My 1UP review for Portrait of Ruin just went up. I was stunned a few moments ago when I grabbed a just-arrived advance copy of the latest EGM only to discover that the other reviewers on the game scored it considerably higher than I did. I guess my HATER reputation won’t be clearing up anytime soon.
I dunno, I’ve found this year to be seriously disappointing on the platform gaming front. 2D sidescrolling action is still pretty much my favorite expression of gaming ever, and I’ve found this year’s offerings to be heart-wrenchingly lackluster. This isn’t weepy nostalgia speaking, either; in the past year I’ve played through a repulsive number of classics — 8-bit, 16-bit, portable, you name it — so this is an observation borne in the glaring spotlight of side-by-side comparison.
Portrait of Ruin is the latest letdown, but certainly not the worst. At least it (like New Super Mario Bros. before it) has superlative production values, tries to do some new things and is laden with homages to its own history. Not that fan service is any substitute for great gameplay, but it certainly helps. I just wish the same amount of effort had been put into the map design as into creating hidden skeleton bartenders who attack by sliding poisoned Mai Tais down the bar at you; Portrait wants to be Dracula’s Curse and Symphony of the Night all at once, and had it succeeded probably would have been the greatest game known to mankind. Depth and exploration meets deviously challenging level design? I would buy this game. And love it gently. And probably pick up some extra copies for my friends.
Portrait, though… not so great. Linear stages just don’t mix well with the boxy, hazard-free design of Symphony’s children; the only challenge comes from attrition, and the only genuinely difficult parts are the bosses (which are insanely overpowered, capable of flattening the heroes in five seconds or less) and the CotM-style optional gauntlet. To make it worse, the game practically demands tons of backtracking — but since every area is a start-to-finish shot, you have to take the same route every time. There is a word for this style of map design, and that word is, “Zzzzz.”
Like I said in the review, though, the game’s details are as much a saving grace as a woeful shortcoming. The bonus modes are incredible (albeit incredibly easy), the music is spectacular (especially the stuff by Yuzo Koshiro, who managed to craft tunes which sound like they were taken straight from the NES chapters even though they’re original compositions), the tag-team system works perfectly, and the final battle is mind-blowingly cool. I think another six months of polish would have saved this game’s undead bacon.
And so it goes with all of this game’s 2D letdowns. I can certainly understand why a lot of people review old-school games less critically — there’s a strong temptation to say, well, no one makes stuff like this anyway, so we should give it a free pass just because it’s so nice to see a nod to a bygone era. Ideally, though, modern 2D games would excel by building on their predecessors rather than struggling just to equal them. Is it any surprise that 2D gaming is increasingly a niche category when the games are so flat — and in ways that have nothing to do with the visuals?
(Oh snap!)
37 thoughts on “2006: Year of the weaksauce platformer”
Comments are closed.
Portrait isn’t that great? Really? Well, gee, thanks. You’ve ruined my whole day. I hope you’re happy.
–
You’re just a big fat jerk.
–
I hate you.
It’s an 8/10, dude. That’s pretty good. It’s not just not as awesome as it was supposed to be.
.
Also, I’m not very big. So I’m just a fat jerk.
For me, 2-D sidescrollers are what dreams are made of. Since my taste in that breed of games is similar to yours, I can see what the industry has done to them.
.
I kinda wanted Portrait to be the greatest Castlevania since… the latest greatest Castlevania. I guess it’s just a pretty fun game. Enjoy!
By the way, I’ve heard a few things about PoR secret modes and the stylus control. (for awhile in there, the info was pretty darn hard to avoid… sadly, as I would much rather have had the massive disappointment come when I played the game, not a few months early) Please tell me you can make the buttons act as D-pad, because otherwise it looks to not just be an easy and plotless run through the same game, but an actual kick to the face for lefties like myself.
I’m noticing a trend of you being excited about games like Yoshi’s DS and Castlevania then cooling about them once you’ve played them. I guess it’s because you actually *do* play through them and make your judgement based upon that experience versus the initial hype.
