2D Platforming

Due to the capabilities of video game software at the time, retro video games only had a few distinct types of gameplay. We wish to replicate one of these styles, as the aim of our own video game is to take the audience back to the games of old. We wish to research the gameplay that became known and recognised from retro games, and to look at a few different examples of games that had refined this gameplay.

The 2D Platformer

            Perhaps the most well known style of gameplay from retro games is the "platformer". In short, "platforming" within 2D video games is where the user controls a character, and has to guide them towards a particular objective by jumping over dangerous gaps and avoiding enemies and obstacles. The challenge from this particular genre of game came from timing of jumps, having to avoid enemies or make it from one platform to the next without falling to ones death. In his book called Game Design Theory (2012), Burgun explains a 2D platformer's mechanic comes from a "clear pattern of tension and release", the tension arriving from when you start your jump, and the release of that tension arriving when you land the jump. 

An undoubtedly classic example of this

Super Mario Bros, 1985

style of game is Super Mario Bros (1985). Released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the game soared in popularity. The games objective was simple but effective, you had to collect coins, jump over gaps and jump on enemies heads to reach the end of the level. Perhaps the most traditional example of a 2D platformer, other games had the same concept but added new elements. 

Mega Man, 1987

Also for the NES, Mega Man (1987) is still regarded as a side scrolling platformer, though it differed from Super Mario Bros in a few ways. In Mario you dispatch enemies by jumping on their heads or hitting them with fireballs if you find a certain upgrade, whereas in Mega Man you can start with firing bullets from his arm cannon. Mega Man also has a health gauge, notifying the player of how close they are to death whilst Mario dies in one hit without a power up, two with a power up.


- Chris