Super Dangerous Dungeons

Developer: Adventure Islands

Publisher: Adventure Islands

Release: 2015

Platform: PC, iOS, Android (played), browser

Genre: Platformer

In an endless sea of retro-informed platformers, Super Dangerous Dungeons sets off to a good start by looking the part: the modern palette helps the crispy pixel art in both clearly communicating environmental hazards and making characters' sprites shine.

But there are many ways to be retro, and some more complicated than others; for instance, easing pipelines of the level design burden can even produce a valuable feature per se in the form of some "infinitely replayable" face value—even when the rules behind procedural generation only output a boring level after the other.

Fortunately Super Dangerous Dungeons took the long way—and succeeded resoundingly in that front. While the gameplay mechanics are as simple as a platformer can get, it's a masterclass in level design in every aspect: the learning curve is perfect, the very levels serve as fluid tutorials, and by the end of the road the player will have mastered even specific speedrun techniques without even noticing it.

Talking about speedruns, the same levels show their true handicraft nature when the player realize there are "ideal" ways to play them to maximize the traversal efficiency—while, of course, raising the risk/reward stakes and almost turning the game into a whole new beast.

Bosses aren't actual battles, but put a bit of a twist in the gameplay—with a lot of style too.

Not that the adventure is without its downsides. Rewarding exploration with hidden items would be a plus if those weren't used to artificially raise the short gameplay length by being mandatory for entering the final room; hit detection can also be finicky at times—particularly noticeable when boulders are integral part of a couple level's design. But perfect or not, Super Dangerous Dungeons is a commendable—even formative—platforming experience, especially for gamers not contemporary to retro games before they started being called that way.

VVVVVV

Developer: Terry Cavanagh, Nicalis
Publisher: Nicalis
Release: 2010
Platform: PC (played), iOS, Android, 3DS (played), Switch, Ouya, Vita, PS4, C64, Pandora
Genre: Metroidvania

Not as elegant as Don't Look Back before it or synthetic as Super Hexagon after, VVVVVV still builds up well enough on a simple premise—just like any other Terry Cavanagh's project. Mechanics are simple enough for it to even afford dropping its single action button for a directional-only control scheme if the player chooses so: in a platformer where jumping is replaced with straight-up/down “flipping” (gravity-wise, that is) buttons can be an extravagance.

The spacetime issues that move the plot forward also permeate the game (on purpose or not) stylistically, lending it a rough-around-the-edges feel: graphics, sound effects and gameplay emulate the Atari 2600 era, while the soundtrack and metroidesque structure is more akin to the following console generation. Also, execution is just as uneven—music transitions sound weird at times, the pseudo-infinite Defender-like outer space areas are too empty and bland for their own good... and spikes shouldn't be allowed to kill from the side after Sonic the Hedgehog.

But when VVVVVV is good (for the most part, that is) it rocks. Level design—when it's due—is brilliant and plays a huge role in rendering the game compelling as it is. Such a tough challenge (almost 8-bit tough) could only be tackled nowadays with some modern, smart use of checkpoints and respawn rates.

Puns galore.

A first playthrough may pile hundreds of deaths by the end of an average 2-hour run; but in VVVVVV that not necessarily means discouraging the player while at it.

Braid

Developer: Number None
Publisher: Number None, Microsoft Game Studios
Release: 2008
Platform: X360, PC (played), PS3
Genre: Puzzle

Video games as an art form were already proven back in 1985 with the physics + levels design of Super Mario Bros. working together flawlessly (and arguably even before in any risk/reward arcade tweaked to perfection), so it’s curious—and a stark commentary on the medium’s audience—that the issue could only be officially brought to table through some blatant “artsy” releases in the late 2000s. That’s exactly the case with Braid—and it’s probably the most impactful game from that crop too.

As a puzzle-platformer it’s just mediocre: puzzles are often single-minded and obtuse, while mechanics doesn’t communicate well; on the platforming side its physics are too wobbly/bouncy to be reliable—given that they can help conveying the dreamy atmosphere in the player’s hand at a cost.

