Off Topic

[MrBadGuy]

Obama? What's he got to do with this?

[Ambidextroid]

I miss the old days. There used to be amazing titles like R3 that I grew up with, and things like SM64 DS, Jack & Daxter and Rachet & Clank. Why the hell did they stop making these kinds of games? Why did they move from amazing 3rd person platformers to constant barrages of shitty FPS games. If anyone can recommend any good companies that still make good games, please notify me. All I can think of now is Nintendo, but recently the Mario games have just been the same as all the others but with new levels.

Also Donkey Kong Jungle beat was just brill.

[MrBadGuy]

I also yearn for the golden age of 3d platformers, recently having played the Banjo games on XBLA it brought some nostalgia up (despite never playing those as a kid)
Like you say at least nintendo are still doing it, and I loved 3D land on the 3DS, although 3D world did seem a bit samey. Another 3d rayman or banjo would make me a happy little boy.

[Jewish Candy]

It's a pity that we rely so much on old IPs. I suppose it's our age - these were the foundations of our childhood - but its not like there's a shortage of younger gamers. Other genres have birthed great stuff this past decade. I don't know... can a 3D platformer even work with a modern IP? Is it such a 90's thing, so reliant on that particular environment, that it can't survive outside that context?

[MrBadGuy]

There are still platformers, they're just not the same cartoony style. Things like uncharted and portal are platformers, they're just "action-platformer" or "puzzle-platformer". I think there's room for it, but no one wants to take the risk, games is getting hexpensiiiive, companies need sure-fire hits.

[Jewish Candy]

Ahh, Uncharted, had forgotten about that. Portal... hmm, I never thought of that as a platformer (though definitely platform-y), probably beacuse of the first person!
It boggles my mind why spunkgargleweewee is a 'sure-fire hit'. Multiplayer, I guess. Things are changing though: Advanced Warfare seems to herald a departure from the brown, and with all the cheaper indie games seeing success the whole AAA biz looks to be having a shake up.

[Ambidextroid]

Portal isn't really a platformer, as there's not much running and jumping, it's mainly about the portals. Portal 2 is one of my favorite games, though.

'Tis a shame that I had to witness the years of the greats keel into a pit and die. Everyone remembers them, everyone knows they where great, nobody makes them anymore.

I want a good old 3rd person 3D platformer, reminiscent of the 00s platformers. I don't care if it's a new IP or not, as long as it's not like a realistic human or something. I love the style of the 00s games, like R3, J&D and Psychonauts, they had a cartoony design that wasn't too babyish nor to realistic. I guess we'll just have to wait for all of the FPS and indie games that are plugging up the market. I guess an indie game in this style wouldn't be too bad, you do occasionally find the odd gem among the many uninspired minimalist "games".

[Adsolution]

Why do people like the Rayman Animated Series?

I hear a pretty even split between those who incessantly abhor it and those who enjoyed it.

The animation and environment style was good,

That's actually a lot of the reason I enjoy it.

Also the Rayman voicce actor sounded... odd... no idea what accent it was supposed to be,

The accent was kind of strange indeed, but his voice was far better than:

should have got someone more like Rayman 2/3 voice actor...

David Gasman is one of the worst voice actors whose laryngeal sound waves I have ever been unfortunate enough to allow into contact with my pinna cilia. His 'acting', whether meaning to be frightened, happy, sad, angry or serene, all sound the exact same. The Rayman 2 gibberish or Rayman's French voice actor are infinitely superior. Billy West (who voiced Rayman in the animated series) may have given him a strange accent, but fix that up and maybe make him a little less nasally, and you'll have something on par with Rayman's French voice.

I miss the old days. There used to be amazing titles like R3 that I grew up with, and things like SM64 DS, Jack & Daxter and Rachet & Clank. Why the hell did they stop making these kinds of games? Why did they move from amazing 3rd person platformers to constant barrages of shitty FPS games. If anyone can recommend any good companies that still make good games, please notify me. All I can think of now is Nintendo, but recently the Mario games have just been the same as all the others but with new levels.

I think you just don't like shooters, the fad of the decade. Someone else who didn't like platformers could make the exact same argument about them. I myself love shooters just as much as platformers, I've never hit a shortage of amazingly fun, immersive, modern games to play.

