Hidden Gems of Game Design Volume 30

Plenty of amazing games go unnoticed and are not played widely for various reasons. Maybe it’s a diamond in the rough, or the marketing wasn’t there, or it could be a game ahead of its time. For this monthly series, I’ve asked my fellow writers on SUPERJUMP to pick a game they think is deserving of a chance in the spotlight. Let us know your favorite hidden gems in the comments.

Josh Bycer

Plok! (1993) 

The '90s was home to many attempts at creating the next mascot platformer to compete with the likes of Mario and Sonic. But my overall favorite who managed to stand out for the time was Plok!. The game followed a creature named Plok who loves his island and his Plok flag (just go with it). But when it gets stolen, he must fight everyone including the entire species of flea creatures to get it and his island back.

Plok! is the quintessential example of a mascot platformer from the '90s – goofy character design? Check. Variety of levels that don’t quite make sense? Check. Weird collectibles and bonus states? Check. Plok! is one of those games that looked like it was cut from the same cloth as the likes of the Blue Brothers, and insert your favorite LJM game here. Instead, you have a solid and surprisingly varied 2D platformer. The game is split into different chapters with different goals and styles. The main game involves you hunting down the fleas in each part of the map in order to get Plok’s flag back. Plok went to the same school as Rayman and can throw his limbs at enemies, but can lose them temporarily to activate switches. 

The vibe is all over the place, with perhaps the biggest example of a boss track going hard than anything else.

As for the overall gameplay, Plok! isn't going to turn heads as the next Mario or Rayman in that respect. You still have some of the growing pains of the genre present, the camera not making vertical movement easy, confusing maze-like levels, and a lack of any kind of hard save points. It's a delightful game to play that shows just how much variety there was in the platformer genre during the '90s.

Antony Terence

Backyard Baseball (2007)

Backyard Baseball introduced me to strikes and home runs. Marketed towards children, the GBA title keeps things simple with basic button presses for fielding and batting. You merely had to pick what kind of shot/throw you wanted before choosing where the bat/ball should go. While the Major League doesn’t have hitting and pitching power-ups like this game, its arcade-like atmosphere is a great entry point into the sport. 

While critics didn’t particularly enjoy this game, I sure did. Backyard Baseball’s in-depth season mode towers over its quick play and home run derby options. Made-up players stand alongside real Major League players of the time, letting you set up unique batting orders and fielding set-ups. The pixelated character faces can be hard to distinguish when they’re pitching save for their hair. Hits and misses felt luck-driven and unbalanced, in defiance of skill and player stats. But working your way to the playoffs and the World Series across fields of increasing difficulty makes for a satisfying path of progression.

While the game did feature 1v1 multiplayer via its Game Link cable, I didn’t spend much time on it. Backyard Baseball’s multiplayer modes include quick play and home run derby where victory is determined by home runs or a timer. If you emulate the game or play it on an old Game Boy, you’ll spend most of your time in its season mode. While its mediocre audio and average visuals haven’t aged well, its simple gameplay and thought-out season mode make it worth revisiting.

Thanks for reading! Come back next month for another entry and more great hidden gems to check out. You can find all previous Hidden Gems stories here.