Recently, an interview with Naughty Dog veteran Game Designer Josh Sherr, he mentioned some disappointing news. To sum it up, he stated that Naughty Dog won’t focus on cartoony games such as Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter.
Why is this important?
If you think about it, the “Next-Gen” experience is starting to depart cartoony family-friendly games. The term AAA now seems to focus on Oscar Level games such as The Last of Us and Dying Light. By no means is it bad to have these types of games, but to me, it shows that the game industry is starting to go Hollywood on gamers.
Nowadays, platformers are considered “nintendo-ish,” since they are still making top-tier games like the Mario series, and even Kirby. That little pink nugget has some amazing platforming games that are worthy for Top 10s.
It seems that game companies have to take games serious, and avoid making side projects (platformers, cartoon RPGS) that are worth that “AAA” title. Praise the almighty Steam Greenlight for giving Indie games a chance to show that cartoony style games can still be fun and addicting, and possibly compete with AAA, expensive, Micheal Bay games.
Not every game has to be a hardcore manly FPS.
Realistic games have restrictions in gameplay and hub worlds. Creativity seems to shine in the cartoon world. A great example is Sunset Overdrive: the colors are vibrant and flashy, and the world itself is goofy and over the top. To me, Insomniac Games is a great company on how to mix AAA style games, but still give it a cartoony and explosive feel. Games like Call of Duty have little to no desire to improve on their gameplay or world. Companies fall into the rinse-and-repeat factor: oh, another “gritty and realistic” world. In this climate, graphics matter more than the game itself.
Maybe I’m just a 19 year old hipster, or maybe I just miss the days where I was super excited for a new take on 2D action games and 3D platformers that aren’t afraid to try different things.
Now excuse me while I go play The Last Tinker: City of Colors.
