Jumpin said:
I’m just going off on a tangent of personal opinion here, but: Speak of the devil! DKC trilogy, Super Mario Bros 3, Kirby Superstar, and the first two Sonic games remain my favourites of all time. I’m not saying they’re the best, only that they’re the ones I like the best. I haven’t had much experience with the later games in the franchises. I will occasionally buy them, but rarely play for more than 2-3 hours total, despite playing the classics still for many hours. The strength of nostalgia… but I also weigh games as more an art form than objective checklists of quality. That’s why even decades later, Super Mario Bros 3 still reigns (in my opinion) despite modern Mario games having more detail in a shoe than entire levels of SMB3. |
I think it's just that back then, they were hitting the peak of what 2D platforming could be. Everything else after the 16-bit era is just trying to find ways to resell perfection, and as a consequence, it's mostly a change in style and throwing gimmicks at a player. But under the hood, it didn't get better than SMB3. From a sheer purity level, that is when 2D put it all together. Imo, there is nothing that can be done to improve gameplay. It's just dressing up the same thing... and not for the better.
