Recent high-profile platformers

[bmorris]

I've noticed something and I wonder if you've noticed it too. The most prominent platform games of the last five or so years are all stylistically similar. The graphics are hand-drawn, artistically realistic, and totally non-pixelated. The music is thoughtful, ponderous, melancholic. The player-character is like a stick man, and he's something of a lost soul in the world of the game. The gameplay is heavily based on physics realism, often with blocks that you have to push around and which tumble if you're clumsy with them. It's as though winning the game is supposed to represent the overcoming of an existential crisis which the human player is presumed to be afflicted with.

[monkeybot]

and a lot of them by indies
I thought fez and Limbo were excellent

[bmorris]

Yeah, original concepts and good gameplay continue to be delivered.