Why are so many Amiga games "cute"?

[haps]

I have to agree idrougge, if you think that Duke Nukem is a good example of an 'adult' game then you are even more of an odd duck than your post history has led me to believe.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by haps

I have to agree idrougge, if you think that Duke Nukem is a good example of an 'adult' game then you are even more of an odd duck than your post history has led me to believe.

My point is boys aged 14 will happily play Duke Nukem 3D. I do not see them doing so with the first two, unless they were younger.

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by jotd

that explains Nicky Boom a lot too

lol - I actually was not aware of this game until now - wtf!

Why??? What were they thinking?

(Just change the character sprite und maybe some music and you got quite a good game ...)


Brian the Lion comes to mind: technically very good game, but "Brian" ....

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by Gorf

Brian the Lion comes to mind: technically very good game, but "Brian" ....

Cos it rhymes...?

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Cos it rhymes...?

No - because Brian or Nicky are hard to look at ... they are indeed totally distracting from the rest of the game

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by Gorf

No - because Brian or Nicky are hard to look at ... they are indeed totally distracting from the rest of the game

Why is Brian hard to look at? He's a walking, standing lion - don't you like anthropomorphism?

Or is it those brightly-coloured shorts he wears?

[roondar]

Using my patented "let's over-analyse obscure retro gaming stuff no one really cares about" abilities, I checked hol.abime.net for some statistics to add to this discussion

So, hol.abime.net, lists 5841 Amiga games. Of these, 697 are listed in the platformer category (which also includes non-cute platformers). This makes it the 2nd largest category, after shooters

1) Shooter    - 837
2) Platformer - 697
3) Sport      - 649
4) Adventure  - 552
...etc

In other words, there where far more non-platformers (cute or otherwise) than platformers on the Amiga. Hence, I'd say the notion is false

[Foebane]

Roondar:

1. How many of those Platformers are "cute"?
2. There are "cute" games in other categories as well

[roondar]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Roondar:

1. How many of those Platformers are "cute"?
2. There are "cute" games in other categories as well

1. I don't know an exact percentage, but eye-balling it puts it at 75-ish%
2. This is true, but the percentage of "cute" shooters (the biggest genre on the Amiga) is not really that high. Nor is the percentage of "cute" sport or adventure games.

Note that my response was based primarily on this part of your original post:

Originally Posted by Foebane

I'm going through a huge video of Amiga games on YouTube to determine if there's ANYTHING I'd like to play, and despite several genres and graphical styles, the one that dominates them all is "cutesy platformers".

All I'm saying here is that this is not what seems to be the case for the actual library when you look at game list sites like hol.abime.net. For one, platformers aren't even the biggest genre on the system.

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Why is Brian hard to look at? He's a walking, standing lion - don't you like anthropomorphism?

Or is it those brightly-coloured shorts he wears?

for a couple of reasons ...
First, I don't like it, if the characters head is directed more towards the gamer instead of the direction it is moving ...
(Mario does ist right on NES und wrong on SNES.... on Amiga Chuck Rock, Turrican or Lemmings do it right)

Than Brians cheeks look like oversized bubbles ... his head is not lion-like not even cat-like - it looks like a hamster!

and yes: the shorts it is wearing are ridiculous ...

[haynor666]

Platformers are mostly meant for children so cutesy is expected. Of course there are some mature platformers but that's rare (example: Deliverance, Skeleton Krew, Shadow of the Beast). Strategies are targeted at older players so cutesy it is not desired here.

The same situation is on Megadrive and SNES. Action games rules at that times. Moreover some mature strategy named Syndicate for SNES, Megadrive was also "cutenized"

[Predseda]

It is because I love cute games.

[thellier]

Perhaps it is only a virility problem but playing a "cute" platformer dont make you gay :-P

[dodke]

I've started working on a game and it's 100% cutesy platformer. Deal with it Personally I like them but obviously some are not that interesting. Don't like brian the lion that much either.

