Why Is It So Hard To Make Games On Rails? 

Comms chatter is underappreciated. It's what makes Star Fox and Kid Icarus Uprising so memorable to me. The labyrinth/illusion stage in KI:U is amazing.

I think one of the surprisingly tricky genres to design for is the Collect-a-thon Platformer. Too many people want to "capture the feel" of classic games, without actually checking whether their finished design is good on it's own.

I would’ve loved to see you talking about Kid Icarus: Uprising! I understand it’s not *always* an on-rails shooter, but I think that the segments it has are thematic, breathtaking, and fun!

No Kid Icarus Uprising here is kinda sad

I’ve been looking into what makes a good idle game for quite a while now and I’ve realized it’s quite tricky. You’re walking a fine line between not giving the player enough to do and having the player too engaged for it to really be an idle game. For instance I think Loop Hero is an excellent blend between idle game mechanics and roguelike rpg mechanics, but at the end of the day it’s not really an idle game exactly because you can’t leave your hero unattended for longer than a few minutes in most cases without risking them dying. The topic is especially interesting because pretty much all the best idle games are what most people would consider “time wasters” and yet some time wasters are a waste of time, so it comes down to what makes an idle game worth wasting time on.

I’d say what makes them good is that you’re always on the move and if there’s a target you really want to hit, it’s that much more challenging because it’s only on screen for a fleeting moment.

Your videos are getting better, it’s more interactive, it feels like you’re actually explaining things now instead of just pointing out stuffs and moving on, and that makes it more enjoyable and educative. Keep it up, buddy!

God, I want a Sin & Punishment 3 so badly

Hard to do genres? Crafting Games. Nobody can beat Gust, and we've had dozens of games that think tedium is the soul and not the thing to avoid. Shopkeeping Games. You already basically did this though. It's hilarious how many games tried to copy Reccetear but do so by taking out the talking to customers part. Army skirmishers. Most focus on the economic building up of armies or narrowing power to individual leaders, but going for a straight up 30 vs 30 of different unit compositions and tactics is hard. Drawing games. Create your own monster, draw up magic circles, gesture tactical commands. A design AND hardware problem to solve.

Not so much "game," I suppose, but as something difficult to do right: underwater levels, specifically 3D underwater levels. Something about the combination of slowness of fluid motion and difficulty of full 3D navigation* (potentially combined with a camera that doesn't work well underwater) makes it seemingly consistently a difficult thing to get right. *As contrasted what I would call "2+1D": in water, you can take any position in 3D space and stay there; in "2+1D" like most 3D games, you only have a discrete set of elevations that you can sit at (namely, on the ground). Or equivalently, in water, you can always go in any direction in 3D space, but in 2+1D, you can move in any lateral direction or jump up (or fall down). [One could similarly distinguish "2D" vs. "1+1D" if you like, but I think the difference is less dramatic, and practically speaking that usually means "top down" vs. "side-scrolling."]

An interesting topic for another video in this new series would be rhythm-based action games where you have to move and/or attack on the beat, with subjects of interest being rhythmic dungeon crawling in Crypt of the Necrodancer and rhythmic platforming in Mad Rat Dead.

might not be the best genre to make a video on, but tile matching games would be interesting to see just from the variety of approaches from older games like Puzzle Bobble, Puyo Puyo, and Tetris, to modern mobile games like Candy Crush or Bejeweled

It always amazes me how rail shooters and shmups are so related yet so different

I like detective games 😚 They don't always have to be about detectives, Ace Attorney and Outer Wilds come to mind, but I do so love putting together small pieces of information into a whole picture. Later Alligator subverts the expectations in which your investigation really turns out to be playing minigames with a large cast of characters, but at its core you are still putting together the 'puzzle pieces' of where does each character fit on the large family tree through paying attention to dialogue, where you met the character, etc. A bad detective game is a real miss while a good detective game is a real hit.