Some puzzles can have terribly specific solutions.

As a storytelling catalyst, it’s heavy-handed—as if the abstract gameplay needed the help of some overly detailed depiction of a vague plot (even if disguised in some “poetic” fashion of sorts) to float. (The fact that the ending is tied to a mandatory 100% completion run weights on that too.) But in any art medium (games included) information in excess can hinder the user’s relatability, and that disbalance between gameplay and plot shows.

But everyday judgement aside, perhaps the core of the experience is really the best it has to offer: the time-rewind mechanic, gimmicky as it is, is what really subverts the medium’s long-lasting basic values, with or without plot excuses. The lack of strict “lives” or “tries”, or even further, the downright “inability” to die, speaks louder than any essay on the matter could to propose other ways of approaching “challenge”, “difficulty”, “rhythm” and many more subjects within game design’s craftsmanship; and Braid’s value lies precisely here.

Endless Ocean

Developer: Arika

Publisher: Nintendo

Release: 2007

Platform: Wii

Genre: Sim

If observing a traffic jam makes mankind pale in comparison to a highly organized school of shiny fish, Endless Ocean may have stayed too true to that. Every earthly aspect of the game ranges from lackluster to downright cringeworthy: people’s 3D models are ugly, walking cycles are terribly stiff, jetski cutscenes are shameful... Even the human half of the soundtrack (“voiced” by Hayley Westenra) falls short against Ayako Saso’s magnificent instrumental background music.

But here’s the thing: if gamedev resources are known for being finite, it’s also good to see Arika putting their money where the heart is. As soon as the player drops below water line the state of things change dramatically.

It’s surprising to see how good-looking the game is despite running within Wii’s infamous last-gen hardware restrictions, and that's only possible due to some smart texture tricks applied to both animals and environments (the later can feel empty and bland at times but are still organic enough to hold the stage together well enough). Also, motion controls here (specially using the pointer to play single-handed) work as a charm to elevate gameplay’s immersion (no pun intended) and help to fully realize Arika’s vision for the series (named Everblue in the first two PS2-exclusive entries).

It looks much better from below.

Tech stuff aside, Endless Ocean truly shines when it comes to meeting sea life on the spot. From small clownfish to dolphins and beyond (even stretching the reality a bit to make it fit a small fictitious sea) every life form is beautiful and believable--to the point of making some special encounters really unforgettable. And such being the case, it’s not hard to pour dozens of hours into the game while looking for different critters throughout several locations and the seasons of the year.

Add to some “bestiary completionism” the fact that items can be salvaged from the sea bottom--while watching a beautiful map shed as its secrets are uncovered--and there's the perfect collectathon for those not in a rush.

Crazy Taxi

Developer: Hitmaker
Publisher: Sega
Release: 1999
Platform: Arcade, Dreamcast, Game Cube, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox, X360, iOS, Android (played), GBA
Genre: Racing

It's an obvious statement, but a particularly blatant one by today's standards: every frame of Crazy Taxi screams "90s". Radioactive colors, stiff 3D models, virtually an interactive Offspring (literally the main source of licensed music in the game, sided by Bad Religion) MTV music video—something (tellingly enough) actually brought to life a bit later in Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication.

But Dreamcast's innate anachronism (both ahead of its time technically and late to the party stylistically) had stretched to a point that couldn't be foreseen at the time: Sega's contemporary software would fit smartphones perfectly.

Gameplay-wise Crazy Taxi could be taken simply as arcadey for its short-bursts, over-the-top fun, but it holds up especially well as a free mobile re-release. Getting a proper "credits" cutscene can still be a bit tough for modern audiences, but darting through its proto-open world (while following a broken compass that encourages the driver to explore instead of sticking to proper routes) is as exhilarating as ever—and put current digital stores' competitors to shame at ease. Also, despite the original controls hardware setup being fairly complex, it seems to have flowed seamlessly into touch screen environment (the same happens with Chu Chu Rocket’s port; both testify in favor of Sega's then-modern approach to accessibility).