I think this is why the Amiga has a lot of 'cute' games.

While I wasn't alive around that time period, from my experience in the 80's and 90's the media companies wanted to appeal to the male juvenile audience, and video games, which were creeping into the mainstream thanks to Nintendo and Sega, were a great way to do that.

Their mindset was that the male juvenile was a fan of tough, cool heroes (this was the time of Terminator and Rambo) and so they asked the video game companies to design their characters accordingly, even changing the designs of that of cute Japanese characters to appeal to at least the US. Famous examples include was Sega's redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo and HAL's changes of the box arts of Kirby games to make the titular character more ready for action.

Mind you, this happened in the US. That's not to say that it didn't happen in other countries, but in Europe the consoles Nintendo and Sega made were less popular there, which leads us to our good old friend the Amiga, one of the most popular computers in Europe. Most developers creating games for the computer were European and rarely had a peek into the United States' culture, and so they made games with cute characters regardless (there were even Japanese games that saw a release in Europe and not America).

Soon the internet got popular and now, at least in English countries, fads from the US will spread almost easily to other countries (I will not mention any of them).

[d4rk3lf]

I know that some folks don't like cute platformers (I personally do, and I am still playing it, and I am 36), but saying that Amiga lacked "serious games", is nonsense.
To name a few: K240, Reunion. Civilization, Frontier, Pirates, Shadow of the Beast 3, Dune, Dune 2, Dungeon Master...
If I were on some abandoned island, or in prison, and could choose only one game to play, I'd rather pick any of the above game, then Doom, or Quake...

Then, there were games with cute graphics, but hard as hell (Adventures like Simon the sorcerer, or Monkey Island), or complex like Settlers.

As for the gore itself, plenty of titles, like someone already said: Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, Moonstone, Brutal sports foodbal... etc.

[haynor666]

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

I know that some folks don't like cute platformers (I personally do, and I am still playing it, and I am 36), but saying that Amiga lacked "serious games", is nonsense.
To name a few: K240, Reunion. Civilization, Frontier, Pirates, Shadow of the Beast 3, Dune, Dune 2, Dungeon Master...
If I were on some abandoned island, or in prison, and could choose only one game to play, I'd rather pick any of the above game, then Doom, or Quake...

Then, there were games with cute graphics, but hard as hell (Adventures like Simon the sorcerer, or Monkey Island), or complex like Settlers.

As for the gore itself, plenty of titles, like someone already said: Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, Moonstone, Brutal sports foodbal... etc.

It does lack serious platformers but in my opinion like any other console/computer at that time.

[blakstar]

It seems to me that many of the "cute" Amiga games came in the later years, probably in response to the console market, and the transition of Commodore's marketing from a serious computer to more of a games machine.

Granted, when I first got an Amiga 1000 (I was in my teens, so it was bought for me by my father), there were a fair number of games available in many of the usual categories -- simulations, strategy games, RPG-type games, and even some platform-type games -- but very few of them could be called "cute".

[d4rk3lf]

I guess Ruff'n'Tumble could be called a cute game.
However, calling it only cute, is for me somewhat offensive, because of the amount of professionalism poured into this game.
Perfect graphics (looks more aga, then ocs), perfect gameplay, music, scrolling, level design, I just don't know better platformer then this, at least for ocs...
I'd like to read some interview of the people created this gem, I wonder what they do now.

Originally Posted by haynor666

It does lack serious platformers but in my opinion like any other console/computer at that time.

What would you consider "serious" platformer? Graphics not cartoon, or gameplay more complex then jumping and shooting?
Would Shadow of the beast 3 count as serious?

[Gzegzolka]

I can not believe people got problems that some games are cute and this is already three pages thread.

If You are interested in development of Ruff and Tumble look here https://www.ppa.pl/forum/strefa-gier...wczesna-wersja
Use Google translate to understood what I write there, also there are lots of images. Robin Leavy was very kind to answer many of my questions.