Donkey Kong Bananza: So, once upon a time, I discovered a sub-genre that slowly eroded my esteem for the base genre underlying it. The Precision Platformer has made it hard for me to take much interest in most Platformers. For my tastes, the PP has usurped the P quite handily. Lies of P, indeed. Uh... well, so perhaps a similar thing is going on with my palate for 3D Platformers.
The sub-genre slowly eroding my appreciation for 3D Platformers has no name, but you could call it the "do an obstacle course as fast as possible with parkour and super powers" genre. It's done in the mode of a 3D Platformer, usually in 1st-person but not always. Like the PP, it concentrates the best parts of its base genre in to a small space. High difficulty, but generous checkpointing. You're always doing the best part; the action sequence where you barely scamper through. Nearly unharmed but singed by the flames that might have consumed you. This sub-genre used to have very few members, but it's been growing in the indie scene recently. This year, I've played Rocket Boots Mania, Kick Bastards, I Am Your Beast and Hell of an Office.
Early popular members of the genres: Super Meat Boy for PP, and SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell for DOCFPPSP. A more well known example for the latter is Neon White or if you want to stretch the definition, the Ghostrunner games.
This is merely a suspicion of mine. I do enjoy Bananza, and it's a good podcast game. The exploration factor also elevates it. But I don't like it as much as I expected. I have not yet finished it even though I bought it on release. The low difficulty doesn't help. It feels too similar to Mario Odyssey, of which I played a ton. Perchance I needed a longer break from the 3D Platformer, or my preferences are shifting. Woe unto my nostalgia.
I do like using games to talk about things that are not the game.
