It seems that the 3D platformer is making something of a comeback nowadays, particularly when it comes to the Switch. We already have Super Mario Odyssey and Yooka-Laylee to look forward to later this year, while Snake Pass—perhaps a bit unconventional— certainly bears many familiar elements and that’s already on the eShop. Now, Polykid has revealed that it will be bringing its 3D platformer, Poi, to the eShop later this year.
Obviously taking many cues from the likes of Super Mario 64, Poi endeavors to recreate that classic platforming experience for a new generation. It came out earlier this year on PC to decent reviews, and no doubt will feel right at home on Nintendo’s new hybrid. No release time has been announced yet, but expect to hear more on this over the coming months.
What do you think? Have you played Poi? Will you get this for your Switch? Drop us a comment in the section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 54
Yuss
....I feel like it's trying too hard to be like the 3D Mario games here and there...
If I recall correctly they had a Kickstarter but failed to reach the Wii U stretch goal. In hindsight that's probably a good thing because they got to not work on a Wii U version in the first place rather than both waste their money and disappoint their backers by developing for Wii U and then canceling. Regardless, this is back on my radar, which makes me glad.
Looks cute.
The whale powering that ship reminds me of that Matt Smith Doctor Who episode.
Hope it comes out before Mario Odyssey.
Meh
Pass
On my radar. Always could use some more 3D platformers for my Nintendo consoles
I read the article title as "Boi".
Might be fun. For the right price, maybe.
Hmmm I'm not big on graphics, but this is prerelease and there will be actual textures on some of those flat surfaces... right? This looks unplayable as is.
Can't decide if I'm on bored. A lot of 3D platformers nowadays seem to just not grab me aside from Mario. Though I enjoyed YL. I'll keep my eye on this.
@Dysnomia the game is already out on PC, pretty sure these are the final graphics.
Those rope sections were very Super Mario Sunshine, and some of the literal platform sections looked a lot like Galaxy.
There were also two consecutive shots that looked almost exactly like Ocarina of Time's Haunted Wasteland and Death Mountain Crater. Regardless of those odd similarities, I'm now a little interested in this game. Hopefully these PC developers can optimize a game to save their life.
I might just buy it on Steam and look if it's worth double dipping on.
Yay...
Last time it didn't released on Wii U.
Will watch some gameplays again.
This reminds me a lot of FreezeMe, which was decent, but needed polish. I think if there is a lesson from Yooka Laylee it's that 3D platformers minus polish, just fall apart.
That said, I'll probably play it, I'm a sucker for 3d platforming
With all that said though, I adore indie teams trying to take on 3D gaming, I feel like o should be supporting the efforts.
@CartoonDan Me too. If it wants any chance of success needs to be before or a longish time after Super Mario Odyssey.
If before, this and yooka laylee will nicely tide me ovsr until Christmas
Yes, More 3D Platformers 😄
Admittedly, I'm not so sure about this since the last indie platformer Freeze Me was a big letdown. But... well, since its coming to Switch and it looks interesting enough - it might be worth looking into.
Looks unfinished.
They got to a point and thought, yeah that will do.
Shame really as i love other 3D platformers
But but but...where's all the AAA stubble and bobbing guns? And DLC and 36GB day one patches???
Eew. The DS is capable of better graphics than this.
Life's too short to be playing crappy, derivative (and UGLY!!!) games. I'll wait for Super Mario Odyssey.
Saw a ... Jimpressions of this I think. Looks a little too generic.
£10 on Steam, £20 on Switch. To go with Sine Mora EX which on Amazon is £25 on Switch and £15 on its competition.
If it is a tenner, I'll pick it up. £10 for 5 hours is reasonable.
Meh just wait for Mario
@Dysnomia dosent looked finished
Very Mario 64-inspired...
@sillygostly Then you really need to start up your DS one of these days to refresh your memory.
Enjoyed for a few hours on PC, but will most definitely double dip for the Switch; more of a hanging on the couch game than a PC game, if you ask me.
Played three hours of it on Steam now. I like it thus far, though, the graphics and effects look bad, even for an indie. Got some other minor issues here and there but something I might played again on Switch if it's price correctly. Was 15€ on Steam.
Also to those who are reminded of Mario 3D platformers: The first mission of the second world is literally the first Bianco Hills mission minus the boss. The third mission of the same world takes you to a Mario Galaxy styled moon.
@Akropolon : The DS may have a very low resolution, but that aside, many DS games do in fact have better graphics than this. Case in point, Metroid Prime Hunters, Dementium: The Ward, Zelda, Mario Kart DS etc.
