PlataGO - Switch Review Revisited

Original Review - Score has been amended to this one

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When I review a game that is so clearly aimed at nostalgia, I tend to view that game as though it wields a philtre, tugging on the nostalgia to endear itself to the gamer.  The problem with this is that different people grew up with different games, and some of us like a given genre of games more than others.

This flaw in reasoning is evident with PlataGO, and after hearing from the developer, I know that in some capacities, I was straight up incorrect.  I leaned rather heavily upon my disdain of the physics, but as it turns out, the default physics (which were the ones chosen after years of community-driven preferences) are indeed changeable through the fine-tuning menu available.  In this instance, these things fell through the cracks due to the sheer amount of customisation available to creators.

The fact that the community of level creators don't use these is simply a community liking a specific thing, in much the way that Mario Maker speedrunners like kaizo blocks (which are hidden blocks set over gaps designed to be hit and cause you to die) and impossible jumps... something that the majority of the playerbase would detest.

They've also mentioned the version differences, noting that if there are enough users to warrant continued support (Nobody can fault a developer for directing their attention towards the platform of the game with the majority of users) that a sprite editor will be added in via an update in the future.

Information being the best way to avoid mistakes, and so armed now, I find myself much more appreciative of this piece of software.  It's still not quite what I was expecting, but it is so much more than I thought that it was.  I am sufficiently suffonsified with PlataGO.

Game Information

Platform:
Nintendo Switch
Developer(s):
pQube
Publisher(s):
pQube
Genre(s):
Platformer
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Marc H.

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PlataGO - Switch Review

With the dawn of the era of the -maker games, between Mario Maker (and recently MM2) and Mega Maker, you’d think that we have the platformer maker market pretty much saturated, right?  Well, I thought so, but Super Icon Ltd disagrees, it seems.  Enter Platago, the all-in-one tool you need to make your very own platformer.  Well… your very own generic and beginner platformer at least.  The UI might be better on PC, but on the switch, it is absolutely horrendous.

For the console version, the cursor can’t move vertically and horizontally (diagonally) at the same time, even when using the analog stick.  This makes navigating the menus quite awkward, especially when you take into consideration that the typical menu navigation on consoles (direction keys move between options directly) is present, but has such a minor graphical representation on screen, it’s quite easy to simply ‘lose’ your current selection and moving around in the menu for a good 10 seconds just to find which element you have selected.  And that’s just the UI to get into being able to play a game.

Gameplay

If you’ve braved the front menu and have successfully managed to make it to the created content menu, you can search through games that you would like to play.  You can’t play them right from there, though, as you can with the other ‘maker’-style games, but instead, download it onto your console, go back to the front menu, play a level/game, and then load on in.  That’s when gameplay smacks you right in the face.  Platago’s physics engine is basic.  Simple.  There’s no acceleration, no deceleration, you’re either moving, or you’re not, but if you’re moving, you’re doing so at top speed.  It makes jumps very counterintuitive, and easily spikes the difficulty of games made, although only through the artificial difficulty of bad controls and physics.

Issues / complaints

As I got into the creation elements of PlataGo, I was curious how they were going to allow me to create assets for my custom games on the switch.  You see, on the Steam version, you can import your own sprites, your own backgrounds, you can skin the whole thing to look like Mario, Sonic, Wonderboy (as seen in the trailer).  The switch version has a half-dozen of each type of background, a limited selection of protagonist sprites, and an abysmally narrow selection of music to choose from to express yourself with.

There’s no way to import in other asset packs, there’s no way to create your own things, and there’s no way to do any of the extensive fine-tuning of config files and modding that you can do to the PC version to make your very own commander keen-esque game.  No, instead, you’re stuck with software reminiscent of the free software that was included with a box of cheerios… except their version of Yahtzee was at least good for an afternoon of entertainment.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to create your own platformer, don’t look on the switch.  I’m not sure if I’d recommend this over free tools (such as mega maker) if you’re on the PC, but on the switch, this software is simply unsuited to the medium, compounded by the limited creation options compared to your computer-bound cousins that are using, supposedly, the same software.  Steer clear of this one.

Game Information

Platform:
Nintendo Switch
Developer(s):
pQube
Publisher(s):
pQube
Genre(s):
Platformer
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Marc H.

Read More