MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Donkey Kong was the first platformer

> You’re missing the forest for the trees. Nobody considers ‘ladder games’ or ‘climbing
> games’ to be a genre anymore. It’s all been delegated to the generic ‘action’ or
> ‘action puzzle’ label. But platform games is a broadly defined and well-known genre
> that exists today. You can categorize things however you want, but the collective,
> today, is categorizing games as platformers, and Donkey Kong has the essence of that
> genre. You can’t argue that Space Panic has that essence. It’s not there, because the
> essence is jumping. It’s not ladders. Maybe it was some time ago, but it’s not
> anymore. Nobody cares about ladders. Ladders aren’t interesting anymore.
>
> It’s not fanboyism. I don’t even like Donkey Kong. It’s acknowledgement that there’s
> more to a game than just its mechanics. Its affect, its legacy, is important as well,
> and that is something so often missed by critics. Indeed, it is missed by so many
> people, for most people focus only on the details, rather than the big picture.
>
> The same argument is why WOLF3D is the first FPS.

I could say the same too. You miss the elephant in the room, the genre is not called "jumping" or "platform jumping". It's called PLATFORM, a game you travel across surfaces using any means necessary, yes that includes walking and using ladders for climbing to them. Jumping was only an improvement to the genre. If the collective today agrees like you say, we wouldn't have this debate. So you want to keep a legacy by removing another? Then you go as far as using a single game mechanic (or absence of it) from a game you didn't know (but Japan where Donkey Kong origins does) to miss the big picture/historical context. Sounds quite hypocritical to me.

In the end it doesn't matter. If marketing, fanboyism or a personal preference invents a new (sub)genre to claim be the first one, it won't make me lose my sleep. History is there to claim otherwise. Donkey Kong was known as a climbing game just like Space Panic. Grouping both or separate them for being in between is merely subjective.