Breathtaking pointy vistas.

The only thing holding Crazy Taxi from being completely polished for 2010s and beyond is its sometimes tricky physics; but that's a sin still committed often—probably even more nowadays than back then—and even so it still pulls that off better than most games around anyway.

The Ninja

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

Release: 1986

Platform: Master System

Genre: Shoot ’em-up

Sitting somewhere between proto-run 'n' guns like Commando and contemporary shmups (surprisingly leaning more towards the later) the ill-named The Ninja should have deserved at least a bigger audience—if not necessarily critical appraise.

Selling an adjectiveless ninja game as the fad was rising quick and steadily (Shinobi came out one year later, Ninja Gaiden followed the next one) would be hard in any system, but Sega's MS still holds the record for the ugliest art style to ever grace Western shores, and that was truly the case here. Screenshots couldn't get the job done either, but despite not being a looker the game has a distinct visual signature that is even lifted by the clean HUD-less Sega approach at the time.

Getting past that steep entry point starts to pay when the action gets rolling. The basic premise—killing enemies with shurikens, enhancing strenght/speed with power-ups—is only the foundation for some subtle flavoring that brings a more-than-the-sum-of-the-parts taste to the final product. Auto-scrolling levels break the regular pace every now and then and are cleverly justified narrative-wise: a mountain to be climbed against an avalanche, a classic Frogger-like river chase, a stampede of horses within the castle’s gates... Even simple tricks like exchanging the floor tileset for a stone wall to create a climbing level—with vertical speed handicapped accordingly to tweak the feels—manage to pull the trick with simplicity.

Even some pseudo-isometric view is pulled with coding techniques alone

Not only that. The Ninja most likely will send an unadvised player back a couple levels in their first playthrough for some hidden scrolls hunt before moving on, but it gets away with it with more elegance than Ghosts'n Goblins: playing through it again with more of a keen eye brings the apparently straight-forward action game to a new level. More: an accuracy bonus system rewards skilled players with higher scores, making it yet another game for arcadey intials hunters—opposed to casual button mashers by a mile and a half.

Yet to be properly played or praised, The Ninja is still a testimony to how a game can be tackled and perceived in several ways solely with slick, light ideas implemented well.

LUFTRAUSERS

Developer: Vlambeer

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Release: 2014

Platform: PC (played), PS3, Vita, Android

Genre: Shoot ’em-up

Maybe because they were there from the very beginning (from Spacewar! to Asteroids and beyond), arcadey shoot’em-ups could usually beat grievous flight simulators regarding excitement and empowerment with a wing tied back. But dogfighting, specifically, was another matter entirely.

Well, LUFTRAUSERS pulls off that trick effortlessly—or at least it’s very convincing in seeming to do so.

The slick “monochrome with shades” palette (coupled together with a solid silhouette-only depiction of the objects) hides a very well-tweaked physics system, “casual” but still believable and weighty. It’s frequently exhilarating (turning the plane’s motor off and letting it drop while maneuvering and downing enemies never gets old) and at times even redefining when it comes to classic gameplay (ramming through an enemy and shooting it down from inside updates River Raid’s “fuel tank syndrome” in awesome fashion).

Up to a pristine start.

Sadly it starts trading amusement for annoyance when it tries too hard to justify itself as a “retail” game—and a “modern retro hardcore” one, by the way. Goals and missions aren’t bad per se, but when they feel like chore—completing a task just to be asked to perform the very same task again with a different weapon, for instance—things stop looking that bright. Even worse when every single mundane task is mandatory for beating the game—rendering customization and player choices meaningless since each machine setup available must be mastered regardless of the player’s personal preferences and skills.

LUFTRAUSERS is at the top of its game when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Perhaps it’s just the case for players to do the same.