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Bugs: touching the zipline at stage 7 of tutorial crashed a game with GML code error message I neglected to copy. The professor calls that you recieve with *T* is bizarrely mandatoty. I tried ignoring them but then they started on their own anyway at 50% opacity.

The first comparasion that comes to mind is Evoland, as a game imitating different eras of a genre. Platformer may actually be a better fit conceptually for that idea, because there are many distinct types of platformers throughout the years, but only a few Zelda-adjacent adventure games.
But that's assuming you actually explore different eras on a mechanical level, and not just with an aesthetic change. Because the 2 eras here play exactly the same, with only a handful of differing obstacles.
And the "do one level twice with disappearing blocks" gimmick feels terrible honestly. Realizing you can't actually make a certain jump and are forced to restart. Or just fumbling and touching more blocks than you need to. Maybe it's just a side-effect of the "empty space with clusters of platforms" design, you're often forced to make jumps up to the absolute limit.

I say choose different platformers you like, ape their styles and mechanics, and make them your eras.

Thanks for the feedback! I already fixed the zipline bug and uploaded a working version. I think I know what's causing the optional dialogue bugs -- if I'm correct in assuming you played through the tutorial, that is.

Now, as for the concept: mechanical similarity between generations was an intentional choice to make it feel a bit smoother to play across generations, but you make an interesting point. It's something worth considering, and would mean I'd have to completely revamp my approach, which might not necessarily be a bad thing.

That said, I'm intent on keeping the puzzle-y design. I know each level can be crossed at least 6 or 7 times before you start running out of blocks. Platformer/strategy isn't even really a genre yet. Maybe I'm starting to see why, but I'd at least like to see it through.