I'll say that if N64 Pokemon Snap is a slow choo choo train tour, Kid Icarus: Uprising is the fastest rollercoaster in the world

What I love about Kingdom Hearts 2's Gummi Ship missions is that they really let you get as little or as much out of it as you want. You're required to complete each one at least once, but unlike KH1, you can skip over them after that immediatly. Also, the game automatically gives you new pre-built ships for each new Gummi Mission, meaning you don't _have_ to mess with the customization options to have a ship that stays competetive. But! If you enjoy the Gummi Ship missions, it turns out they're very fast paced high-score 'em ups, with a lot of rewards and a secret Gummi Ship final boss!

Panzer Dragoon - it's been YEARS, and I still recognize a picture of it.

Yesterday I rode a kayak (rail) in "National Geographic Explore VR", photographed penguins, and thought that it was a very original idea. But here's Design Doc introducing me to "Pokemon Snap" from 1999. XD

well one of my favorite genres that's bizarrely niche is heist games. why are there not more of them?

16:17 The elevator pitch for Ex Zodiac was clearly "What if we make Star Fox SNES except with a good framerate?" I dig it.

A genre that might be interesting to see talked about in this way is Management Sims (that is, as in the likes of Sim City/Theme Hospital/Planet Coaster, not Football Manager... And I can't think of any other - The ones that had a spatial element rather than being playable spreadsheets). Was that a situation where studios with budgets stopped caring about the audience as with horror games which IIRC didn't see a decline in sales just... A decline in studios interested in making them until the indie revolution happened... or as per rail shooters where the things they were offering became easier to get from other places leading to the audience declining (Either way, we are fully in an indie boom for the genre now, so that's nice)

Technically not a game genre but What makes a good morality based game? Those games that have you make decisions and the ending of the game is different because of your choices. Think of Games like Undertale, Life is strange 2, BioShock, and on a more poorly executed note, games like Shadow the Hedgehog and Epic Mickey (as much as I love the ladder I can’t deny it has flaws)

Honestly, I would love to see an on-rails high-speed plaformer similar to the Sonic Storybook Series that isn’t bogged down by bad controls or design that can destroy the pacing within a heartbeat. Some of my favorite parts from Secret Rings were the levels where you could just go really fast and watch Sonic make split-second 90° turns and the slide mechanic where if upgraded correctly, can make you invicible to enemies and oncoming obsticles and can keep up the pace if done at the right moment.

So happy to see Sin & Punishment 2 get some love, especially for what I swear is one of the best water levels ever crafted. The game has some of the most wildly creative bosses I've ever seen, from the shapeshifting sea monster dude to a skeleton that tries to dunk you to death with a basketball made of flying medusa heads to a giant melting zombie cyborg that attacks you with blocks Tetris-style. And the music kicks ass, and the art style is awesome, and the motion controls work beautifully, and _GOD_ this game was awesome. I just wish it could get a sequel to better explore its characters and expand on its gameplay. While I think the Sin & Punishment universe has potential, the game's writing is messy at best. I had to read the instruction manual and check out both the American and European websites to fully get what was going on. Plus, I'll admit it could get kinda repetitive and I was disappointed with how it teased us with potential gameplay shifts that didn't go anywhere. I'm glad we got stuff like the highway level and the train segment, but I always wished I could choose which tunnel to take in the water level and get to play as the Gryphon Keeper for a bit instead of just having it drop us off at the start of the lava level. Even just some powerups or different weapons would be nice. ...sorry, I don't see this game appreciated much and I might've gone overboard.

Of the later light gun games, I loved Spacegun and Gunblade NY. Late in the sprite era, Road Blasters and Night Striker did a great job of taking the "mostly on the ground" racing + shooting, which culminated with the GI Joe game, where you'd get 3 players doing run and gun on a rail. For the flight stuff, I really love the Panzer Dragoon series, but I would love for them to bring back Panzer Dragoon Saga, since the RPG elements were really nice.

