Making cinematic platformers is hard. The “cinematic” part of it usually means that developers need to introduce enough variety and also fun unexpected twists and moments, while also somehow making sure that the pace of the game feels very tight, with no moments that would drag on. This also means that the best examples of the genre tend to be relatively short experiences, clocking under 4-5 hours if you do things well. Which makes sense – as with a good movie or a theater play, you wouldn’t sit through a longer runtime, it will simply start to get boring. Usually only puzzle-focused type of these games, or outright puzzle platformers, take longer to complete, since those games focus more on systemic puzzle solving, rather than an exciting adventure that keeps on moving. There are well known examples of the genre, from going back to its origins with Another World/Out of this World, to far more recent classics like INSIDE. And people seem to generally like the Little Nightmares titles, even though I find them a bit too boring. There are even some great but more “underground” examples like The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories.
Darwin’s Paradox!, based on its initial showings and a demo, had a lot of promise. Octopus as the main character, who can stick to surfaces and shoot ink, in itself opened up a lot of possibilities for fun shenanigans, and the American 1950s pulp as the tone seemed really fun too. As I was playing the game’s initial sections I was occasionally frustrated, but always wanted to ignore those annoyances, because the game simply had too much charm. But as I kept playing, the game started dragging on, until by the end I was constantly on the verge of just dropping the game entirely. Which is a real shame.
