Unit 6 Task 4: Critical Analysis of the Platform Genre Article

Analysing the Platform Genre

There is no denying that even in these modern days of gaming people still know what they want and expect from certain games in certain genres. How do we know this? Well it’s pretty simple. What would you expect from a game like Call of Duty? Would you expect to fire a bullet by pulling crazy poses with motion controls in psychedelic settings while the enemies dance in front of you to Staying Alive? Of course not because what we know about Call of Duty is that it is a First Person Shooter (FPS) that uses traditional controls and has no limits on controversial violence. This does not mean everyone likes Call of Duty in fact I daresay some might even prefer the former improvised version. 

This is why there are many genres to choose from each with their own different style, mechanics and conventions. Every fan of video games has their favourite although there is no denying that Action has been the most prevalent in recent times. However this is not the genre I want to talk about. I would like to review the platform genre which in recent times seems to have been overcast by bigger more open 3D games. There is now only a select few of dedicated development teams set on mastering and reinventing the genre and since one of them is the industry heavyweight Nintendo there is still a high demand for this type of game and it still manages to sell well despite modern gaming culture.

As one of the oldest game genres the platform game was already defined by hardware limitations and has always been a simple concept of starting at A and having to get to B. It requires the player to face a number of environmental challenges mainly as the name suggests jumping on to and from suspended platforms as well as facing other obstacles like dodging spikes, jumping over lava etc. The game is usually split into themed worlds based on real life hazardous environments like arctic or volcanic areas. The user interaction is very simple. Apart from moving, most platformers only have a handful of commands one of those being the necessary jump command. There can also be opposition with simple AI but they can usually be beaten with a well timed jump; and are not to be mistaken for the main challenge of the game.

Like Nintendo’s massive platform game come franchise Super Mario Bros. time limits are sometimes added to a platform game so that the goal of a stage isn’t just to complete the obstacles but also to beat the clock. This is also key to the Sonic the Hedgehog series who’s unique point of game play is the speed of their main character. Some platform games have hidden items or bonuses to collect ranging from those that require exploring the environment to items that can only be collected by pulling off a riskier move. In Donkey Kong Country Returns players are rewarded for collecting these items with bonus content like music and images. However some platform games make these collectable items a mandatory part of completing the game making it impossible to progress without them.  Most games in the platform genre award high scores at the end of play this shows that its arcade era conception still strongly influences modern day games adding a sense of competition and replay value.

There is no doubt that platform games aren’t best known for their immersive plots and surprising twists. Usually something or someone has been taken captive and it’s up to the hero (the player) to get them/it back. To do this they have to get past all the various stages of all the different worlds to finally showdown against the boss, the big man, the villain with no cliché spared. There is always an obvious sense of right and wrong between the protagonist and antagonist. The Sonic the Hedgehog series has probably been the most innovative in terms of story plot and twists like the “worse badass than Shadow” lycanthrope Sonic in the Sonic Unleashed game. However this misguidance from ‘form follows function’ has come at a cost to the game play mechanics making the franchise’s popularity suffer. However I am forgetting to mention other classic platform originated series that takes a much darker route like for example Castlevania the all things horror series that probably had the deepest story plot of most platform games past and present. Sadly the series has outgrown its platform roots and has now moved on, as its latest instalment Castlevania: Lord of Shadows takes the form of an action-adventure game.

In its earliest days character representation for the platform genre was nothing more than practical due to graphical limitations. For example the character Mario best known from the first Super Mario Bros. game was designed the way he is because the arcade hardware he made his debut on in Donkey Kong had extreme limitations. He was given red dungarees and blue overalls (now the other way around) to make his arms more visible and he was given a cap and moustache because animating a mouth and hair was impossible.  

Even with its darker games, the platform genre can be widely enjoyed by the younger audience due to the lack of graphic adult content which is found mostly within story plot, cut scenes and more violent game play features. They are easy to grasp and have a well rounded learning curve and with most of the modern 3-D games the characters and environments are stylized. However this genre can also appeal to retrospective adults who way back to their earliest days of gaming remember older platformers and relishes any game of the genre regardless of the content. 

There are still signs of a stigma, even today around the video game industry indicating that video games are still aimed mostly at males and most of the time it is no exception in the case of platform games. More than most platformers have the player playing as a male character and plenty of female characters have featured (mostly taking the role of the anima archetype) but they have not be spared from ancient stereotyping for example damsels in distress or seen as an annoyance to the main character, the kind of mutual feeling young children get about the opposite sex. There is only one obvious case I can think of a female hero taking the lead and that is the Metroid series. However in its earliest games the hero was so heavily laden down with armour, it wasn’t revealed until much later by which then the series had moved into other genres.

It may be questionable that there is justification to write an article completely about the platform genre as it is usually seen as an amalgamation of other genres. What makes platform games stand out is the flawless game play mechanics that appeals to both the veteran gamer and the beginner equally. However there is a restriction to how much can be done in a platform game with regard to challenge and longevity, it is easy to imagine that the idea of jumping on suspended platforms again and again can seem a little repetitive and can make it hard to add originality. That is why the other genres are present and it is not a case of the platform assisting them but them assisting the platforming section. Of course throughout this article I feel I have only mentioned and referred to the big guns of this video game genre, but its library is extensive and since the genre is so well fitted to a 2-D and 3-D plane you can find it on almost any platform.