3-D World Runner

1989, Age 7

Most of the things that delighted me about this game were visual. The perspective of going into the world instead of sidescrolling was novel to me for a platformer, and I loved the idea of trying to reach what was depicted in the background (even though they never got closer).

I also felt an incredible sense of freedom with this game, which is interesting since you are constantly moving forward on a rail, so in actuality you are quite limited. It was a combination of the endless horizon and the fact that you could (seemingly) move to the sides to an infinite degree. It seems the game used every trick it could to create the illusion of freedom under its constraints, and it it did so very well!

I also remember thinking the 3-D in the title was referring to the fact that you were moving into z space, and also being baffled by the weird janky color mode which young-Lisa-logic assumed to be "night time mode." It turns out you could actually play this game with 3-D glasses, hm!