Sayonara wild hearts is one of the best experience i had in the latest years

I recently watched GmanLives' Time Crisis retrospective video, and although I only played Time Crisis 2 as a teen, it made me appreciate a lot of what the series had, and had me wishing I could go back to play the full thing at some point

13:23 "The pokemon snap game(S)" Feels good to be in this timeline

How about talking about sideview tactical games? Games like Mutiny (nitrome), Worms, and SteamWorld Heist, I don't remember playing sideview tactical RPGs outside of those 3, and personally this is the only way I can enjoy a tactical RPG, it feels more dynamic than TRPGs on a grid, and more skill based than "keep the correct option and good luck, you only have 90% accuracy". It could be nice to see someone talking about these.

Bit Trip Fate was a 2D rail shooter. You had temporary power-ups and the levels were somewhat rhythm-based. The track was all curvy and you had to move back and forth on it to collect the item drops by defeated enemies and destroyed obstacles and avoid enemy fire.

There were some neat ones on the Wii that get overlooked a lot. Dragon Quest Swords turns dungeon crawling into a light gun-esque affair, with you needing to attack different sections of the screen with different types of sword strokes to defeat enemies. Samurai Warriors Katana gave you a variety of different melee and ranged weapons with different attack controls and attributes and tasks with a surprisingly wide variety of missions and enemy types to take on.

The Nier series has always loved working with different game genres appearing through them and despite it's on rails shooting in the suits Automata did it well as a breather from the rest of the action even if it was very basic.

I can't believe kid Icarus uprising didn't have its own section. The talking between pit and palutena and other gods throughout the less exciting sections made it so fun to play through.

No Kid Icarus Uprising?

My current favourite on-rails game is probably Pistolwhip... It's mechanically extremely simple, but it executes it's marriage of on-rails shooter and VR music game incredibly well!! VR on-rails shooters like this one really feel like the successor to light gun games in how fun they are to play even with the simplest of premises

This also applies to auto scroller segments in other games. For example, in SMB, the level can be a lot more boring if it isn't designed with that in mind. Having to wait doing nothing to progress is simply pretty lame. However, in these genres, this can be used in conjunction with a minimum speed, as the rising lavain SMB for example. You can go faster if you are good enough, but you are also filled with dread when the threat inches closer. The necessary speed is somewhat similar to an autoscroller, but following the path becomes part of the challenge

Star Fox 64 is so great that every Star Fox afterwards has attempted but failed to recapture how good it is.

Love the video concept. I'd be interested in one about platform fighters in the vein of Super Smash Bros. There have been many attempts with varying degrees of success, both indie and big-budget, but I'm curious as to what special sauce made Smash the most beloved.

Ahhh Starfox 64.. My heart skips a beat every time someone remembers how brilliant this game was... It will always be one of my favorites!!!

Honestly to this day the game that I still remember for it spectacle was Child of Eden. The fact that you could shoot by moving your arms around was mind blowing.

It's a rare day when I happen to have played every game mentioned in a video! On-rail shooters are one of my favourite genres. Like you mentioned, the spectacle is a big part of what makes them enjoyable, hell even the cheesy voice acting adds charm to a lot of the older games. But I think what I enjoy most about these games is that they test skill, not luck. In a way I think they're almost the opposite of RPGs. Where RPGs are slow, tactical, have luck based elements in their combat system, and can last dozens if not hundreds of hours, on-rail shooters are fast, instinctual, entirely skill based, and only last 1 to 3 hours. I feel like the design differences between genres like the 2 I've just mentioned could be a video unto itself.

"The original Panzer Dragoon hasn't aged that well." Me, a diehard Sega fanboy: Are you sure about that?

I'm so glad you included Sayonara Wild Hearts!! I feel like that game is way too underrated!

3D platformers seem so SIMPLE in theory. Why do you rarely see any good 3D platformers outside of mario and nintendo in general?

