The definition of karma is giving a reviewer who has handed out their share of 4s and 6s in the last month a review copy of a platform game creator and effectively saying ‘you do better’. While PlataGo! presents an ample feature set that leaves mean critical types with few excuses for their terrible creations, a combination of interface frustrations and generic audio and visual building blocks unfortunately put a cap on the fun, and another middling mark in the score dropdown.
Hewing close to the Super Mario Maker template, PlataGo! sees you placing terrain, platforms, pickups, enemies and obstacles on a grid to create your own platforming challenges to be shared online. PlataGo! ships with a feature-set that is in some ways richer than the Wii U edition of the Nintendo plumber’s toolkit – the availability of slopes, auto-scroll/locked cameras and decorative background and foreground layer editing bring it more in line with the imminent sequel. Similarly, individual levels can have different ‘regions’ with different gameplay rules, and levels can be strung together to make rudimentary campaigns.
A few options allow you to take the platforming into less ‘core Mario’-like territory – the availability of jetpacks, pushable blocks, gravity flippers, bombs and weapons, for instance. The toolset is definitely quite strong in terms of platforming obstacles – blocks can move, drop, get blown up and launch the player, and there are switches and keycards to hide, and buzzsaws, spikes, flames, hazardous liquids and turrets to deviously set-up. However, the selection of enemies (sorted in the UI as flying, walking, bouncing and shooting) is visually and functionally dull.
Docked, you’ll be using a joystick-controlled cursor to drop each item into place – using ‘a’ to place items in the world, while pressing ‘b’ in menus allows you to tweak attributes of each tool (defining how far a moving platform should travel with a slider, for instance). A few handy shortcuts (undo/redo on the shoulders, camera movement on the lower directions) keep this control mode from being too frustrating, but it can be fatiguing to wrestle with the cursor.
Unfortunately, the touchscreen implementation doesn’t necessarily make handheld play any more comfortable. The most obvious issue is that the UI hasn’t been rethought around the 6.2-inch screen – the icons are too small and there are too many functions per menu level. More subtly, response time seems imperfect, undermining overall fluidity – this can be seen in how the free-painting of blocks the interface defaults to won’t result in an uninterrupted line if you drag your finger across the screen. These performance hiccups are mirrored by the unsettling loading pause that appears to accompany the player respawning on larger, more complex levels in play mode.
These control factors provide a troubled starting point for any creation that is more ambitious in gameplay or visual terms, but the bigger problem for these kinds of levels is how the tool currently handles those tweakable attributes on the ‘b’ button. You cannot simply edit the attributes of anything you place – you must define those attributes when you place, and start from scratch each time you want to edit.
Considering that the available tools skew towards precision platforming gauntlets (as do the relatively decent, but irritatingly un-editable example levels provided), this choice makes tweaking obstacle placement and timing almost prohibitively time-consuming. Even placing the player spawn closer to the section of the level you want to playtest is subject to the same issue (the ‘b’ button allows you to tweak the height of your jump, add double/triple/wall jumps, run speed and more – but write it all down, because you’ll have to re-enter it all the next time you place it). A related problem – a lack of a way to select and move anything you place – compounds the issue, and can result in you building yourself into a corner.
Even supposing that these UI shortcomings can be patched out, there’s ultimately an underlying problem with its appeal that will probably never be corrected. PlataGo! offers a lot of visual styles that are confident approximations of several 8 and 16-bit feature sets (Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, NES, Amiga, Gameboy, SNES), with a functional selection of background and tile theming within that. However, with its faceless kid protagonists and archetypical enemy and tile designs, there’s nothing specific being referenced other than some kind of theoretical, lowest-common-denominator platform game.
In this way, there’s no getting past the fact that the fantasy PlataGo! sells you is so many magnitudes less exciting than its competition, even if the features available put a brave face on keeping pace. You haven’t been given the building blocks to create the next instalment of a decades-old gaming classic – you’ve been given the tools to create an obscure bootleg platformer on an AliExpress Famiclone, or the free game on the cover disk of the March 1992 edition of ‘Amiga Conquest’.
As a result, you’ll always be labouring in PlataGo! knowing there is a low ceiling on the interest that your creation will attract because of the generic and often ugly presentation available to you. Sure, tomorrow’s great creators need spaces to make today’s iffy early drafts, and you may get a kick from the challenge of creating something intricate within the limitations. But when other solutions already exist to help you create things other people may actually want to play, maybe the Switch version of PlataGo! is a solution in search of a problem.
