Lack of Taste in Games

deadpixel.co

I'm re-playing Super Metroid from the Super Nintendo glory days. Part of the entire charm of the game is repeated exploring of previous areas of the game with new tools, always looking for new secrets and areas. I do not wish Nintendo had applied the advice "never make me repeat a level" when designing the game.

This game (along with sprawling later-generation Castlevania titles) helped spawn an entire popular genre of games, "Metroidvania" that have been very successful.

Isn't that different from "[repeating] an experience", though? No one complains that, in an RPG, you revisit areas of the game. But that's because frequently you're unlocking new content in a region when you revisit it. Those are new experiences, not a repeat of existing ones.

If you made me pass through a level a second time just because, well yeah, that'd be pretty annoying.

But having me pass through a level a second time with a whole new set of tools, skills, or experience to draw on (preferably making the old obstacles trivial to overcome so I'm not wasting my time... think being able to avoid repeating a tricky and frustrating platform sequence by using my fancy new jetpack), is IMO perfectly reasonable, and even brilliant, when it's done well.

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