[Shrooblord]

It's like playing a game when you're lazy. The problem is nobody makes good game based TV shows.

I care to object! Earthworm Jim (the TV show!) is one of my fondest childhood memories! So fond, I dare not look it up to see if it's actually any good or if that was just child nostalgia. ~

As for games to recall to the nineties era, well... we'll need a bit more weed culture up in this hizzle to get that crazy style back. Oil painting backgrounds, the typical hand-painted texturing work that are similar in Earthworm Jim, Jazz Jackrabbit, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Banjo & Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot (and of course ramen) - and for non-games, try Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life or the Angry Beavers - and wacky cartoon environments are all reminiscent of the general style of art that used to exist for a time but has fallen out of the mainstream. Artists who still work with that style are hard to find, but still exist.
When cartoons on TV return to that style, I expect games may too. But maybe that's an era that's now passed, and will be remembered as one of the art movements of the past, like post-modernism, romanticism and hyper-realism before it. (I for one hope not.)

But hey. Who's to say that you can't make your own dreams come true? If you have a vision, use it! Go make a game with that art style in mind. Or go help others (there's three examples I can think of from this community alone off the top of my head) create one!

PS
Can I just say that my past twenty minutes of browsing the forum and reading your posts, Candish, has cracked me up like not many have before. I'm happy you decided to rejoin the community!

[Ambidextroid]

In response to Ad:
I've played over 500 hours of TF2, it's one of my favorite games, I don't really have a prblem with shooters in general. Just games like Call of Duty where everyone looks the same and is wearing camo, and the environment is all dusty and "realistic" which just takes away from the fun and makes it harder to play. A game like TF2 is clear and it makes it much easier to tell whats going on.
What I really dislike isn't shooters, it's the constant attempt to improve graphics and make things look more realistic when, in my opinion, they don't improve the game and make it less fun. That being said, I do generally prefer other games to shooters (other than TF2) just because I find them more fun.

And it's not the R3 voice actor I like, it's his accent I like. It suits him much, much better. I do love the raymanian gybberish though, and have changed my language on RR to raymanian because it is better than the RR voice acting, but I still prefer his accent in these games.

I also don't follow fads like sheep, it annoys me when someone like me has an opinion, like "I don't like FPS" and people bunch you up with a group of people who have the same opinion primarily because they want to seem superior or whatever the fuck. Not blaming you for this by the way, these kind of people do exist, and I'm not one of them. I'm also not someone who just says "GRAMEPLAY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GRAMPHICS" because I think I'm superior in anyway or anything like that, it's just genuinely my belief and I have actual reasons for it, reasons other than "BETTER GROOMPHICS ARE POINTLESS" becuase I know that's not true, and I'd choose a HD version any day. I do believe the gameplay is more important though.

And to Shroob, I do actually remember the Super Mario Brothers Super Show being good. I never watched it on TV, but I had a DVD of it once and watched it on a TV at a holiday house.

Also making a surreal 3rd person 3D platformer inspired by the greats such as those you mentioned and especially R2 my childhood favorite has always been my dream for as long as I can remember. That's why I'm taking Computer Science for a GCSE.

[Shrooblord]

Ohoho, then you will become an interesting addition to this community indeed...! P'raps you can join forces with one of us game devs... or start off on an epic journey of your own!

[Ambidextroid]

Yes, well I've only just started doing computing. I do intend to continue though and create my own game.

I had a look through that gallery, theres some great stuff on there.

[Shrooblord]

JSlattum's? He's quickly becoming one of my favourite artists.

[Hunchman801]

Why do people like the Rayman Animated Series? It sucked.

I think it was really bad as well.

[Ambidextroid]

Yet there seems to be a huge fanbase... I guess I'll never know why anyone ever liked it.

[OCG]

I look at Rayman Animated Series as a seperate thing and don't comare it to games. That way, I see it as enjoyable show but still nothing too spectacular. I think it should have had more episodes.

[Ambidextroid]

I see it how I see Banjo Kazooie N&B. Yes, it was "entertaining" to some, but it shouldn't have used the IP it did. It should have been a different character all together. I'm forced to compare it to the games because it has Rayman in. That's it. My point is when I first saw it written somewhere I got really excited, because I thought it would be cool and more Rayman-like.
It wasn't though, it just sucked.