Killer 7 and both Resident Evil Chronical games are my favorite games on rails. They are both really enjoyable!

Sayonara Wild Hearts is one of my favourite games of all time. I tried to explain it to others, and I couldn't find a nice genre shorthand until I sat down and thought about what exactly it is about this game that I love. Magical girl transformations. Longing and loneliness as well as love and hope expressed as themes. Ride a fucking magic motorcycle. Art style is fucking on point. Music is fantastic. Sound design and level design intertwine. This game is fucking art. And I know what genre to call it now. "Lesbian Power Fantasy".

Bringing up KH1 reminds me that whenever that game is speedran at a GDQ the speedrunner just puts down their controller with the fire button tapped for the Gummi Ships and than goes and sings Disney songs.

I was playing the racing game Horizon Chase Turbo, a homage to old 2D racing games (like Top Gear, Outrun, Cruisin USA), despite being made in 3D. I've seen some racing game fans calling this game "on rail". You control the speed, but it goes faster or slower in relation to the average rail of the track, you don't use the racing lines of 3D racing games to go faster. I think it makes sense. And I think that game is fun as hell. XD

Space Harrier on SMS was the first rail shooter I ever played. Pretty incredible how not much has changed but it's still so hard to get right.

No mention of Rambo The Video Game? What was even the point!!? Great work as always ;) Seriously, this video kinda makes me feel that games on rails should be a more common trend

Duuuuude G-Darius was an absolute blast on the PS1; the spectacle was out of this world, all the bosses are sea creature mechs, you can switch out what kind of weapon you were using by grabbing them off of enemies during the level and change how the weapon was positioned on your fighter thus changing the angle of your shots. Tho, now that I think about it, it was a side scroller, so I’m not sure if it falls under the rail shooter or shmup category…

I surely hope Thumper is in here, even just a clip. EDIT: ...How about rhythm games, like Thumper?

I can't believe it never crossed my mind until this video that Pokémon Snap is literally an on rails shooter.

I started to think about rail shooters and the rail section of nier automata came to my mind. It´s really a spectacule, specially the giant robots fights where we fight engels and the fish-look machine. These sections were really well made and unforgetable for not making me bored while shooting everything and dodging everything

The best example of a high spectacle rail shooter I can think of is the japanese star wars x wing arcade game, which is honestly one of the coolest gaming experiences I've ever had, definitely worth the ~3 minutes I played of it before dying

I often feel like Muso (Warriors) games have a breadth of complexity and nuance that is frequently overlooked due to the games looking very simple and similar on their surface.

As someone who loves Kid Icarus Uprising, with it being my favourite game of all time, let me say this. Please give Sin & Punishment a shot! I know you might not like that it wasn’t brought up, but Kid Icarus Uprising has gotten tons of praise for its set pieces and game design before. Treasure and their games deserve more love for their wonderful design, and I think it’s great that it’s given the spotlight here. Maybe try it out yourself and see if it sparks that same feeling that KI:U did!

Just for the Kingdom Hearts bit. While that's true that the rails shooter is gross. It's the fact that a mini-game breaks up the constant RPG action. Kinda like A Way Out.

I think 'job sim' games are a pretty specialised genre that have to executed really well to work. Most of us spend a lot of time using games to get away from our jobs irl but yet we can happily play games that put us into other jobs and love it. I'm talking about games like Papers Please, Orwell, and even stuff like Tamagotchi Corner Shop. Also stuff like Eurotruck Simulator too I suppose but I think those hyperrealistic simulator games are another can of worms entirely

The near-future racing game. This includes games like F-Zero, WipEout, Rollcage, Podracer, and many others. This is a niche sub-genre on top of an already niche genre. This type of game was everywhere in the late-90s to early-2000s. But, today it is dead in the water with only few, dedicated indie studios keeping the spark alive. What holds a lot of this type of game back is accessibility. Racing games inherently have a lot of room for skill expression. A player that is 1% better with always beat their opponent. This can make a game intimidating for newcomers.