Omg yes! I wanted this on Wii U but sadly that got scrapped. Great news, I'll definitely buy it!!
The stages look so similar to Mario sunshine. And the special block stages too. Also has the Mario triple jump. This looks good
Someone refresh my memory. Was this two-player?
@sillygostly It's not just a matter of lower resolution. I love my DS and still play some DS games from time to time, but there's just no way a DS could run a game with so many polygons and rounded surfaces.
Most of the DS games that you mention just hide their very simplistic 3D structure behind clever art direction.
I'm really glad this game is finally coming to Switch, after their failed Kickstarter. It's clearly a love letter to classic 3D platformers. It may not reach the heights of the genre's greats, but it deserves a chance on a Nintendo console.
Looks good if it is $10 I buy it.
@sillygostly agreed.
This looks like mario 64 but boring, no personality at all.
Really reminds me of FreezeMe which was okay but very flawed. I don't want to play another platformer that has poor control/bad camera/extreme vagueness if that's what this is more of.
Looks pretty fun
@XenoShaun Is there any word yet on when Yooka Laylee will come out?
@Kochambra : You obviously haven't seen the games rendered natively at HD resolutions via an emulator, which shows just how good a lot of these games look. They are only hindered by the resolution and inherent limitations of the hardware that they were designed for.
I don't use emulators, nor would I ever endorse them, but there is enough evidence to substantiate that the DS is capable of fantastic looking games. And all of the games that I mentioned look good from a technical, as opposed to artistic perspective, otherwise I would have mentioned more stylised games, such as the Rub Rabbits series.
@sillygostly I don't think it's particularly relevant how those games look on an emulator. If they are no longer hindered by the limitations of the DS hardware they are no longer DS games. If you are adding more polygons, curves, more advanced lightning and transparency effects, those are no longer "DS graphics".
Sure, the DS is capable of fantastic looking games. It's even capable decent looking 3D games, but it is not capable of rendering anything remotely close to what Poi shows in this video. Neither that number of polygons, nor those curves or FPS.
And sure, designing a decent looking 3D game for the DS hardware is a technical achievement on itself, but what makes such simplistic 3D structures look good is the art design. Of all the examples you mentioned, the only one that kind of tries to resemble reality is Dementium, and I think it's the least successful of the lot. In any case, whether a games strives for realism or uses a more obviously stylised approach, art design is equally important.
The emulators don't add additional polygons though. They merely replicate the software whilst rendering it at a higher (or even lower) resolution, similar to how PC games can be scaled in terms of resolution, aspect ratio and the like. The key difference from PC games being that emulators do not add any additional effects because how is the software supposed to know where to add additional lighting/polygons etc.? Whether some emulators are capable of such functionality, I do not know as I do not use them. I am just comparing the graphics in terms of how the software would look emulated as-is with only an increase in resolution to reflect the strength of their art design and assets, in spite of the hardware's inherent limitations; limitations that Poi is not bound by. Not even close.
I was comparing the graphics of Poi relative to what the DS is capable of, and my opinion stands that Poi is unimpressive even when stacked up against DS games, and not just in terms of graphics.
@sillygostly Your original statement was: "The DS is capable of better graphics than this". And no, it isn't. This game uses way more polygons than the DS is capable of handling, it uses curved surfaces and seems to run at a higher FPS rate than basically any 3D DS game that I have ever seen. Even ignoring the difference in resolution, the DS is utterly incapable of producing these graphics.
If you were actually talking about about the game's art design, I'm sure we can agree on games that are better in this department, but that has nothing to do with the hardware each game runs on, so why mention it at all? On a pure technical level, the level where the hardware is actually relevant, Poi's 3D graphics are more sophisticated than anything the DS has ever produced.
Too early to love or hate it. Looks interesting. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.
@Anguspuss yeah, but it is out on PC already, right?
More and more 3d platformers, but I'm fine with that. 3ds has so many 2d platformers, and I think it'll be the same with 3d platformers on Switch
I still wonder what happened to Lobodestroyo. The developers' clever business tricks did earn them a successful Kickstarter like Yooka, after all.
It really annoys me when some indie developers show off their half-finished game, see the praise for it, and then get caught up and think the game is done.
If you want a polished indie(one man team) 3D platformer that looks professionally polished, look at Clive n Wrench.
This actually looks pretty cute.
Looks quality platforming (very Mario 64 like) but graphically it's really mediocre. Not for me but for my children... who knows.
A poor man's Mario...
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