[Adsolution]

I've played over 500 hours of TF2, it's one of my favorite games, I don't really have a prblem with shooters in general. Just games like Call of Duty where everyone looks the same and is wearing camo, and the environment is all dusty and "realistic" which just takes away from the fun and makes it harder to play. A game like TF2 is clear and it makes it much easier to tell whats going on.

What I really dislike isn't shooters, it's the constant attempt to improve graphics and make things look more realistic when, in my opinion, they don't improve the game and make it less fun.

That's a very encompassing opinion. I hope you don't wander into the field of game development with this mindset, not because I don't see what you're trying to get at, but because I don't think you're correctly articulating your thoughts, and you're misleading yourself as a result of it; your fellow developers will pick up on that. One experience is all that's needed, and I'll share mine to explain why your belief, in the way you've described it here, is not in the slightest bit objective:

For me, a lot of the fun that comes out of more 'realistically-styled' games is literally the realism factor. In response to what validity your not very strong argument regarding clarity does hold (not very strong because in either case, you're trying to identify a moving target in a static world and... walls, not exactly the hardest thing ever), being able to identify what you need to in a realistic setting is part of the accomplishment, it adds to the raw notion of a 'game', it's a challenge to overcome, and an entirely fair one at that that relies solely on your skill of perception - I'd even go as far as to say it's somewhat de facto in the shooter genre. Why do you think the army wears camo in the first place?

Why believe in something like what you've said if it doesn't apply outside the realms of personal preference, especially if you're developing a product that will be seen by the public? The key thing to always remember is that in almost every case it isn't the idea [of, for instance, realism] that counts, it's the execution, and to blanket the 'idea' stage is horribly juvenile.

I guess I'll never know why anyone ever liked it.

I already explained to you why myself (and some others who feel the same way I do) are able to enjoy it: The CGI was incredible for what it was, and I'm a graphics nut. Did you intentionally disregard my reasoning the first time?

In defense of the others, the show was pretty standard if you compare it to a lot of other kid's shows of a similar caliber. Sure, the writing wasn't very Raymanny, but not everyone has a problem with seeing their favourite character a bit out of place, they're able to see the show's merits, and if you couple that with the beautiful CGI, there are certainly things to like about it. Come on, you're smart enough to know that a merit, if it lines up with someone's taste buds, can enable them to enjoy the thing in question.

The very same can be said for Nuts & Bolts.


Cynicism can provide intelligent people with some of the poisonous bias known to man.

[OCG]

I see it how I see Banjo Kazooie N&B.

Funny since I despise that game.

[Shrooblord]

In defense of the others, the show was pretty standard if you compare it to a lot of other kid's shows of a similar caliber. Sure, the writing wasn't very Raymanny, but not everyone has a problem with seeing their favourite character a bit out of place, they're able to see the show's merits, and if you couple that with the beautiful CGI, there are certainly things to like about it.

+1!

Nuts and Bolts is a great game for me, because of the way its physics interact with all the building blocks it presents you. Did I tell you about the Shroob Mobile? It's a villainous car stylised in the 20s big show, big style, big class fashion of how the earliest cars looked. It has cannons and flamethrowers and everything a villain car should have, including, of course: the dastardly self-destruct escapomabilo bonanza spectaculano magnifico gloriosa! Or in other words: push button, explode the car, escape in the remaining pod. The pod itself had wings and for some reason, at first try of the self-destruct, the car exploded in exactly the right fashion that nothing but the pilot seat, a fuel tank, a front-mounted propellor and the front window remained, alongside the wings. It was beautiful. The battlewagon exploded and Banjo would fly away in the bare minimum that was required to fly away in, full-on Dr. Robotnik style.

If a game can give you so much joy out of building something and simply playing, I call that a great game. The story mode itself, the missions, the quests, they were alright. Some were amazing, some was less on par. I agree that the base of the game is shoddy, but what it allows you to create is fantastic. Like many games I've enjoyed and spent hours on, the game itself has given me minutes in comparison to the many hours I poured into its creative builder tool (world builders for some, vehicle builder for this).