5:00 IDK, it makes so much sense to me. If you reduce the load on a players mind greatly by removing movement, thus reducing engagement, you better be ready to make up on the other areas greatly. People underestimate greatly how important movement is as a way to engage with a videogame. Kinda like they never played a platformer with any quirky jump and move feel (like La Mulana for example)

Don't forget half of Kid Icarus Uprising was on rails. Where adding to the difficulty meant more fiends on the screen. Also the charactere talk about the enironment and lead you to the next part of the plot.

DesignDoc: So head down to the comments, where we got two topics to discuss: your favorite on-rails games, (and why you love them) and any other GENRES that are also tricky to make. Me *watching Sonic footage, while the editor is winking so hard his eyelid is about to shut completely*: I see what you did there

My favourite game on rails is Train Simulator because it literally is a game where you drive on rails.

6:50 Footnote: Then KH spend a decade without doing Gummi ships before KH3, where we now have open exploration but it's big empty maps and fights are back to KH1 style of rails.

Here's a few genres to consider, mystery dungeon games and shakeups to the formula. Tank controls outside of horror. Wii shooters that use the pointer.

How can you talk about on-rails games, but not talk about Kid Icarus: Uprising? Its aerial sections are basically the king of well-timed spectacle, and they can be quite difficult on higher intensities too due to you having less time to react.

I think the only on rails shooter I played was Space Harrier because it was a minigame in Yakuza 0 and you had to get a high-score. Not really my genre of choice.

I immediately thought of sayonara wild hearts upon seeing the thumbnail. Very glad to see the mention, I really love that game.

I'd like to see a video covering what makes a good point-and-click style game. A lot of them seem to be plagued with trial and error of clicking everywhere without some clear sense of direction, some of which may lead to game overs you wouldn't expect.

Would you say that Kid Icarus: Uprising prioritizes audio spectacle? That game looks quite nice for a 3DS, but what you remember from the on-rail section is how your ears get bomboarded by voice acting as well as an orchestral score, both of which can only be paced so well because every player will encounter the same things at the same time.

Sonic Adventure had a Shooter on Rails section, and SA2 Tails/Eggman gameplay were basically the same but off-rails

I'd love to see you tackle game design elements of traditional fighting games, both 2D (like Street Fighter) and 3D (like Tekken). The genre is so unique and different from every other genre, so much that it's widely seen as unapproachable and too difficult to get into. In large part due to how most skills and game literacy obtained from other genres simply don't apply to fighting games. I'd like to see an in-depth look at hat the genre does well and what it needs to do differently in order to break out of the undersold niche it occupies.

I remember Yar's Revenge back when Howard Scott Warshaw did little adverts on G4. He use to mention how he created one of the best selling(Yar's) And worst selling(ET) Atari games

The original rez was my favorite! Music reacting to your actions is pure genius!

More love for Kid Icarus Uprising and its flying sections please! The flying sections start every level and are on rail shooters. Most are under 5 mins except for like one or two major exceptions where it is the whole level. The weapon system gives you tons of unique flying combat options

KH1 - KH2 will never stop being a good comparison piece for what happens when a company decides to step up their game instead of resting on their laurels, seriously the gummi ship is like night and day between the two. I'd probably say straight 3D platformers are rough to make since unlike collectathons the entire success of the game rests on how well the base mechanics and level design work together and in some cases where they aren't opting for things like guns or combo attacks and whatnot, it can be hard to come up with different gimmicks and level ideas for the player to go through on top of 3D already being a pretty arduous beast to tackle.

I certainly have Some Thoughts on what makes a great rhythm game...

Infinite runners (Temple Run, Sonic Dash) feel tangential to this, like a mobile little brother of on-rails shooters, trading shooting agency for discrete movement options.

I can’t believe you didn’t mention Kid Icarus Uprising, the on rails sections were the best part of that game!

