The 90’s gave birth to 3D gaming, and with
it came a new genre we lovingly refer to as collectathons. These quickly became some of my favorite titles,
there’s something about gathering all of the various items and collectables in a world
that gave me such a satisfying feeling. And now, with a few modern examples expanding
the formula even further, I wanted to discuss what exactly makes these collectathon games
so fun to play. And what’s the x factor that makes a great
one truly stand out amongst the rest? Let’s talk about it. First of all, I think we have to determine
what defines a collectathon. There are a lot of 3D platformers out there,
but only some are focused on collecting multiple things throughout the numerous levels. So for this discussion, I’m going to narrow
our list to games that have more than one collectible that’s recorded in a pause
menu - jiggy’s, notes and extra honeycombs for example, not just power stars. While certain games obviously blazed the trail
for this genre, I want to make sure we’re analyzing the marathon aspect of these games
specifically. Because of the shift in focus and many hours
you pour into them, there’s a natural inclination toward fatigue with collectathons - but they
implement little mile markers along the way to keep you pushing through that exhaustion,
which is a major aspect of what sets them apart from other platformers. Also, there are plenty of titles that I haven’t
played so don’t be sad if I don’t mention every one of them. Okay? So what are the iconic features that make
games like Banjo Kazooie & Spyro widely loved and games like Donkey Kong 64 & Yooka Laylee
largely disliked? Let’s start with the most obvious - map
size & layout. If you enjoy collecting, you’d think that
adding more and more would be a good thing, but bigger is not always better when it comes
to open explorable worlds. Not only can they be overwhelming to a player
the first time they see them, but also annoying or confusing to navigate depending on a few
other aspects. Having recognizable landmarks and proper level
design ensures that you won’t get lost, and can easily find new areas you haven’t
spotted yet. Something I kept noticing about Yooka-Laylee
is that all the structures and buildings looked the same, making it really hard to discern
where I’d already explored - not to mention very uninteresting to look at. Compare that to say, Bubblegloop Swamp where
right as you enter the main area of the stage, pillars of huts are straight ahead, to your
left is a scary crocodile head, and to your right you see this giant turtle that screams
when you hurt it. Each location feels like a ride at an amusement
park, you want to see what kind of fun is waiting around the corner! Banjo Kazooie was incredible at this stuff
- each section of a stage was defined by their memorable landmarks - pirate ship, crab, sandcastle,
lighthouse. Snowman, christmas tree, cabins, walrus (Venusaur,
Rattata, Fearow, Pidgey!). Now to be fair, no game gets it right 100%
of the time, Gobi’s Valley has a ton of pyramids that all look the same, and levels
with a lot of tiny, samey rooms can get repetitive like Rusty Bucket Bay, but again this is where
the size of a stage can help or hinder the experience. For every tedious task in a smaller game,
that problem tends to be amplified in their larger siblings. As a rule of thumb, I like to think that if
your level requires warp pads to get around effectively, it might be too big. Not because they’re inherently bad themselves,
but because it means there isn’t an efficient way to get around without them. Now of course, I caught myself in a lie there,
because Super Mario Odyssey is guilty of exactly this - huge stages with lots of moving parts
and checkpoint markers if you need them. So what exactly makes that an okay example
vs. say Banjo Tooie? Well, in my opinion it’s what many people
thought was a negative of the game - there’s collectibles EVERYWHERE. Tons and tons of moons are littered all throughout
these stages as well as purple coins and many other goodies. It’s sort of the same principle as Breath
of the Wild - in order to guarantee you’re always finding something new within a short
proximity, there needed to be a megaload of items spread across the land. This is where Yooka Laylee tends to drop the
ball, it’s got the giant worlds, but not a lot to do in them. Donkey Kong 64 on the other hand has giant
levels, as well as a crapton of collectibles, but what it lacks is the next major component
of a good collectathon - fast & engaging movement. If a game gives you options to clear stages
quickly and interestingly, it already feels much better than one with clunky or slow controls. This is why A Hat in Time and Mario Odyssey’s
larger stages don’t feel cumbersome, but Yooka and DK64 do - and the size of the environments
only hurt this principle as well. The talon trot feels super speedy in Banjo-Kazooie,
but it doesn’t get your nearly as far in the massive worlds of Tooie. Jak and Daxter doesn’t have particularly
versatile movement, but it’s smaller worlds make it more manageable. I think the series that hit it just right
is Spyro the Dragon - you can move as fast as you want with the dash ability, and the
levels are pretty tiny, meaning you can complete them in around 15-20 minutes. There’s something really satisfying about
not just collecting all the goodies, but doing it quickly and efficiently. Essentially, while a collectathon is all about
discovery and searching the nooks and crannies, one that doesn’t respect your time can become
a pain - this is why backtracking with new abilities, while dynamic in theory, can spiral
into a wild goose chase that’s not worth starting if left unchecked. Banjo-Kazooie has one instance where you’ll
need a powerup from a previous level to get a jiggy - either the running shoes to beat
