So I've been doing a challenge to write a one page game design review for each of the top 100¹ games. Warning possible spoilers. I'm at ~81 now and I wanted to share some of the results common to many of the top games before we do LDJAM this weekend. Of course these games were not made in 48hrs by one person, so it can be challenging to apply during a jam. I’ll order them according to feasibility and importance with that in mind.

* Obstacle/abilities matching² *

Overcoming a challenge by using your skillset/abilities or making progression faster with your matching abilities is core. It's the paper covering the rock and a smile after - gotcha! - Dash length gap - Dash. Celeste - Small hole/path, long sloped surfaces - Ball form. Metroid - Unfavorable position - Cloak, reposition. Titanfall 2 - Shield enemy - 3 hit combo. God of War - Get new item in dungeon, dungeon puzzles/bosses use that - Zeldas - Etc etc, literally all of them so far.

...Read more in comments! A lot more!