If you played video games in the 90s, you might have encountered 3D platformers, especially if you owned a Nintendo 64.
Games like Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, the golden age of Rare platformers: Donkey Kong 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day and atrocities like Bubsy 3D (which, funfact, was originally being developed for the Sega 32X), are all landmarks of this time in which colorful characters explore wacky worlds filled with collectables.
The platformer craze died down in the 2000s, arguably on a high note, with such examples like the Jak and Daxter series, the Sly Cooper series, the Ratchet and Clank series, but also Psychonauts which spiced up the tired original formula with such things as open worlds, stealth and weapon systems and setting, respectively. At this time, the big push in the video games industry were the online games, especially the multiplayer shooters like Halo, SOCOM, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament 2004 and many more, and the effect of this multiplayer push can be felt even today, with games having little to no singleplayer content and splitscreen being mostly absent. But the state of the video game industry as a whole is not the subject of this post, so let us return to 3D platformers.
The Banjo-Kazooie series took a really ill-advised turn towards the racing scene with Nuts n' Bolts, showing that Rare and Microsoft did not have faith in the platforming roots of the series, Sonic the Hedgehog from 2006 was a mess, both technically and story-wise to put it lightly, we also had Knack which was not very good, acting more as a tech demo for the PlayStation 4, but because it was a launch title for the system it made enough money to warrant a sequel which was a bit better, but still bad, and lastly, on this disappointments list, is Yooka-Laylee which was banking on nostalgia alone to become sucessful.
Recently, we received the remasters of the original Ratchet and Clank and the Crash Bandicoot original trilogy, which as brilliant as they were, did not manage to resuscitate the genre from its catatonic state, because they were games we have already seen before, but they showed us that the genre still has a market, so it is not completely obsolete. The kick that might have revived it was Super Mario Odyssey, which managed to garner quite the audience, showing that there is still hope for the 3D platformer, both in the innovation spectrum (Mario is able to take control over enemies if he throws his hat on their head) and in the sales department, if the game receives an aggressive enough marketing push. It also helps that it is a Nintendo title, which warrants a child-like attitude, a happy go lucky style, which is enchanting, to say the least. This resurgence is also kept strong by Snake Pass, which is an unconventional platformer, because you are not jumping around but slithering along the ground and twirl around objects, like a well...snake would, because your character is an adorable snake.
It might seem immature at first, but the 3D platformer only works with cutesy art styles and cheerful atmospheres (with the exception of Conker which was sarcastic and mean spirited to the bone for comedic effect), because a realistic looking game would make anyone looking at it rise some eyebrows at the unnaturalness (yes, that is indeed a word, I did not invent it) of the whole ordeal.
So, what are you waiting for? Go out there and hunt for those great games and play them, so that you might feel the pure joy they exude and, who knows, maybe you will find yourself refreshed from the current norms of realism, broodiness and angry grumbling that the industry has sunk itself into.
-Sources for the photos: the cover photo comes from gamerant.com, the Banjo-Kazooie photo comes from giantbomb.com, the Yooka-Laylee photo comes from playtonicgames.com, and lastly, the Snake Pass photo comes from snake-pass.com.
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