I've never understood this about games; why - just because a game has a certain style - do they insist on adopting ideas, visual cues, and gameplay from all the other games which came before? Yeah, alright, they generally do their own thing too... but from Donkey Kong, through Pitfall, Miner 49er, Pac-Land and the watershed that was Super Mario Bros., ideas were introduced which were - and there's no less accusatory way of saying this - stolen by all which followed.
Of course, there have been exceptions - typically, when the aesthetic is more realistic than cartoon animal - but, for what it's worth, here are the 10 biggest cliches in platform game design.
Blue skies, green grass, trees, flowers... Now that I'm writing this, I'm wondering whether this is subconsciously - or maybe consciously - inspired by The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. You know: because Bilbous and Freddo started out in The Shire before heading on their big adventure.
Either way, do not be fooled: this opening level is no safer than anywhere else. Yeah, you might get a few question marks scattered around, which tell you what to do... but the local fauna will still wound you if you so much as brush your stomach against it.
Imagine if the real world was like that; if everything you encountered made you leap up into the air with an audible shriek, cause lacerations across your entire body, and make you drop your wallet or purse.
"Oh no! I bumped into a kitten! Shrieeeeeeek! My pennies!! My travelcard!!!"
Also, chances are you'll get some sort of downhill bit, where you're snowboarding, or frozen in a block of ice, or whatever. And the things you've been tasked to gather will be frozen in blocks of ice that you have to smash through before you can get to them.
And while I think about that, why do none of your enemies ever try to collect the power-ups before you do? S'stupid.
Can't we have something new? What about a nice wetland, or tundra? And don't say "How about a level set in a castle or a toy box?", because I will elbow you in the throat.
"Yeah, you know all that jumping and running that you've really enjoyed? Well, we're going to take all that away from you now, and put you in a level where the controls feel all wrong, and you have limited oxygen, and everything around you is deadly."
Also, again... the seas and lakes of any platform game world are even more dangerous to swim in than going for a dip in Australia. So venomous is the aquatic life that making contact with even the smallest fish will cause a medical emergency.
HOW?!?
"Where's little Timmy gone?"
"He's vanished, swallowed by the sand... He must've stood still for too long..."
The question is: why is this the default method of attack in the vast majority of platform games? There's a reason why contact sports don't feature two opponents leaping repeatedly into the air, trying to land upon one another; it is not a particularly advisable form of combat. And it would look stupid.
To be fair, most real-world bosses - corporate CEOs and the like - can probably do this too.