.
It makes me sad, though, because what the heck is going on with 2D games, then?! Are we really never going to see another great 2D game that harkens back to the thoughtful design of the golden era?
.
I’m hoping Wario: Master of Disguise (is Dana Carvey voicing Wario this time?) is good. The art sure looks…different.
.
And, have you tried Kirby: Squeak Squad yet? If so, what are your thoughts? I loved Canvas Curse and was rather surprised to see Squeak Squad as a return to GBA-territory.
“I guess it’s because you actually *do* play through them and make your judgement based upon that experience versus the initial hype.”
.
It’s kind of you to notice. The problem with 2D games, I suspect, is that they tend to be lower-budget productions and generally aren’t given to the most experienced staffers. Most developers want to put their A crew on the more complex projects — understandable, but with the unfortunate result of turning lower-tech games into proving grounds for budding talents. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes not.
“It’s an 8/10, dude. That’s pretty good. It’s not just not as awesome as it was supposed to be.”
–
I know. I was just being overly dramatic in a completely not-serious way. It was an entirely calculated comment meant to inspire lols and roffles from the easily humored. Also, I hit the post comment button before clicking the link to the review, as I had jumped to the conclusion that you’d given it something like a 6 or 7.
No love for Drill Dozer? You *sold* me that game.
.
Part of the problem is that these are old franchises. There are only so many tricks you can teach an old dog.
At least the music rocks, and I was surprised at the amount of old stuff was remade for its soundtrack as well. Finaly, a Bloodlines song that isn’t Sinking Old Sanctuary.
.
I had a feeling the maps were going to be linear. A part of me likes that idea, thinking it’ll be like the old-school CV’s, but then a part of doesnt want to like it for whatever reason. Oh well, we’ll see on the morrow.
Whoa, Drill Dozer was 2006? Man. It’s been a long, long year.
Also, in the plus column, I’d add Megaman ZX as being a good’un. Probably the best MM game in nearly a decade at that. So, maybe not a lackluster year for 2D platformers per se, just the big ones you expect better from?
I actually agree with DNi. With all the negative things you say about PoR, it sounds like you gave it a 6 or 7, not an 8. I can understand how a game can be disappointing without being bad, but with terms like “letdown” and “not so great”, you certainly are stretching the definition of “dynamite” that is attached to the eight point score.
Yeah, sorry. The final version of the game left a slightly sour taste in my mouth, and I’ve been choking it back for the past month since I consider it unwise to weigh in on a game I’m reviewing before the review is actually published. Think of it this way: Dawn of Sorrow was spectacular. Portrait is a step down. A step down from spectacular is still really good, even if it is disappointing.
Hmm… I actually considered Dawn a step down from Aria, mainly because of the boring weapons. You could get your hands at almost all different weapon types right at the beginning, and the different levels of each type pretty much acted the same. There were some exceptions, like Valmanway, but by the time you got them you had probably already beaten the game. I also hated that you had to waste your souls to get good weapons, rather than being able to find or buy them. And come to think of it, I didn’t really like some of the background graphics. Way too photo-realistic.
.
I can tell from the screenshots that the backgrounds look a bit nicer this time, but what about weapons? Are they still boringly classified? Can you actually find some worthwhile ones while exploring now? I’ll probably buy the game anyway, but I’d like to know if I should lower my expectations to avoid disappointment.
“Is it any surprise that 2D gaming is increasingly a niche category” … really? Doesn’t seem very increasingly-niche at the moment. Actually it seems like 2006 is the year of the weaksauce platformer in part because it is just the year of the platformer. I mean: Drill dozer, YIDS, NSMB, New Kirby, New Castlevania, UGnG, Super Princess Peach, LocoRoco, Mega Man Powered Up, Mega Man ZX, Metal Slug Anthology, and whatever I’m forgetting. That’s a pretty long list with some relatively high profile entries! Especially “whatever I’m forgetting”. Awesome game, that.
I reserved PoR at GameStop mostly just to get this Castlevania art book; anyone actually seen the thing? I’d like to know if it’s well done (before I pick it up today anyway).
