Hi Tom.
You are right about side scrollers.
thinking about this a bit further though, I do wonder if part of the issue
comes from the fact we have! had such a boom in specifically arcade style
games.
IWhile I think Liam did a great job with jd, I think the basic arcade
principle of having a set of things you need to react to quickly in order to
wrack up score is itself a limiting genre, afterallleft/right sterrio
targiting is! sterrio, whether your shooting copters, planes, alien
spaceships or whatever.
ditto with boppit or simon style games.
If however games involve a specific element of exploration and/or continuous
plot, then even if all mechanics were exactly the same, the basic area of
the game can be intrinsically different.
Suppose Phil were to create a packman talks Ii with the character and sfx.
By altering the layout of the levels, maybe sticking in some new enemies, he
could create a game more than different enough from the original for people
to be interested in buying, simply because! packman talks inolves physical
exploration of a maze, and that maze can be altered irrispective of gameplay
elements.
Mega man x 1 and mega man x 2 are pretty similar, indeed in one gameboy
title megaman extreme, bosses and level elements from both games were
included.
But because the enemies, locations, weapons and bosses changed, even though
the core mechanics of the game didn't, the two games are very different to
play.
As someone who played (and indeed owns), many of the side scrollers produced
in the early nineties, I absolutely agree with you.
Look at Philip bennifalls perilous hearts and how many people have become
interested just from the preview.
A side scroller set in the jungle? ---- isn't that a bit similar to Tarzan
jr? or Q9? ---- heck no!
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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