Boggy, or the Beak Bomb to open certain pyramids, whichever you play first. But in Tooie, not only are the stages massive
and unchanging in appearance, but it’ll make you run all over the entire game before
you’re able to get what feels like half of the main collectibles - opening shortcuts,
gaining late-game abilities, and talking to NPC’s everywhere, so that by the time I
hit Terrydactyland, it got too boring for me upon a replay. So that covers the stages - importance of
size & speed of playability, but what about the collectibles themselves? It probably doesn’t matter where they’re
put, right? The players will find them eventually - the
whole point of the game is to search and find them. Well, not necessarily - the beauty of having
so many things to collect is that they can be used to guide players through the levels. The best collectathons I’ve seen litter
them as breadcrumbs toward various activities & secrets, which not only helps to find the
main path if the player gets lost, but can also mark an area that hasn’t been explored
yet - if you follow the coins you’re bound to find something new! If they’re placed at random or as decoration,
it’s a missed opportunity for some clever level design. Now Banjo Tooie still had notes, but condensed
them into sets of 5 and 20, and while they still are used along the major walkways, there’s
simply much less of them to work with in terms of laying out the intended paths, which is
a shame considering how much larger the worlds are this time around. DK64 definitely crams all kinds of goodies
in just about every spot imaginable, but has the unfortunate element of not being able
to collect them if you’re a different kong, which leads to many monotonous trips back
to the tag barrel in order to gather everything. When done right, collectibles can essentially
be your tour guide along the route of exploring the stage, and make sure you learn where things
are in relation to one another while easily moving on to the next major attraction. Finally, it’s nice when each of the various
collectibles have their own intended purpose. Some games end up being redundant, whether
intentionally or not, like in Jak and Daxter, yes the precursor orbs help guide you, but
they’re only real purpose is to trade them in for power cells with the villagers, and
the scout flies are more like the red coins in Mario 64 - all of it boils down to the
one major roadblock - needing power cells to proceed. This isn’t always a bad thing, but look
at how Spyro 2 handles it - you need talisman’s from each stage to move on to the next area,
you use gems to unlock new pathways with Moneybags, and in the third world you need a certain
amount of green orbs to open the final boss. Each goodie has its own reason for being there
other than, ya know, something shiny to find and feel good about. Banjo Kazooie uses puzzle pieces to open stages,
notes to unlock doors and extra honeycombs to increase your health. DK64 has banana boss doors, golden keys, coins
for the shop, B. Locker in your way, *whew* yeah that’s a lot of stuff. But even better is when there’s special
rewards for completing the game 100%. Again, Jak & Daxter falls a little flat here
- it teases you with a door that needs all 101 power cells to open, but when you do,
it leaves you with a cliffhanger. Bummer dude. But this begs an important question - what
should a good completion bonus be? Sometimes games will give you a benefit after
completing everything there is to do, so there’s not much purpose to the reward. It should be something that’s enjoyable
and useful, but maybe also include lower tiers of bonuses along the way. Spyro 1 unlocks a final celebratory level
at 100%, but Spyro 2 opens a theme park to play minigames at a smaller fraction of all
the collectibles, in addition to that total reward. Even Mario Odyssey doesn’t have the best
completion bonus out there, but to be fair, the best stuff is unlocked at particular intervals
of 250 and 500 moons - I don’t think Nintendo expected most players to actually gather everything,
again showing that there’s so many moons to collect all over the place, but you don’t
have to bend over backward to see the grand finale. Banjo Kazooie really gets it right here, after
finding every jiggy, you double your maximum health which makes the brutal Grunty fight
so much easier, as well as egg and feather stockpiles for when you run out by getting
all the notes. That being said, the minimum requirement to
beat the game is probably a little high at 94 jiggy’s and 810 notes. Ouch. My point here is that no game does it perfectly,
and I think many of them learned from each other along the way, but at the end of the
day the ones that were most satisfying to me were ones that didn’t overdo it with
their scale, allowed for speedy movement, and used the collectibles in clever ways to
guide the player and reward them for their accomplishments. While everyone will enjoy something differently,
these were what stuck out to me while reflecting on one of my favorite genres. What about you? What are the best collectathon games that
you’ve played, and why? What elements did they emphasize and why was
it such an enthralling experience for you? Tell me in the comments below and let’s
talk about it! I genuinely hope we’ll see more collectathons
in the years to come because I loved the innovation developers have come up with recently, and
I think game design can only get better from here. Thanks for watching another episode of Good
Game Design, I’ll see you next time. Stay frosty my friends! Huge thanks to everyone who supported the
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today. This month’s patreon shoutout goes to BladedSK,
because he brightens my day, and has the voice of a true bae.
