I hesitate to rate it (on account of having only like 20% completion), but even I can't deny that Pizza Tower is loud, hilarious and proud of all its unique quirks. It is a very well-made platformer, alas I'm...not into platformers. Not this general type of them, anyway.
I'm on record as saying that Super Mario World is a 10/10 masterpiece, and I can, theoretically, make lots of arguments as to why that is. Even as someone not very familiar with this genre, coming up with praise to its structure and improvements over the NES "trilogy" wouldn't be hard to describe. But honestly, it's the vibes I'm all in for, a feeling of wonder and whimsy, taken different shapes and expressed beautifuly through SMW's audio-visual components.
But 2D Mario has this 'race course' component to it that I was never a fan of. That part where cruising along the levels, avoiding enemies and obstacles, in the fastest amount of time possible, is the end-game that will probably net you the most fun. This became less and less prevalent as time went on, but take a look at Mario's former biggest competitor, and you can see this design aspect more clearly. Sonic Mania also has this quality to it: going fast in this game is not hard to achieve, but can be tricky to maintain, and it's clear that people who are good at platformers have infinitely more fun with this game than I did. It took me two playthroughs to try and beat Mania, and on the second one I gave up in the last act. Even though the vibes were also very much up my alley.
The thing with Sonic Mania, and Pizza Tower, too, is that they allow basically anyone to beat them one way or another, and you don't have to be good to just get to the end. But so much of the fun lies in great execution, good level knowledge, and high scores. They allow for incompetence, but ask for mastery if you want to extract all the gamer juice out of them. It's not a bad approach, and I must reiterate that Pizza Tower...seems to be excellent. But I guess not growing up with 2D games finally came back to bite me. Sad!
I suppose it's not a new or interesting observation to say "people who are good at games have more fun with them", but I'm not used to being on the receiving end of gitgut. I never had a problem with hard 3rd-person or FPS games, or, at least, I'd be willing to bet that I'm better at Dark Souls and Ultra-Nightmare Doom Eternal than most people. But I grew up with those kinds of games, and I didn't really grow up with Mega Drive or NES platformers. I guess I should get more comfortable with saying "this isn't for me".
I'm on record as saying that Super Mario World is a 10/10 masterpiece, and I can, theoretically, make lots of arguments as to why that is. Even as someone not very familiar with this genre, coming up with praise to its structure and improvements over the NES "trilogy" wouldn't be hard to describe. But honestly, it's the vibes I'm all in for, a feeling of wonder and whimsy, taken different shapes and expressed beautifuly through SMW's audio-visual components.
But 2D Mario has this 'race course' component to it that I was never a fan of. That part where cruising along the levels, avoiding enemies and obstacles, in the fastest amount of time possible, is the end-game that will probably net you the most fun. This became less and less prevalent as time went on, but take a look at Mario's former biggest competitor, and you can see this design aspect more clearly. Sonic Mania also has this quality to it: going fast in this game is not hard to achieve, but can be tricky to maintain, and it's clear that people who are good at platformers have infinitely more fun with this game than I did. It took me two playthroughs to try and beat Mania, and on the second one I gave up in the last act. Even though the vibes were also very much up my alley.
The thing with Sonic Mania, and Pizza Tower, too, is that they allow basically anyone to beat them one way or another, and you don't have to be good to just get to the end. But so much of the fun lies in great execution, good level knowledge, and high scores. They allow for incompetence, but ask for mastery if you want to extract all the gamer juice out of them. It's not a bad approach, and I must reiterate that Pizza Tower...seems to be excellent. But I guess not growing up with 2D games finally came back to bite me. Sad!
I suppose it's not a new or interesting observation to say "people who are good at games have more fun with them", but I'm not used to being on the receiving end of gitgut. I never had a problem with hard 3rd-person or FPS games, or, at least, I'd be willing to bet that I'm better at Dark Souls and Ultra-Nightmare Doom Eternal than most people. But I grew up with those kinds of games, and I didn't really grow up with Mega Drive or NES platformers. I guess I should get more comfortable with saying "this isn't for me".