With the campaign for “The Mole” set to launch April 1st, the Kickstarter crowd will soon state just how excited (or not) they are to see a return to the classic video game genre, the platformer.
Before the First-Person Shooter, and before pirate assassins ruled the gaming world, there was a humble genre that captured the hearts, hours, and loose change of visitors to arcades everywhere. In what is commonly considered the first platforming game, Donkey Kong was actually the villain, yet still stole the title of the game. In this arcade hit Mario had to make his way to the top of the screen to save the damsel in distress while avoiding barrels hurled at him by one angry gorilla. In this game Mario was dressed like a carpenter.
It wasn’t until Mario starred in his own game, Mario Bros., that he was portrayed as a plumber. In this title he and his younger brother Luigi had to battle against creatures that were escaping the sewers under New York City. Over Mario’s next few games, including Super Mario Bros. 2, 3, and Super Mario World, Nintendo introduce many characters and gameplay aspects that have become staples of the Mario universe, including Princess Peach, Yoshi, and Mario’s iconic raccoon suit.
Through the years the platformer has been twisted, tested, and reiterated upon hundreds, or possibly thousands of times. The genre has even been stretched into the 3D realm, and currently exists today in both its two- and three-dimensional avenues. Recently, however, a large influx of what has been deemed “retro” platformers has made its way mostly to handheld touchscreen devices, but many fans of the platformer have criticized these games, claiming that pixelated graphics aren’t what define a platformer.
The game proposed by Evan Barmes through his Kickstarter, claims to look beyond just the graphics, and actually aim for the heart of what made those platformers of days gone by feel so good. But when it’s all said and done, it seems that it’s really up to the crowdfunding community to decide if The Mole is worthy of its support. The campaign for The Mole will run through the month of April, giving platforming fans just one month to decide.
The Kickstarter page for The Mole can be found at Kickstarter.com as of April 1st, and video game developer, Evan Barmes, maintains a blog on the development of The Mole at evanbarmes.wordpress.com.