Conclusion
PlataGo! has some value as a learning tool for would-be designers of all ages, and it offers a surprising depth of tweakable options to help you put an individual stamp on your levels (and campaigns). However, if the low quality, generic feel of the graphical and audio assets don’t quickly sap your enthusiasm, the frustration of wrestling with the interface to fine-tune more complex creations will.
Comments 28
...LevelHead looked interesting, I thought it was supposed to come out way before Mario Maker 2. :c
Would've been nice, this just...looks...meh.
Wow, it doesn't even run smoothly? I thought with those graphics it would surely run perfectly. Oh well, Mario Maker 2 is coming very soon!
It would've been a massive shame to see something good buried thanks to such a horrid release timing.
I'm actually glad that the game isn't that good, doesn't feel nearly as bad.
Kudos for the guts to try to sell that ... now...
I admire the chutzpah it must require to so directly challenge the obese plumber on his home turf, but I could never see myself actually buying this. Good to hear I'm not missing anything.
You haven’t been given the building blocks to create the next instalment of a decades-old gaming classic – you’ve been given the tools to create an obscure bootleg platformer on an AliExpress Famiclone, or the free game on the cover disk of the March 1992 edition of ‘Amiga Conquest’.
I think this is so important to the success of Super Mario Maker. You don't just create a platformer, you create levels for most / all the periods of the 2D Mario franchise... one of the most iconic franchises and all that not with ripper resources, but officially endorsed by Nintendo with every other fan being able to play your level...
@SenseiDje thin line between guts and just straight up stupidity
This game just goes to show how hard it is to develop a "make your own levels" type of game.
It really makes you appreciate Mario Maker and its sequel even more.
When I saw the graphics I assumed this game would get at least an 8/10, to my surprise it's an honest score.
Why’d you guys even bother reviewing it?
"All the tools you need to create something you wouldn’t want to play"
Well played.
I am sorry but this game is doomed from the start. All it has going for it is it's very low price point. This is buying Wal-Mart brand Mac and Cheese instead of Kraft's Three Cheese blue box.
But even that seems a generous comparison.
This was on my wish list as I liked the look of it.... bummer hearing it's pretty crappy all around. I will be passing on this
@Ryan_Again it's just too stupid not to be reviewed. Like releasing 'Ghost Hunter Guy In A Large Building' two weeks before Luigi's Mansion 3.
I was hyped for this last year, but that was at the time Super Mario Maker 2 wasn't announced. Now, with this game being released on the same month as SMM2, I just don't see the point in buying it...
Nintendo e-shop gatekeeper:
A build-your-own platformer, eh? Do we really want to allow this to be released so close to...
(plays game)
Ah, ho ho, never mind.
@Ryan_Again So we didn't bother buying it
This is basically Life of Pixel Maker.
Life of Pixel is a very simple but actually quite fun hardcore platformer, where you progress through different console aesthetics. It's cool, but hardly Mario.
I guess the developers of this game never thought there would ever be a sequel to Mario Maker. Which is bad strategy in the first place. Hopefully they will release it on other platforms ?
I have the steam version, I like being able to bring in my own sprites and objects, linking levels and worlds is awesome too, if these came as a patch the Switch version would deserve an 8.
@westman98 Tiny indie v.s Global gaming giant, not really much to understand or appreciate.
When it was $5 on steam that was the perfect price but at $20 it's tough to recommend.
That life of pixel game was bland and felt hastily made but had the gaming eras of a gimmick to make it stand out.
Just one comment on the review that probably wont make a difference.
The bit about the 'b' button. Pressing it with the cursor over something that has already been placed picks it and its setting so you don't have to write them down. Doing this with items from the pallet gets default settings, so gives you the choice of using values from an existing object or default values.
@sleepinglion fair enough. “Why not?” I guess.
@stevedh Hey - I think I understand this and it helps out a little with replication. But I think it also doesn't easily solve the problem of tweaking items you've already placed in the world (as you have to place a second version of everything then delete the original?)
Once past the learning curve the Switch version is good too, just needs a patch.
@Lordplops fair enough. I should probably just keep my cranky comments to myself anyways. 😝
@kupocake Hi, just means you need 1 more click. 'b' click an item, modify the settings, then re-place over originally placed item. Ok not exactly intutative and doesn't help if you want to move the original item, although for the player that isn't a problem as there is just 1 player. You can drag things, either left stick click, or double long tap, but I admit it is a bit fiddly.
I think there is also a quick bug fix patch on the way, although the only thing it adds is access to the easy and medium levels in the editor. Other things including better support for Metroidvania style games are probably a bit further away.
Interestingly comments on SMM2 say you really need a stylus to get the most out of it.
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