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Platformer

Platformer

Arcade

Overview

Platformer presents itself as a minimalist take on the genre, stripping platforming down to its barest essentials: a character, platforms, collectibles, and an exit. This approach results in an experience that feels more like a conceptual exercise than a fully realized game. While it successfully demonstrates the fundamental building blocks of platformers, it fails to deliver any meaningful engagement or innovation. The crude visuals, lack of polish, and absence of compelling mechanics make it difficult to recommend even as a curiosity.

A Bare-Bones Experience

Platformer's most defining characteristic is its extreme simplicity. Every element feels intentionally underdeveloped, from the crudely drawn protagonist to the blocky, featureless environments. The game follows the most basic platformer template: jump across platforms, avoid stationary enemies, and collect floating stars to unlock the exit. There's no progression system, no power-ups, and no variation in level design to maintain interest.

The interaction design feels particularly unfinished. Collecting all stars causes the exit door to instantly switch from "closed" to "open" without any animation or feedback. Enemies exist as simple obstacles rather than dynamic threats, behaving predictably and requiring minimal skill to avoid. This lack of polish extends to the controls, which—while functional—offer none of the precise responsiveness that defines great platformers.

It's a platforming game. The concept is thus: You're a dude. You're standing on something. You need to be somewhere else. Go there… by jumping… on platforms.

Gohst

Questionable Value Proposition

At its core, Platformer seems designed to provoke reflection about the genre's fundamentals rather than provide entertainment. By removing all embellishments—visual flourishes, satisfying movement mechanics, rewarding challenges—it highlights how these elements elevate platformers beyond their basic framework. The experience is so stripped-down that it becomes more of a commentary than a game.

This conceptual approach comes at the expense of player engagement. The adventure is brief, offering no reason to revisit levels or master mechanics. The lack of visual or audio feedback when collecting items or completing objectives creates a detached, unsatisfying loop. While the game succeeds in demonstrating platforming's skeleton, it fails to justify why anyone should interact with that skeleton when so many better-realized alternatives exist.

Verdict

Minimalist platformer lacking substance and polish

STRENGTHS

15%
Concept Clarity60%

WEAKNESSES

85%
Visual Quality90%
Content Depth95%
Technical Polish85%
Player Engagement95%
Replay Value95%

Community Reviews

1 reviews
Gohst
Gohst
Trusted

Its been nearly 25 years since a fat moustachioed plumber named Mario first graced our consoles and screens. In the quarter-century that has just passed, there have been millions of articles written about Mario and his dozens of sequels, spin-off’s, variations and imitators. The impact that he had on the gaming community, particularly "platform" games, cannot go underappreciated and certainly hasn’t gone undocumented. That’s exactly why I wont bother with a lengthy Mario-related introduction to this simple game. It’s a platforming game. The concept is thus: You’re a dude. You’re standing on something. You need to be somewhere else. Go there… by jumping… on platforms. It’s not complex and it’s a formula you’ve seen a galactic number of times before, and - I won’t lie to you - you’ve seen it done much better, many, many times. Your character is crudely drawn and so are the environments. The enemies are blocky and so are the squiggly stars you need to collect. Collect these and you get to go through a door. You know when you’ve got them all because the door suddenly goes from being closed to open – no movement inbetween. Yeah, the game is short. It’s pointless, its blocky and largely uninteresting. You won’t revisit it and you probably wont even keep it for long. What it succeeds in doing, though, is boiling down the elements of platformer games to their essence. Baddies, ground, collectables, goal – they’re all here and none of them are any more special than eachother. Take a look at Platformer then take a look at the other platform-games you’ve been playing. It truly makes you think… Maybe.

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