CATLIT

I’m not even a game designer, and I could write a whole lesson on Game Design just using that Skydiving-Over-Spikes section as an example of how NOT to show your player what the fuck they’re supposed to do.

Y’know what? I think I will!

The big issue is that it’s throwing way too much shit at you all at once for the FIRST TIME.
I’ll assume that you’ve already had to shoot at enemies across a platform and enemies that have the high ground against you. I’ll assume you already know spikes kill you. Hell, I’ll give the game the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s already had you jump over the skydiving fans before.

But if you’re a game designer, and you’re gonna make the player float from fan to fan with spikes in between, WHY would you throw all this shit at the player ALL AT ONCE?

There’s spikes on the ceiling, the platforms are uneven, and there’s a guy at the end shooting at you.
You don’t even get the liberty of knowing that the fan on the ceiling is the one blowing you forward.

If you were to design this with an actual goddamn human being playing this in mind, you’d make it obvious early on that the sideways-facing fans blow you forward. Entice the player to jump into one by throwing them a powerup (or maybe make the animation more obvious, but this is the NES so I’ll give em the benefit of the doubt.)
Then, you introduce floating from fan to fan.
THEN, floating from fan to fan with spikes in between.
THEN, floating from fan to fan with spikes in between and spikes on the ceiling.
After that you can vary the platform height and throw some enemies in there, because now your player has been introduced to these elements individually, and can now handle them all at once.

And it doesn’t feel like a tutorial, it just feels like the game getting gradually harder and more complex, which feels rewarding as fuck, and Not Bullshit. A good example is the disappearing blocks in Heat Man’s stage in Mega Man II.

oh you can just blow them up? well that’s cheap.

Adam “Mr. Myrie”

Hey can the Nerd please review Mission Impossible the NES version??!!! My brother, cousin and I thought this was one of the hardest cryptic games ever growing up. Please review it! It’s up there with Darkman but in a different way.

Salvador Alien Day

Seems a strange “Contra” game. The SNES version was the best I played!