![]() ![]() But there’s no denying this was a spectacle when it first appeared a brand new take on Sonic, a system-seller, and a glimpse of a bright future for both Sega and its blue mascot. Two points worth noting: Sonic Adventure hasn’t aged too well, and it led directly to some of the most egregious examples of the genre over the following decade-plus. Followed by two superior sequels, Spyro was a series that flew somewhat under the radar, and only received the plaudits it deserved following the Spyro Reignited Trilogy remaster in 2018.įans were demanding a true 3D Sonic game for ages, but we had to wait until the Dreamcast era before we finally got one. And what a game it was – a creative, atmospheric, and truly charming take on the formula, focusing on a fine blend of challenging platforming, varied exploration, and whimsical characters. Insomniac entered the 3D platformer game soon after the studio’s formation, with the original Spyro marking the team’s second-ever release. It’s a glimpse of the studio at its creative, comic height. Like Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot, the emphasis was firmly on charging around and collecting stuff, but its ingenious level design, technical brilliance (this was a far more detailed-looking game than those earlier rivals), and Rare’s warped humour made it a true standout. The British masters of upbeat action games, Rare, threw their hat in the 3D platformer ring with this charming entry. But beyond all that, Crash Bandicoot is also plain, old-fashioned fun: a chunky obstacle course of pitfalls, fast-moving hazards, and juicy items to grab. And third, there’s some genuine technical innovation going on under that gaudy hood: as studio co-founder Andy Gavin related to Ars Technica, getting long, flowing 3D levels with varied textures was a new thing in 1996, and required some ingenious programming and problem-solving to pull off. Second, it was a pivotal smash hit for Naughty Dog, years before Uncharted and The Last of Us. First, it gave the then-new PSone a mascot of its own, endearing Sony’s newcomer to a younger generation of players. It hasn’t aged as well as Super Mario 64, but Crash Bandicoot was nevertheless a key 3D platformer. The move to 3D wasn’t entirely flawless – the camera system, while innovative, took a bit of getting used to – but Super Mario 64 was nevertheless a pivotal game in a nascent genre. There was the freedom of exploration, certainly, but there was also Mario’s fluid freedom of movement: jumps and dashes were joined by cartwheel flips, ground pounds, crawls, punches, and more besides. Here, Shigeru Miyamoto and his team didn’t just transplant what had been a resolutely 2D franchise into three dimensions – they completely changed the boundaries of what a Super Mario game could be. In mainstream terms, it’s the game that changed pretty much everything. To illustrate the rise, fall, and rise of the 3D platformer, here’s a brief history of the genre, as seen through a selection of its most prominent, noteworthy titles. “I think that’s why the genre’s becoming popular again, because it has the potential to be awesome.” “I can list five or six games that look amazing – all 3D platformers, but they look entirely different,” he says. ![]() According to Rastorfer, there are several indie studios working on their own platformers, all combining the staples we’d expect with modern ideas. What’s more, games like Super Mario Odyssey and Demon Turf are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the genre’s revival. “It’s like how Borderlands said, ‘What if we combine an FPS with an RPG?’ And that kickstarted the whole thing of RPG-ifying almost every genre.” ![]() “It needed some time to re-evaluate itself as a genre,” he tells us. Enough time has passed to make gamers yearn for those simpler, late 1990s days, certainly, but according to Fabian Rastorfer, developer of our cover game Demon Turf (see issue 53), there’s more to the revival than pure nostalgia. Meanwhile, Super Mario Odyssey saw Nintendo openly channel the spirit of Super Mario 64 in spectacular style. Over the past few years, though, the 3D platformer has begun to sneak back into the spotlight: Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee is a conscious throwback to Banjo-Kazooie, designed by former Rare devs who worked on that series. ![]() But by the 2000s, audiences had apparently begun to tire of bouncing around colourful environs, collecting trinkets the FPS was on the up, and even Nintendo began to shy away from the 3D platformer – a genre it had a hand in popularising in the first place. Adding more freedom of movement than the side-scrolling ancestors of previous hardware generations, the genre exploded thanks to the likes of Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. From the middle of the 1990s to the start of the 21st century, the 3D platformer was on the ascendancy. ![]()
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