Floating Runner (Playstation)

 This game apparently got a worldwide release, though I somehow never heard of it until many years later, when I saw an ad for it in an old comic. It's one of those early experimental 3D platformers, like the Jumping Flash games and Bug. Though it's very primitive in various ways, it does more closely resemble a more typical example of what the genre would become than those other games, though.

 

The stages are a pretty fair rendition of the concept "platform stages, but now in 3D", with bottomless pits, annoying enemies, moving platforms you have to wait for, and so on. There's even bits in some stages where you can fall (or get knocked) off a platform and have to painstakingly climb your way back up again. Oddly, it uses Resident Evil-style swivelling controls for movement, though, which isn't a great fit for platforming.

 

There's other little annoyances that all add up, too. Like how your main weapon fires in a weird arc that means that a lot of the time your shots just go harmlessly over the heads of your enemies, or how those enemies are placed in incredibly dense hoards that are all constantly attacking. You die very easily, and when the enemies start crowding round, almost instantly. After a few attempts, I managed to get three stages in, then did a bit of credit-feeding to get screenshots of a few more. Eventually, though, I gave up on that, too.

 

There are some good things I have to say about Floating Runner, though! First, I love the way it looks: super-low polygon counts on everything, most objects and environments are just flat-shaded colours. It's very charming. Also, despite the swivel controls, there were a few parts, where there were few-to-no enemies around and I was gopping from platform to platform where I was actually having a lot of fun just controlling the character, running and jumping.

 

Those little positives aren't really enough to save it, though. Emulate it for a bit to enjoy the aesthetics and indulge your historical curiosity, but don't expect much more joy out of it than that. Definitely don't pay the ludicrous prices a legitimate copy fetches these days, either.