown by coins not even being tracked (and you having enough to finish the game by like level 4 if you are diligent), and bananas capping off at 75/100 for completion. Which, when mixed with how often most of them are used as trail markers towards specific challenges for their own character, most people would end up with close to that anyway if they played smartly.
I won't defend the minigames. Most are awful, the worst ones get repeated, and generally the game would be better with 80% of them gone. Same with DK himself getting completely shafted in his own game by getting the lamest abilities, on top of one of the worst Bananas (the Mario arcade).
Its certainly not perfect, but I feel like it was reaching the peak of the genre and instead of refining that, people cried so hard they basically cancelled the entire genre over it. I simply overcompensate my defence of it to make up for decades of people treating it like some horrible awful travesty.
Fair enough. When I think of the peak of 3D platformers, I personally think of Banjo-Tooie. And I also see a bunch of idiots claiming it's not good because backtracking is the devil, or whatever.
That's not to say Tooie is perfect. In fact, it shares a lot of the issues I have with DK64, like the lazy lock-and-key abilities that do little but let you pass. I think the big difference for me, the reason I like Tooie more than DK, is that Banjo and Kazooie feel really, REALLY nice to control. They've got loads of options for movement, combat, and puzzle solving, and many objectives can be tackled by coming at them from different directions, or made easier by getting a later ability and bringing it back. And the split up feature drives the point home by giving them even more moves, and letting them min-max into their respective roles. Banjo builds into being tanky and puzzle focused while Kazooie is offensive and incredibly mobile.
When I play DK64, I never really get that kind of pleasant feedback from the characters. The core movement all five of them share just feels rather clunky and plodding, because it has to work for all five of them. To put it simply, DK64 feels communist to me. Like they took these characters with unique skills and traits, and then sanded them all down to the lowest common denominator.
If I was running this railroad, I'd have put a focus on making the stages have a heavier focus on platforming, exploring, and fighting enemies. Then making each of the kongs had some aspect to those traits that they would shine in. Of course, I'm speaking in hindsight, years after playing the game, but it's worth thinking about. (especially if I want to make my own games.) If there's one thing we can both agree on, it's that we both want a new 3D DK game.
First off, no instruments, no oranges, no guns (with one exception.) Respawning Barrels will be placed around the levels. Some will be placed around enemies to help you fight them. Some will be TNT, and need to be carried to cracked walls or other destructible things to make paths and expose secrets. Think SNES barrels in 3D.
DK would be bigger, faster, and stronger too. He is the first member of the DK crew, after all, so he needs to be all around good. He'd be decent at everything, but not really excel at anything besides combat, being the strongest kong besides Chunky. He'd also be the best kong at carrying barrels, because that's such an obvious special trait for him. Diddy, Tiny, and Lanky all slow down and lose some jump height from the weight, and Chunky doesn't know his own strength and smashes barrels on pickup.
Diddy would focus on speed and acrobatics. He's the best at moving around quickly, and has better backflips and triple jumps and the like. Of course, the tradeoff would be that he would be weak in combat, just like the SNES games, so he'd need to play hit and run, or find barrels to throw at enemies.
Tiny would be completely replaced by Dixie because you already had a kong that used her hair to fly Rare, what was the point of making another one you absolute- ahem. Either way, she'd be about as fast as DK, and wouldn't be quite as good as jumping as Diddy, but is more precise at platforming, and can cover longer distances with her glide. She'd also be weak, and since she's also not fast, she would struggle more with enemies.
Lanky would really lean into having no style or grace. He's slower than DK, doesn't have the smaller kongs' mobility, and his reach is his only boon in combat. But his special abilities could make him the most mobile character, circumstantially. When he handstands just for you, it would be more like Kazooie's Talon Trot, speeding him up significantly and letting him scale slopes. However, his handling takes a massive hit, meaning that you'll have to stop and start again in order to take turns. He can also inflate himself just like a balloon wherever he wants to take shortcuts. The tradeoff would be that he'd be fairly slow, an easy target for flying or shooting enemies, and deflates after a little while. Think something like Kirby's flight in Kirby 64. It wouldn't go quite as high as Diddy's jumping, or as far as Tiny's gliding, but would be a bit of a happy medium.
