#0039 Miner 2049er

You know what I've noticed in doing these reviews? The most boring games to write about are the games that are not quite bad, just not very good. Which brings us to today’s game on 1K1VGYMPBYD. Today we look at Miner 2049er, a platformer developed for nearly every platform at the time by Big Five Studios in 1982.

Okay, so the story goes that a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police named Bounty Bob is on a mission to search through Nuclear Ned's abandoned uranium mines for the evil Yukon Yohan. Bob must claim each section of each mine by running over it, while avoiding strange radioactive creatures that have been left behind.

Okay, so in this game you have to inspect every section of each mine in search of Yukon Yohan while avoiding various radioactive creatures that inhabit the mine. As you walk over a section of flooring, it fills with color, marking it. To complete a level every section of flooring must be colored. There are ten mines total. Each level is timed as there's only a limited amount of oxygen or something I don't know. It's not clear.

And that's... About it. Really not much else to tell. Is it good? I suppose. It's okay for an early platformer. It's no Donkey Kong, but it's certainly playable, the jump physics are still stiff, as they are in other platformers of it's time, the timer is unforgiving, the mechanic of collecting mining memorabilia to kill the enemies is confusing, as is the whole “step on every surface” thing that's at the center. But overall it's fine. I can't recommend it or anything, but it's fairly harmless.

Here's the catch however, it was a HUGE success and a very popular game at the time. As A.N.A.L.O.G. Magazine put it, “[Miner 2049er is] one of those rare games which looks like as if it were designed, and not just thrown together”. Praising it's animation and large number of levels. In 1984, Softline Magazine's readers named the game the fourth most-popular Apple game.

What the heck? What about this game makes it so special? The graphics and by extension, animations are nothing to write home about, I saw far better animation last year. To me it does look like this game was thrown together in a matter of months by greedy game devs to capitalize on the success of games like Donkey Kong. And yet, there are all these critics who are praising it. Why is that?

Well I started to search a little deeper within me and I realized something. Compare this game to what has come before it. When you really think about it, nothing like this game has ever really been done before. Sure Donkey Kong was a platformer, but where that games was transcending platforms to rescue your girlfriend from an abused ape, this game you must walk over every section of the floor. Sure, they both have scaffolding to climb, and the first level is slightly reminiscent of the first level of Donkey Kong, but that's where the similarities end. Honestly, this is a very original game. And when you really stop and think about it, it really does deserve the praise that it did. It is unique, the controls are simple, the levels are varied and plentiful, heck there's 10 levels! That's like 2.5 times the amount in Donkey Kong. All unique, never stale.

So, now that I realize what a true gem this game was, there only remains one question. Why didn't I see this before? I mean, it's not like I'm jaded by new games, I have more respect for pre NES classics than most gamers I know. So why did this game, a unique and well designed jem fail to enthrall me at first?

I think the answer to that question lies in the platformer genre in general. Nearly all of the games that I've played on this list so far have been SHMUPS, which are a niche genre now, catering to bullet hell fans, RPGs, which I was never a huge fan of, maze games, which are all but extinct now, text adventures which is even more niche than SHMUPS these days, only being played by the most hardcore of fans. Really, nearly all game genres on this list are from genres I don't play, or have since gone extinct with the exception of one, Platformers. Platformers are probably one of the most common genres I still play today. Just this afternoon I picked up a controller and played a good thirty minutes of Super Meat Boy. And that's where the problem is. While other genres are easy to take by themselves because they're genres I don't play, platformers are things I do play. All the time. So if an early platformer doesn't have the advantage of being a nostalgic Nintendo title, I'm going to be more harsh on it and subconsciously judge it on the unfair standards of today. It's something that I'm going to have to learn to be more aware of as I continue to review games. This game was a real eye opener, and I hope many more do the same. After all, that's the very reason I took this challenge.

Next up: Moon Patrol