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#IP
Kirby sucks harder than he’s ever sucked before.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Kirby: Triple Deluxe a special game. It’s not particularly challenging, it doesn’t do anything revolutionary, but every time I play it, I can’t help but smile. When it comes down to it, I have to believe that the exceptional level design is the root of it all. HAL Laboratories plays with the depth offered by the 3DS and takes every opportunity to create interesting set pieces and enemies that crisscross the two planes within each level. Hidden secrets, intriguing puzzles, and fun use of Kirby’s abilities combined with these set pieces help make each and every level in the game special.
Floating platforms with a touch of absinthe.
For better or worse, games like Braid, Limbo, and other 2.5D “masterpieces” have reconfigured what a platformer can be. Spate, developed by Eric Provan and his development team at Ayyo, is not as complete a package as these games, but is still an astoundingly beautiful work of art, with truly arresting imagery, an interesting story, and a unique and moody soundtrack. However, with its tired mechanics, inconsistent controls, and sloppy (yet forgiving) physics, it is hard to quantify, or to even categorize. It is a conundrum, as it stretches between these two poles – one of artistic genius; and the other of uninspired game design.
“Sacred geometry.”
Every so often, I am lucky enough to play a game so delightful, so perfectly engineered for its platform, and so inspiring that I have to take a step back, stunned. While other arts such as literature and painting seem long in the tooth these days, clutching to cynicism and nihilism like a terminal patient clinging to the sheets in his bed, great games seem imbued with a sort of impossible optimism and generosity towards the human condition. Monument Valley, a game about redemption through sacred geometry, is one of those games.