Chunky would be one hell of a guy, who may move slow and can't jump high. He'd be the slowest character by far and have the weakest jump, with no ability to extend it with attacks for any extra precision. He would be the pits at platforming, but he'd shine by being able to take out enemies without breaking a sweat. He'd be the kong with the gun, giving him the ability to pick off foes at a distance, and defeat things like Zingers, or other hazardous enemies. He'd also be able to break open walls and other secrets that other kongs would need to take a TNT barrel to. Essentially, Chunky would be like DK if he had a barrel with him at all times. Getting him somewhere would be the main challenge, because once he gets there, he'll trivialize the rest of the objective.
That'd be the crux of it all. The Gold Bananas would be available to any kong who can reach them, and you can pick and choose who you'd want to use for most situations. An enemy gauntlet at the top of a small platforming challenge? Do you use DK and have an overall balanced experience? Do you use Diddy or Tiny to jump up there easily, then struggle against the foes? Do you try to use Lanky's weird movement to take shortcuts or cheese a challenge? Do you use Chunky and struggle to climb the mountain but make the Kremlings cry out for mummy?
What if the challenge is a timed race to get to a banana before the door closes? Diddy is the obvious choice, but maybe there are enemies that DK could bash through. Maybe Lanky or Tiny could take cheeky shortcuts. Or maybe you want to challenge yourself and see if you can pull it off as Chunky. Only occasionally will the game require a specific Kong ability, and it'll usually be something related to that Kong's main trait rather than just "do the thing with your face/ammo/instrument on it." DK's barrel carrying, Diddy's speed and high-jumping, Tiny's gliding. Lanky's climbing and wacky movement, and Chunky's Gun and brute strength would all be special tools that only they would have access to, and allow them to reach areas the other Kongs can't, rather than being arbitrarily gated by color coded switches, etc.
And if the gameplay still needs to be diversified with vehicles and minigames or whatever, ride the animal buddies. Rambi is faster and stronger than any of the kongs, but is restricted by a barely functional jump that keeps him funneled to the lowest areas. Engarde is the fastest and most powerful swimmer, but obviously can't leave the water. Squawks can carry Kongs all around the levels he's in, but he'll drop you if you get hit by anything, and he's slower the heavier the Kong he's holding is.
I guess my takeaway from all this is that in a platformer, characters need to be fun to control, first and foremost. And if you're going to go ape with lots of options for playable characters, there should be meaningful, major distinctions to how they play and tackle the presented objectives.
(Sorry, about the long posts. I don't always get a chance to sperg out about this sort of thing, so this was kind of a treat for me.)
Ah see, and here we are at the diametric opposition. I hate Tooie, despite absolutely loving Kazooie. Every part of it feels needlessly padded and overstuffed. Its designed to constantly taunt and attack you with stuff you can't do (often not knowing you lack the ability to do so and waste time trying) and then you just saunter back and grab it later with little fanfare. Rarely is it more than "run back to this level and grab it now that you can" with little actual challenge other than remembering it.
That's one benefit DK64 has that most people seem to not realize. You can nearly 100% every level after the third from the moment you enter, as the ability locks are usually in the same level. And generally even if you can't you can 100% most of the characters and only have to come back with X Kong (a benefit of the numerous characters instead of a single with lots of abilities).
I disagree here too, because only DK and Chunky ever feel really clunky and they do so because they are in fact large clunky in shape. Lanky and Diddy feel far more nimble, with Lanky feeling like he is moving way faster. Tiny especially feels adaptable to play, with her twirl far more capable of traversing without issue. Especially once you get a good handle on their specific crouch jumps and how to aim them, you can do a lot more than you'd expect. My only complaint is one we share, in that DK himself is completely overshadowed to a point of being the least important of the crew and he needed something to help him standout.
I like a lot of your character changes and I wouldn't be opposed to any, but that would need them to actually refine the game when the sheer amount of minigames and bugs show they were barely finishing. It would be a great place for the sequel, but the massive hatedom has ensured it would never happen.
And if we compare to the gold standard of platformers Mario, it took until around 3D World for them to have decent diversity in characters for the platforming exactly as you describe, well over a decade later. And those are just barely different enough to be different as well. I feel like a lot of the problems with DK64 are looking back instead of grounded in the time it came out.