But I don’t blame them for not spending years on it
We’re just one week away from Captain Toad’s leap to the 3DS and the Switch, and I have high hopes that the intrepid explorer will do well in those new territories. Recent hits in the Character-Puzzle genre like Monument Valley 2 and Stephen’s Sausage Roll prove that there are tons of people out there that love this sort of game, but I doubt many of them had a Wii U. On the 3DS, where even BoxBoy can be a star, and on the Switch, where just about every little game has a chance at success, I feel that Captain Toad may finally hit the big time.
Still, I have to wonder how much better the good captain’s chances would be if people had learned to love him 30 years ago on the NES. If you’re wondering the same thing, then this demake of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker by Nintendo Wire can give you a brief glimpse at how that theoretical version of video game history may have played out. It’s not as detailed or polished as AM2R, but with the way Nintendo takes down fan games these days, I don’t blame the developers for not slaving away on this one for years. As it is, it’s a nice proof of concept that joins that 2D demake of Breath of the Wild on my list of imaginary games that are probably more fun to think about than they are to play.