Oh, and Gamespot’s PoR review was an 8.3, so unless you hate those guys or something and loathe the comparison, I’d say your review was pretty fair. Hell, I was really just hoping the game wouldn’t suck outright and fall into “mediocre” territory; I’m happy.
Wait… Dawn was bad because it gave you access to lots of different weapon types right up front and made the upgrade path transparent to allow you to develop your favorite kinds more effectively? It’s very strange to hold extra options against a game, but… okay.
.
It is the year of the weaksauce platformer because the vast majority of this year’s copious selection of platformers were comparatively weak. MMPU and Drill Dozer are the only two that really blew me away. (Well, and MMZX, but it wasn’t objectively all that great.)
Maybe you’re anticipating these games so much a letdown is nearly unavoidable. Plus, as other people have pointed out there’s been a lot of really good platformers this year to go with the disappointing ones.
With the technical power of the PSP and DS I was really worried the final doom had come for 2D platformers. This year (whether or not some of the games were relatively disappointing) has shown that not only are they not going anywhere, they’re thriving and even expanding their appeal.
I don’t think expecting a sequel to uphold and perhaps surpass the quality of its predecessors is unreasonable.
Perhaps not…
.
But you gotta admit, Castlevania’s getting a bit more scatter-shot in quality as years go by, which is perfectly normal for such a huge franchise with so many titles.
.
I mean, not every one can be a smash-hit. But it does sting that this one, holding such promise and pedigree, fell a bit short of Sorrow’s high-water mark.
I don’t think we’ll ever see a true death of 2D games, at least not in portable gaming. 3D gaming requires you to actually get into a mental state, which isn’t terribly congruous to on-the-go play.
“It is the year of the weaksauce platformer because the vast majority of this year’s copious selection of platformers were comparatively weak.” Well, obviously — I was just adding to that the hypothesis that maybe that happened in part just because there were so many platformers. It’s partly a perception thing: when so many series are revived at once, you’re comparing them to all the classic high points of the series, so you’re hoping for a year in which essentially all the classic games are released with the same magic all over again, which won’t happen. It’s also partly a very real diminishing-returns-of-video-games law which exists because increasing the number of video games released in a genre all-at-once requires teams to be spread thin, or to be composed of relatively new, risk-averse developers, or be outsourced to TOSE.
.
But all this fresh activity kinda means calling it an “increasingly a niche category” seems wrong. It seems 2D game play is (if anything) coming out of its niche a bit, especially with all the attention games like NSMB & LocoRoco have received.
.
Also, most (all?) of these platformers aren’t held back by technology issues, but by design decisions that are a matter of taste and hard-to-evaluate creative talent, and they are made by changing teams, so it actually is a bit unreasonable to expect all of them to demonstrate monotonically nondecreasing quality. A bit like expecting every album a band makes to be better than their last one … and all the similar albums that have been released in the mean time. Doesn’t really work that way, does it?
I think “niche” is absolutely right. LocoRoco may have gotten lots of press, but how did it sell? Miserably. Likewise the Mega Man remakes for PSP, and Rocket Slime, and pretty much anything that doesn’t say MARIO on it in big bold letters. And how many new 2D games are being made for consoles rather than handhelds? You could count them on your fingers. A yakuza’s fingers, even.
.
And considering most of these games are being headed up by old hats (Tezuka, Igarashi, Fujiwara, etc.) high expectations are totally warranted.
.
Man, you guys are making me sound like some sort of angry horrible person. I like these games! They just shoulda been better, that’s all.
Well, I just picked up my preordered copy of PoR (along with the fairly bitchin’ preorder bonus box). I’ll report to the forums with thoughts/opinion after I wrap it up. Zelda is my first order of business, though. I’m only 10 hours in. Thankfully, I am taking the day of work tomorrow to rectify the situation.
“Man, you guys are making me sound like some sort of angry horrible person. I like these games! They just shoulda been better, that’s all.”
.
