Whatever happened to: 3D platformers?

[Leon Retro]

There have been plenty of 3D Platformers. Recently.. there's been severe lack of them - but still a few. Ratchet & Clank on the PS3, Mario Galaxy on the Wii, can't think of any others

I've never really liked the style - as the 2D variety are more my cup of tea. If things are 3D - I tend to like stuff like Crash Bandicoot, Super Magnetic Neo; titles that don't offer open worlds

Mario Galaxy proved that 3D platformers can work really well. Maybe some devs have looked at it - and are now.. working on some exciting new platformers of their own? .. I hope so.

[Ady]

Mario 64 was both the best and worst thing to happen to the genre. It raised the bar so high, that nobody could touch it, not even Nintendo. Galaxy is the only game that's come close.

[Team Andromeda]

The PS2 had some bloody brilliant 2D Platformers and I think the PS3 got some great ones as well with R &C and Drakes.
Also imo I think both Rayman II and Sonic Adv are far better platform games than Mario 64 , I think Galaxy is too , to be fair.

Think is if you're a X-Box fan you've pretty much screwed

[Nisa]

Mario 64 was both the best and worst thing to happen to the genre. It raised the bar so high, that nobody could touch it, not even Nintendo. Galaxy is the only game that's come close.

Galaxy is better than 64 though. Given the choice of going back and playing one or the other I'd choose Galaxy everytime. I'd prefer to see a resurgence in good 2D platformers, as great as Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy are, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World are better games imo.

[sj33]

2D platformers were the cheapest, easiest games to make for developers/publishers wanting to keep costs down. That's why movie tie-ins were normally platformers. That criteria never really applied to 3D platformers.

[fallenangle]

Dude, what about (obviously) Mario 64, but games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon and Croc? Those were all (at least originally) pretty pure platformers.

Never had a N64 so I'm not qualified to discuss Mario 64 and I never played the earliest CB/Spyro/Croc games either. But you allude to the fact that even those purer 3D platformers evolved into something else very quickly. I certainly don't think Super Mario Sunshine could be described as a 'pure' platformer either yet wasn't that the direct successor to Mario 64?

Apart from the titles I previously mentioned the games I call 3D platformers are the likes of Rayman 2, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, (much) lesser titles like DC/PS2 Evil Twin. But none of them are pure platformers in the same way that it is easy to define a 2D platformer.

You can argue that games like the old style Tomb Raiders were essentially 3D platformers and what is the Devil Within game from Tekken 5 other than a (rather good) 3D platformer with a not so good bolted on beat'em up engine?

Whatever a 3D platformer is or was the one thing we're agreed on here is that there aren't many current generation games that match even the broadest definition of the genre. That is a shame.

[Brats]

There are lots of licenced and kiddy games that us lot on this forum completely ignore. A lot of them are platformers:

Wall-E



Mushroom Men



Madagascar

[importaku]

Out of those 3 the only one that even looks remotely like fun is mushroom men & that was only because it looks like a cheesy 1950's B movie style. The other 2 look like the typical liscensed **** that they churn out literally 2 days after a film hits.

Just thinking would mirrors edge qualify as a platform game, it seems to fit rather well.

I dream one day konami will make another goemon game in 3d, however i doubt it will ever happen.

[Golgo]

I dream one day konami will make another goemon game in 3d, however i doubt it will ever happen.

Are the 3D ones any good, Importaku? I got legend of the Mystical Ninja on VC and don't enjoy it at all, seems far to fussy overall and unresponsive in platforming sections - maybe it demands two-player, though.

[Skull Commander]

The N64 mystical ninja was great fun. It's been a few years since I played it, but I remember really enjoying it. Having said that I always prefered the Snes ones, so you may not like it the same.

[Brats]

Out of those 3 the only one that even looks remotely like fun is mushroom men & that was only because it looks like a cheesy 1950's B movie style. The other 2 look like the typical liscensed **** that they churn out literally 2 days after a film hits.

I didn't say they were any good, but there are 3D platformers being made.

[toythatkills]

I didn't say they were any good, but there are 3D platformers being made.

I did stipulate in the first post that the games had to be good

I meant to mention the fact that the only 3D platformers released these days seem to be dire movie tie-ins, I went and forgot to though.

[Brats]

To be fair, we are assuming they are dire. Mushroom Men might be amazing, but we'll never know.

[toythatkills]

I've got Wall-E, and it's not great.

[Daniel Faraday]

I've got Wall-E, and it's not great.

Nah. I played it for a while and its not brilliant. Not the worst game ever but not the best either.