What makes Treasure Tracker such a joy is the fact its levels are restricted to diorama format. And Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – a “B” tier 2014 release for the maligned Wii U, given new life on the Nintendo Switch and 3DS in 2018 – is one of the best. Ultimate, some of the best Nintendo games are actually found in the “B” tier, with Kirby, Yoshi, Luigi’s Mansion, and Paper Mario. For all the grandeur of Breath of the Wild and the scope of Super Mario Odyssey and the remarkable longevity of Mario Kart 8 and the sheer ridiculousness of Smash Bros. But in many cases, video games make the best dioramas of all.ĭon’t believe me? Consider Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It’s not something you’d think would translate well to video games, their environs sandwiched as a thin layer, compressed between light source and glass. There’s universal power in a good diorama, then, in the ability to rotate, and lean in, and snoop, and nudge, and look under, and peer behind. It was a strangely unifying moment for an island that doesn’t tend to get along, making another, smaller island out of ordinary household waste like tissue boxes and toilet roll tubes.
TOWNSCAPER CAPTAIN TV
And for a glorious few months in 1993, children’s TV institution Blue Peter instructed the nation in making a papier-mâché diorama of Tracy Island from Gerry and Sylvia Andersen’s Thunderbirds. The nerds of this nation are no stranger to model making, gathering around their altars of felt grass and sponge trees, of model railways or tabletop campaigns. That doesn’t mean we can’t be fond of a good diorama, mind.
We do have school houses with ridiculous names, though. (While we’re at it, Americans, we also don’t have swim teams, letterman jackets, cheerleaders, pep rallies, or any discernible school spirit of any kind. We know of them, sure – American media has made certain of that, with everyone from Lisa Simpson to Eleven from Stranger Things making their little shoe box scenes – but they’re just not something that happens in our schools, generally speaking. It might surprise our American readers, but we don’t really make dioramas at school in the UK. Now that it's out for real, I don't doubt it'll keep popping back in for a quick vacation for many months to come.From Bad North to Captain Toad, from Townscaper to Tunic – why do video games make the best dioramas? It's an extremely simple wee thing, and if you're looking for anything resembling a challenge, you'll probably find yourself clocking out in seconds.īut met on its own terms, diving in when you've a few spare minutes to lay down a new neighbourhood, Townscaper is an absolutely joyous little time waster that's kept me busy since it first hit early access last year.
TOWNSCAPER CAPTAIN UPDATE
A recent update even lets you export your town as a 3D model for printing, prototyping or whatever else you fancy. With high-res screenshot options, texture toggles and the ability to move the sun itself, Townscaper makes for a shockingly good desktop wallpaper generator. Sure, you can awkwardly finagle the camera to a street-level view, but I long for an update that'll let me stroll the boardwalks myself. It's just a shame you can't zoom right down to a first-person view. Townscaper may not have the complexity of a Cities: Skylines, but its quaint towns littered with cobbled streets and old churches, dockyards and lighthouses feel more instantly homely than the sterile American-styled metropolises of "real" city-builders-even when your town includes impossibly tall citadels or Bioshock Infinite-style floating cities.
0 kommentar(er)
