Although the height years of the 3D platformer style have been within the late ’90s and early 2000s, there’s been a little bit of a resurgence in attention-grabbing new style entries in recent times. Titles reminiscent of Glyph and Lunistice have proven that smaller platforming initiatives might be simply as compelling because the extra well-known examples, and now we’ve got BogoSoft’s Corn Kidz 64 persevering with that development with one thing decidedly retro. Following the adventures of a spunky goat named Seve, this title goals to emulate the spirit of an N64 platformer as precisely as doable. It largely succeeds; Corn Kidz 64 truly looks like a misplaced recreation from this period, and regardless that it has some notable shortcomings, that is total an satisfying and enjoyable retro romp.
Corn Kidz 64 is a real collectathon at coronary heart, tasking you with selecting up numerous doodads squirreled away in each conceivable nook of those modestly-sized playgrounds. Your essential collectible is a big assortment of cubes that grant you “XP” for each you seize—after getting sufficient of them, you’ll have the ability to unlock doorways that gate entry to more durable challenges that conceal much more cubes. Moreover, there are different issues to do, like knocking over all of the trash cans in a degree or discovering a small assortment of bottle caps to change for corn syrup, which raises your max well being.
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Although you’re in the end funneled down a comparatively linear route, you’re given numerous leeway in every space over what to deal with. Very like in Banjo-Kazooie or Donkey Kong 64, there are issues to grab up in all places, so it’s actually a matter of simply seeing one thing attention-grabbing and climbing or working over to determine what’s hidden round it. This strategy feels pure and we respect that it permits you to resolve what you need to problem your self with—if navigating these jumps is just too irritating, simply get lost some place else and are available again to attempt once more later.
Seve’s moveset isn’t almost as versatile as Mario’s, however he manages to get numerous mileage out of a homing strike and ground-pound transfer. The homing strike can be utilized to loosen screws or to snag bomb birds to toss at weak partitions. There are many gimmicks littered all through the atmosphere to assist increase his talents, too, reminiscent of a line of floating rings that allow you to use your homing strike a number of instances with out touching the bottom, or sure kinds of partitions that may be wall-jumped infinitely.
With the best way all the things’s organized, Corn Kidz 64 feels well-paced, by no means losing any house or needlessly padding out the expertise as some platformers are notoriously responsible of. Each degree is filled with stuff to do with out feeling tedious, and there are usually new gimmicks and challenges introduced to maintain issues feeling contemporary. A whole run ought to solely take you about eight to 10 hours, however Corn Kidz 64 makes essentially the most of each minute.
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For its presentation, Corn Kidz 64 appears to be like prefer it’s straight out of 1997, even going so far as providing you with the boxy 4:3 side ratio and fuzzy scanlines. You’ll be able to go into the settings to tune these show choices to resemble one thing extra trendy, however we most well-liked the lo-fi strategy and felt that it match fairly properly with the artwork path. The artwork fashion itself options all of the blocky fashions and blurry textures you’d count on out of an N64 platformer, however we appreciated the darker, virtually menacing, vibe to the visuals. One thing about these worlds is simply off in a delightfully creepy and kooky type of means, which creates an attention-grabbing environment as you discover deeper.
The soundtrack equally has that old-school MIDI really feel, with a brief assortment of cartoonish tracks that additionally do a superb job of feeding into that ominous environment. It’s not a very memorable assortment of tracks, however it matches the aesthetic completely and helps add that further layer to the retro immersion.
There have been just a few notable points we bumped into that dampened the expertise, nonetheless. For one factor, there’s some fairly noticeable enter lag on this Change model, which lends the gameplay a sluggish and unresponsive feeling. You regulate to the lag a bit with apply, and the problem of the extent design is total saved comparatively low, however we skilled loads of instances the place extra precision was required and the controls simply weren’t as much as the duty, resulting in some irritating missed jumps and wasted efforts.
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Moreover, the digicam is one other problem, making Corn Kidz 64 maybe somewhat too harking back to the retro video games it clearly channels. There are numerous instances the place digicam management is restricted or fastened, and the angle usually fails to provide you a cushty view of the platforming problem. Even once you do have extra management over placement, there’s an unwieldy clunkiness that makes it really feel such as you’re preventing to get it in the precise spot. You might say the poor digicam is sort of charming contemplating the way it’s proper on-brand for the period, however all the identical, we might’ve preferred to see this side improved.
Conclusion
Corn Kidz 64 looks like a real title from the N64 period and we commend the developer for his or her means to efficiently recreate that retro expertise. An ideal size, good pacing, and different design all work on this recreation’s favor, although its sluggish controls and awkward digicam maintain it again from greatness. All the identical, it’s solely seven bucks—we’d give this one a advice to anybody in search of an honest new 3D platformer for his or her library.