Not only was 1998 gaming’s greatest year, it was also the year I learned to appreciate the value of simple, elegant game design. That year I played Banjo-Kazooie and Klonoa — two platform games starring cute animal heroes who spoke in bizarre fever-dream babble — in quick succession, and I found the latter much more appealing. Banjo isn’t a bad game, but its control scheme felt too complicated and the general design of the game seemed padded and overlong. Klonoa’s creators, on the other hand, were content to limit controls to two simple buttons — jump and grab/throw — and build increasingly intricate challenges by employing the hero’s stripped-down abilities in new and interesting ways. Complex games have their place, to be sure, but there’s something wonderful about a game that can lay down a few simple rules and find new and interesting ways to put the player through their paces.
