When you fire up Freedom Planet, you're given an amazing opening cutscene that declares the game a love letter to the Genesis and all its classic games. It is the creators' tribute to the 16-bit era of gaming. Start a game, and you're playing what could have been one of the Genesis's greatest games had it been released for the system. Then you beat a few levels and the game begins to pratfall -- a lot. The first levels are tailored well enough to be easy and pleasant to play through. It's a facade, though: the further I slogged through the levels, the more apparent it became that the developers didn't understand what made the old Genesis classics what they are. Instead, they buy into typical Sonic-clone tropes, like "make character go fast = fun!" and "spunky character make game good!" The creaters probably thought playing old games was enough to make a good one, so they didn't actually study to see why their idols were great. I have no experience in game design, and I still noticed all of these problems: > Random slapdash level design. Every level has one overarching theme: an ice level, or city mall, or a spaceship. Past that, levels are just a mishmash of platforms and hazards scattered over the place. Levels just aren't fun to play through. This is a platformer; level design is king. > Tiny screen. Just about everything in the game is offscreen when it matters. Bosses can't be read or countered because they're always offscreen. > Confusing hazards. Outside of standbys like spikes, enemies and contact hazards are difficult to tell at a glance, and then are quickly replaced by the next one before you learn what will hurt you. > Life issues. Health discourages everything but safe play; the game also tracks your deaths. It bills itself with exploration, yet it punishes and humiliates trial-and-error. Freedom Planet simply isn't the retro-classic it's billed as. Some spots can be fun, but it honestly doesn't justify the frustration of the rest of the game.