Word. One time I got a sandwich from a local deli. It was delicious and I ate it, but I knew that I’d had better sandwiches from them in the past and they were capable of making a better sandwich. Perhaps they had rushed or perhaps a less-skilled sandwich maker was working on the day of the “not as good as before” sandwich. It was still good, just not as good as it could’ve been.
.
I think it’s like that, right?
Well technically whether the games are currently niche is unrelated to whether the derivative of their nicheness is negative, and I was only claiming the latter, but … *breaks down in tears at the cold, hard truth*
.
Better luck next year? Hey, there’s Super Paper Mario maybe coming out! And that Gamecube Kirby-with-the-smash-engine game? Maybe? Or was I to supposed to have forgotten about that one?
.
I’m sorry about your sandwich, Mister Raroo.
Super Paper Mario has been quietly moved to 2007 and GC Kirby has been as much of a mystery as Wario Thief (until the recent new Wario screens/info popped up).
I guess HAL is busy with SSBX.
I honestly felt that Mega Man for PSP was weaksauce, too, although I suppose it could also be a sign that I simply don’t like the franchise, as I’ve had very limited exposure to previous games and so there was no rosy memories of days gone by when booting up that one.
Haven’t gotten to play PoR yet (though I just picked it up from EB), but I already kind of got that unhappy medium between Metroidvania and straight ahead level based game feeling from Mega Man ZX. And as such, I’m not all that shocked it happened again with Portrait of Ruin. Smooth move, Capcom. (Just kidding. Little referential humor to a site that shall remain nameless.)
Perhaps IGA and crew would be better off focusing on one style or the other. Besides, with Dracula X, the series already found a more than desirable medium between exploration and short but focused level-based design.
“Wait… Dawn was bad because it gave you access to lots of different weapon types right up front and made the upgrade path transparent to allow you to develop your favorite kinds more effectively?”
.
Well, indirectly, yes. What’s bad is that, because you get access to most weapon types at the start, there are very few surprises along the way. One of the things I really liked about Symphony of the Night was finding out what crazy new weapons I’d stumble upon next. A nunchaku? A shield-throwing rod? A survival knife like Rambo’s? You never knew, and that was a lot of fun.
.
I don’t actually think Dawn is bad, though. It’s pretty great, really, just not quite as good as Aria and Symphony.
With Dawn, I noticed rather unfortunately that Axe was pretty much the best weapon for 1/2 to 3/4 of the game. Just like Aria you had a lot of nearly useless souls.
“I guess HAL is busy with SSBX.”
.
I vaguely remember Nintendo announced it wasn’t HAL that was developing the game but rather some key members of the HAL team working with some unnamed developer (my guess? Ganbarion).
Just picked up PoR last night… pity to hear it’s not the second coming after all, but at least I got my GameStop’s final copy of the sweet pre-order bonus. Nothing like free goodies (some of them actually useful!) to make a purchase go down smooth.
Of course, all this won’t be very relevant to me right away, as I’m still thoroughly sucked into the black hole of FF12 for the near future.
“I vaguely remember Nintendo announced it wasn’t HAL that was developing the game but rather some key members of the HAL team working with some unnamed developer…”
.
I read this in Masahiro Sakurai’s column on the Smash Bros. Dojo site:
http://www.smashbros.com/en/story/page_3.html
.
My favorie line: I was surprised when I saw the GameCube controllers they were using. The coating on the analog stick was worn down like an old eraser…
“Our guys have played Smash Bros. more than 10,000 times!”
“So it was that Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto introduced me to a “particular team” that had just completed a large-scale game.
Until the day comes when I can announce the team’s name, I shall simply refer to them as “The Studio.””
.
Sounds like Ganbarion to me! Or (I wish) the Wario Ware Twisted/Rhythm Heaven team!
“Ideally, though, modern 2D games would excel by building on their predecessors rather than struggling just to equal them. Is it any surprise that 2D gaming is increasingly a niche category when the games are so flat — and in ways that have nothing to do with the visuals?”
I agree.