@carlosefr@mastodon.socialI love "Bubble Bobble" (1986) and "Puzzle Bobble" (1994), but "Rainbow Islands" (1987) and "Parasol Stars" (1991) feel a bit childish to me, and I find that interesting...
They all have cartoony graphics – almost the norm before games went all dark and gritty like everything else – and look designed for children at first glance.
So, what's the difference? I'm not really sure.
The enemies in Bubble Bobble have a creepy vibe to them. Maybe that's it?
And what about these?
"Kirby's Adventure" (1993) is unquestionably kid-friendly; "Commander Keen 4" (1991) features an actual kid; "Lemmings" (1991) is so cute; and "Magical Chase" (1991) is the very embodiment of a cute'em-up.
None of these feel childish to me. In the sense of "for kids only, adults need not apply" or "videogames are kids' stuff".
Why is that?
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Here's another example of narrowing down a game to a younger audience: "Mega Man" (1987), "Mega Man X3" (1995), "Mega Man ZX Advent" (2007).
Each of these improves on the visuals and complicates the mechanics, but none of that makes much of a difference in audience.
What does make a difference are the intro sequences and text boxes. As more of these are added, the harder it is to ignore that the backstory is (has always been) inherently juvenile.
@carlosefr Rainbow Island was so difficult for me that I didn't see it as childish in any way xD But it's a curious effect indeed!
For me they are all cute as hell, except Commander Keen.
That's interesting in itself, isn't it?
The game designers decided to go all-in on cute and rainbows, but at the same time either:
a) Make children cry with the difficulty level.
b) Trick children out of their pocket money real fast.
c) ??
d) Didn't even consider children as the target audience.
@carlosefr never saw it that way. It's among my favorite retro aesthetics, along with that of river city games or New Zealand Story. I used to (and still do) gravitate towards cute characters with big heads and huge eyes. I guess I was not alone :D
I like the cartoony, cute, hand-drawn aesthetics in general. And the fact that was dominant over many years in the past is one more reason why I like retro games.
To be clear, I like all of the games I mentioned, including Rainbow Islands. It just happens that in this particular case I feel it could have benefited from some (not so) subtle creepiness to balance things out.
@carlosefr Did you ever get to Monsters Island?? That Dracula! Hehe just joking. It's indeed all cuteness overload. And I see what you say about Bubble Bobble! The whale ghost that chases you was scary!