Current Events > Why did 3D Platformers die out?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seems like the only ones left are the 3D Mario games (which tend to only release once a generation) and the dubious Sonic games.

Platformers in general seem to be pass with some long-standing exceptions (Nintendo stuff, Sonic, Rayman, etc.), but except for the remasters of the Crash and Spyro games, you barely see any 3D platformers anymore.
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Because platformers are lame AF

Mario games are bad. People just like them because plot armor and nostalgia buffing the plot armor
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rabbi_baby posted...

Because platformers are lame AF

Mario games are bad. People just like them because plot armor and nostalgia buffing the plot armor

What plot armor?

There isn't a plot
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They were the sandbox before sandbox, and there's no financial reason why they would start pushing them super hard again. We do still get a few, though. Yooka Laylee, A Hat in Time, and Psychonauts 2 is coming up.
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Because dudebros would only pay for call of duty games
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Because they're inferior to 2D platformers

No idea. The demand never died. It's like Sony and Microsoft just handed the platformer fans to Nintendo with no fight.

Im starved to the point I initially thought Yooka Laylee was amazing when really it's just good.
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Because games like Uncharted came along and made auto-platforming popular. Now fans hate the genre
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i feel like the genre is better suited to 2D games
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Because big budget games got better and indie studios decided it was way easier to churn out 2d platforms for some sweet nostalgia bucks. Maybe in a few years it'll progress a little and we'll get dozens of 3d platformers about clinical depression and schizophrenia but you'll just have to be patient.

I dunno but I could never play them because I can't see where I'm about to land.

SM 3D Land blew my mind. First time I jumped on a goomba and actually jumped on the goomba instead of jumping over him or landing in front and getting hit, I was blown away.

Crash and Spyro were exceptions for some reason. I never had a problem with those.
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

i feel like the genre is better suited to 2D games

Fully agreed
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mario 64 basically ended the genre, there is just no way to top it so why bother
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They were the simplest thing you could do in a 3D game: walk and jump around in a 3D space. The novelty wore off.
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Drpooplol posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

i feel like the genre is better suited to 2D games

Fully agreed

They're different genres you turnbuckle lampshades.
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Romulox28 posted...

mario 64 basically ended the genre, there is just no way to top it so why bother

Poor story. Sexist tropes. One dimensional villains. Bowser is a rapist. 3/10. Would not play again.
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To be fair, given the success of the Crash and Spyro remaster collections, both those series are likely to get new games now
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It's been over a decade since I played Crash, but wasn't it a 2D platformer?
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babyeatermax posted...

It's been over a decade since I played Crash, but wasn't it a 2D platformer?

umm... no?
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HylianFox posted...

babyeatermax posted...

It's been over a decade since I played Crash, but wasn't it a 2D platformer?

umm... no?

Is that so? I just remember it being a side scroller. Maybe I'm thinking of something else
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Crash was a hybrid. It mixed 2D and 3D
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Guide posted...

Drpooplol posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

i feel like the genre is better suited to 2D games

Fully agreed

They're different genres you turnbuckle lampshades.

ok.

i think platforming is better suited to 2D than 3D for reasons DevsBro alluded to.

babyeatermax posted...

It's been over a decade since I played Crash, but wasn't it a 2D platformer?

it had 2D sections but it also had sections where you ran forward in 3D but could also move side-to-side.
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There were two prominent indie 3D plats recently tho, A Hat In Time and Yooka-Laylee.

I'd say it's just past its time. Ever since people realized shoving reticles in everything or doing grounded combat has a bigger mass appeal, it's the end of platforming in general.

But platformer as a genre has always been incomplete. It's more like games incorporate platforming in their games rather than games being built around it. The bigger problem is that platforming half-assedly incorporated isn't even being done well

Which is why there's still place for stuff like Odyssey which does platforming better than 99% of games out there atm
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babyeatermax posted...

HylianFox posted...

babyeatermax posted...

It's been over a decade since I played Crash, but wasn't it a 2D platformer?

umm... no?

Is that so? I just remember it being a side scroller. Maybe I'm thinking of something else

They all had parts where the path was thin and the camera moved to the side, which were like a 2D platformer. Might be what you were thinking of.
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it's a lot harder to position precisely, gauge distance / depth, and just generally fully control your character in a 3D world compared to a 2D one. For a platformer, these are all crucial elements, and as a result there is really not that much design space in a 3D platformer to make things more difficult without suddenly rocketing them into this insanely hard difficulty that most people cannot hope to interact with.

While 2D platformers could grow by making tighter level design, adding mobility options like double jumps or airrdashes or etc, basically becoming more platformer-like, I feel like 3D platformers could only ever become less platformer-like. People seem pretty content to call Banjo Kazooie a 3D platformer but what about Banjo Tooie? What about DK64? The amount of platforming in them relative to other stuff just gradually decreases as you go along.

I think 3D platformers are basically just doomed not to ever be super big just because they don't work well in 3D and tend to naturally become things of other genres instead as those genres points get emphasized more than the platforming
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just play a hat in time
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I do hope the success that some 3D platformers had will maybe mean we will see some more. I do think 3D platformers have potential and can be great if handled well. Super Mario Odyssey and A Hat in Time have been some of the better games I've played during this gen.

Lack of multiplayer and scalability maybe?
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