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Instead of offering isolated "Easy" or "Hard" modes, platformers both 2D and 3D alike tend to provide complementing, simultaneous flavors of challenge: think vanilla and chocolate. The level geometry and enemy placement? Vanilla. The extra lives and hard-to-reach collectibles? Chocolate.

Challenge, as standardized within the genre, is often relegated to these two flavors. We like them. We feel comfortable with them. And why shouldn't we? They're classics for a reason. But because of their established popularity, the design language for platformers has stagnated. Innovation now comes from outside the genre. ("Bro, check out my platformer that's part shmup, part dating sim.") Enter Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, which pushes the genre forward not with superfluous toppings, but by adding a third flavor of ice cream to complement its well-rounded foundation of vanilla and chocolate.

And that foundation? Klonoa can grab and throw enemies to jump higher, organically integrating them into the level design. That's the vanilla. Scattered across each level are six collectibles that follow the genre's tried-and-true formula: you complete a small platforming challenge to nab them, and nabbing them all unlocks a bonus stage. That's the chocolate. The vanilla is required, but you can opt for the chocolate anytime you're ready to broaden your palette. Both flavors are scaled thoughtfully over the course of the game and are backed by clever stage motifs.

So Klonoa 2 does the classics well. Great. But where is the fabled third flavor?

It's found in the 150 gems (to Klonoa as coins are to Mario) placed deliberately in each level. Their contribution to the experience is deceptively simple: they add another layer of opt-in difficulty by stretching those bite-sized platforming challenges across longer sections of the stage—they test stamina (not unlike arcade games!).

Klonoa 2's many autoscrollers benefit the most from the additional flavor in that they naturally encourage you to route and master your path. But mastery isn't the only reason to go for all 150 gems; collecting them earns you a picture in the in-game scrapbook. It's an innocuous incentive that rewards skilled play without locking away bona fide "content" (e.g., the Stars/Shines in 3D Mario's 100 Coin Challenges).

So many other platformers are preoccupied with making sundaes out of their vanilla and chocolate ice cream—adding varied game modes, combat and progression systems, etc. And sometimes a sundae hits the spot! But the platformer genre has always been a simple one, and Klonoa 2—by repurposing the existing design language of coins—elegantly maintains that simplicity. Its new flavor of challenge isn't a topping. It's just more, simple ice cream. It's strawberry. And with three layers of difficulty to choose from, I'd gladly take the bowl of Neapolitan that is Klonoa 2 any day of the week.