My favorite rail games is Pony Friends on the DS. Basically a more randomized and calming version of Pokemon Snap

No mention of Kid Icarus :(

one genre that I would be interested to see a closer look at is the archero-like subgenre of mobile roguelikes. I keep looking for good ones, and have found a lot of places where several seem to fall short, ranging from lack of enemy variety to difficulty curve to too many bad upgrades polluting your options when you level up (a problem that archero itself actually struggles with, much more than some games in the genre. especially with regard to that last one, probably the best i've found at handling that challenge is wizard legend, which makes sure that every upgrade you can get will help one of the builds you could make, that every build you can make is viable (to the point that it is advantageous to specialize in only one or two types of upgrades), and the upgrade system allowing you to reroll several times if the offered upgrades don't fit the build you are making)

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is the new Pokémon

I'd say more of a mechanic than a game unto itself, but I'd like a discussion on escort games, and this can include baby sit (the difference being in one the target is moving, and the other is stationary). There is so much to balance. There's a sliding scale of helplessness. On one end, you have someone completely helpless, and is almost trying to die (Peter Puppy from Earthworm Jim, for example), and in others, the character is able to fight back to the point of almost escorting you (Alyx Vance from Half-life). If the character being escorted is too powerful, then they negate the whole point of being escorted, and are essentially just a support character. If they are too weak, it feels cheap and frustrating. It's a mechanic that's often complained about, but I think it's about whether the mechanic is done right, than if the mechanic itself is good or bad. Escorting Natalya in Goldeneye was frustrating to the point of launching the controller across the room. She seemed to be suicidal. Damage Incorporated (a lesser known, but awesome, first person shooter that used the Marathon 2 game engine) included an escort mission where you could issue orders to the guy you were protecting. He was useless in combat, but you could position him in more protected areas, making the mission less frustrating. Star Fox 64's defense of the Great Fox from missiles was essentially a baby sit style escort mission, but was still fun, since the Great Fox wasn't too fragile, and there was enough time to intercept the missiles.

(This was a reply to a suggestion of 3D arena fighters as a genre to discuss) Speaking of 3d arena fighters, one of my favorites is the very controversial Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. The "problem" with it is how much it differs from it's previous installments, but because of that many didn't seem to realize it actually became a very well balanced, co-op arena fighter. It's heavily based around its 3v3 combat, and once you get the hang of the game, you'll notice cooperation between your teammates is probably the most key factor of it. However, it's criticized by fans because it moves away from what it previously was, a 1v1 action rpg arena fighter. The rpg elements are removed for the sake of creating a balanced fighting game, which I personally don't understand why that's such a deal breaker. I will admit, it did use to have great single player content that used those rpg elements, which was sad to lose. Although it does have a campaign, it's much more bare bones and shorter, since the focus was mostly on the multiplayer. And because it's main fanbase was there for an rpg, not a fighting game, it pretty much died on release, especially considering how much it lacked from the start, and what other games were released alongside it that would be much more popular. It unfortunately doomed itself, and it's sad it never got the recognition I think it deserved.

I actually loved Dead Space: Extraction. Made me sad to see you didn't mention it.

My favorite on rail games (after Pokemon Snap N64) are the House Of the Dead games 1-4. In the order 3-2-1-4 Although on spectacle alone 4 wins by a landslide as they forego the slow shooting pistols and shotguns in favor of machineguns that allowed for dozens upon dozens of zombies to appear at once and be killable instead of making less than 10 at once. 3 I loved because of how It was the first time you could choose the order of the bosses and areas. As a kid this meant I could go straight for the boss that caused me the most problems and see how many credits I spent on it to know if I could beat the game, not to mention the bosses would become harder if fought later. On top of that THotD 3 marked a huge upgrade in the ndegree of action. Our characters were no longer clumsy trenchcoat police, they were there to kick some a*s and rescue someone. My only gripe with it is that unlike with the previous games, you couldn't change the path you take by shooting at the correct zombie or saving a survivor, all you could do is change the level order, so each level had an A B and C form based on when you pick it, and that's not even true for the level that is completely composed of a chaser boss. Also there's this on rail shooter of Jurassic Park which I love so much, but I admit it's not the greatest. The boss fights were amazing tho, especially the Denonicus (giant crocodile) and the Csrnotaur (which for some reason had Chameleon invisibility powers in a setting where every other dinosaur was "normal")

Out of all the games you mentioned, the original Yar's Revenge is the only one I'd want to play.

I know this is technically a different genre but this video reminded me of the blasts I had playing the Time Crisis lightgun on-rail shooter series.

Well, when you brought up sports management games... those are very hit or miss so that could definitely be an interesting topic (especially given the fact that while it is a niche genre, the current Football Manager still is often in the top 20 on Steam's active player charts (and last year's is still in the top 100). It is something that is so easy to get wrong, so the games that get things right (across sports) are easy to spot.

One of the only on-rails games I've played is Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii. I actually didn't realise how I was supposed to hold the Wiimote until I found Sonic constantly rubbing up against the right side wall of the track (I was holding the controller straight forward instead of sideways). Took me way too long to figure it out.

Life simulator games are hard to get right. Especially the ones where human interaction is being simulated, like Animal Crossing or Stardew valley to an extent. And these games also need a ton of content in order to stay engaging.

one thing i'd like to see is a design doc on 3d Zelda likes, there's tons of games based off 2d zelda games but ones based off 3d zelda are few and far between with games like Okami and Darksiders being the most notable examples

when you showed sonic I had to, had to, mention the boost games. I love that formula so much and am so damn happy I finally get a chance to play colors when it comes to switch. Please do an episode on the sonic boost formula, with all it's little details, including it's jumps from 3D to 2D, set pieces etc. That would be amazing!

I feel that making great First Person Shooter campaigns is tricky for devs to really nail down, and is something that Call of Duty has a lot of similarities to great On-Rail Shooters. Great COD campaigns are almost a hybrid between FPS's and Rail Shooters, being grounded enough to qualify as military shooters, yet using spectacle and smart level design to masterful effect to create thrill rides. Weaker FPS campaigns - including some COD campaigns - often either get stuck into repetitive shooting galleries, or push too hard on the spectacle that it turns their game into a 4 hour spectacular walking simulator. And to make things even tougher, bad gunplay and controls will instantly kill a campaign. There are other great examples out there that take different approaches, such as Halo, where they open things up with vehicles and more expansive levels.

Oh, thought this would be about super linear games in general instead of ones that specifically restrict movement. Anyway ways to handle items and tools in a survival game so that they enhance the survival feel without being too annoying seems tricky(I guess I'm saying survival games have specific part that is hard to get right), most common approach seems to be durability systems which can work nicely(Wayward handles it decently imho) but there are some other interesting ones, in particular the way Notrium(an old freeware game from before survival games got popular) makes you break up and recombine the pieces that you find is genius in how it makes finding nearly every new item feel great since each one is a permanent increase in the amount of options you have and makes you re-evaluate your current equipment to see if breaking apart and doing something else would be better. So your tools don't break because some number just gets too low making you need an identical replacement but instead they break because you decide that I really need the metal pole/fuel cell or whatever in it for some other cool thing.

Surprised you didn’t bring up Kid Icarus Uprising but you covered literally every other one I would have!

Do you think "Choo Choo Charles" would be classified in the same genre? The fighting sequences would definitely be in the genre, but the way that they impact the rest of the gameplay is interesting. The longer you take to fight off Charles, the further you'll travel in world. Therefore, it may leave you in a position where you'd want to backtrack or choose a different quest. You navigate with a train that follows rails. You can control which direction the train is moving, and you're character's movements off the train are open-world.

I don't really know how to describe their genre, but I have always been absolutely hooked on the Custom Robo games and sadly, I have never found anything quite like them.