Will 3d platformers ever have a comeback?

As others have said, they will likely have a comeback in the way 2D platformers and genres have done, through the Indie gaming scene.

One great example that is still being developed is A Hat in Time.

Otherwise Nintendo is our only hope, I don't see the Sony or Microsoft concentrating on the genre. A few titles here and there, but nothing as substantial as we used to see in the glory days of PS1 and PS2.

It'd be cool if Nintendo could strike some deals with the rights holders of games like Rayman, Crash and Spyro, like what they did with Bayonetta 2. WiiU seems a great fit for the genre.
 
thewhitehawk said:
Right now we are going through an era in which developers feel the need to root their games in reality and mascot platformers, even ones with Mario, the most recognisable character in gaming, sometimes barely cross the two million mark in sales.
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I agree with you but 3D Mario games all sold far more than 2M (for example 3D World sits currently at 3,79M despite the weak WiiU sales).
 
We've got A Hat in a Time and Lobodestroyo coming, we are probably going to see new Banjo and a Ratchet come E3, and there will inevitably be a new Mario some time soon.

I'm amazed 5 platformers seems like a lot to me, but that's how things have gone I guess!
 
@MUWANdo said:
Warner Bros./Traveller's Tales releases like eight 3D platformers a year.
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I cannot remember all too many platformers by Traveller's Tales. They are mostly doing Lego stuff and they are far, far from platformers. And if you wanted to call them platformers, they'd just be awfully shitty ones (though they have other qualities, well outside the platforming genre).
 
I'm often amused by how many people who say they don't care for platformers, love collecting or traversing an open world in the Crackdowns, Prototypes, Sunset Overdrives, Dying Light, Assassin's Creeds, and so forth and indeed collecting things/getting to see interesting sights/being challenged by the running and jumping.
Due to that, aye I think 3D platformers can make a come back because they can still be fun to a wide range of audience with the right design, the right sense of movement. Even if they won't be specifically the biggest sellers.

One of the main issues preventing any sort of big come back though I think is that a lot of people, gamers and creators, look down on platformers as though they are inherently "cheaper" or "less than" other games. Be it 2D because "that's what the indies do" or the 3D because "it doesn't take much design to make a level right?" and "that's what kids play/cheap cash ins for licensed products right?", amongst other complaints. If we could change that inherent view, things might improve. Especially if it might help some companies realise they don't need to do cartoonish mascots for them, they can do many different things as long as the game play is solid and the level designs work out, be it Jak and Daxter or Nathan and Doughnut. That is, if more people knew how to do 3D platforming work right, something even SEGA has a long history of issues with despite how many classic 2D platformers they had (yes, more than just Sonic).

We also have some companies, such as Activison, would rather make huge and expensive products for the hope of a major hit because it's more likely to pay off (similar to only making Hollywood blockbusters) so that it doesn't seem worth it to make what will only be a smaller title in comparison, even if it makes a nice "little" profit. Though that's another issue for another thread, the need for more budget titles and middle-tier titles.
 
Super Rookie said:
Never finished that, kept dying at the jumps on the wooden bridge to castle, but that was years ago maybe I should take another crack at it...
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It's really not very good.

I know Argonaut had a relationship with Nintendo and, somewhere in there, Croc might have become a Yoshi game or something but the end result just isn't all that well made.

Every stage is broken up into tiny challenge rooms, basically, which could have worked but most of these rooms are just so small and uninteresting that it detracts from the experience. Then you have the controls which were of the "tank" variety rather than full analog ala Mario 64. Croc 2 solved that issue, at least.

It was a game I remember having a lot of interesting in back in the day but, in the end, wound up pretty disappointed by it.
 
Having just replayed Mirror's Edge, my hype for the sequel is reignited. Who knows, maybe it will be successful enough to produce a wave of similar 3D platformers.

I'm dreaming of the open world game focused on exploration and platforming. Someday someone is going to make it, right?

Oh, and another game to note - Spire by Hitbox Team (developers of Dustforce). It's still very much WIP, but looks promising.
 
I can't wait for the day that these all come back! I would love to make one myself, I've always had some concepts but I just don't have the art skills to do any 3D modelling really... I need to learn more :P
 
I hope a lot for Ratchet PS4.

In the meantime, Sunset Overdrive is as close as it gets + it's generally awesome.




Basically, Insomniac Games will be our savior :D
 
I'm sure Nintendo will cook up something soon but it will take them a while.
Nintendo could make millions with another Galaxy.
 
Salvadora said:
You're referring to New Super Mario Bros, right?

Don't think there are very many other 2D platformers that sell that much otherwise. And if we went by that, sure 3D Mario games still sell a bucket load.
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No 2D platformer sells 20+ million unless you were Mario Bros and we're releasing on the Wii but Donkey Kong Country Returns certainly sold 6+ million copies making it THE best selling DK game since 1994's DKC1 and Retro Studio's best performer ever.

2D platformers are in a definitive reinassance after years of giving the genre for dead.

I do miss 3D platformers.
 
We do this thread every year. A couple of indie/mid tier platformers get named and then everyone ignores them and wonders where the platformers are at in 2016.

Yoshi said:
Sometimes I wonder if people here have ever played a platformer, or just assume that all games that involve platforms are platformers.
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The Portal games are more traversal heavy than some big name platformers and platforming is kind of the main component to the genre. Its right in the name
 
As others have said, there is a lot of overlap between the open world genre and the 3D platformer genre.

Also, Disney Infinity and Skylanders are both examples of hugely successful 3D platformer / open world game series.
 
I hate that all the types of games I used to play have died. I miss the 3D platformers, extreme sports, and futuristic racing games.
16304518770_4175da1b46_o.jpg
 
How many of you bought Titanfall? That's as much a platformer as it is a FPS.
 
Icyflamez96 said:
Ratchet and Clank PS4 + The movie bringing more fans to the franchise will revive the genre.

It will lead the revolution.

Believe.
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I Believe !

cant wait though, if you don't count nexus since its a shorter experience, the last full proper ratchet game was way back in 09
 
I really, really hope the genre come back into action. Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, Conker, Sonic Adventure/2 and Mario 64 are my favourite games and I miss so much those kind of games. yeah, we have some here and there, but they are not the same.
Not even PS2 era platformers like Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper or Ratchet & Clank have the same feel to me, even if they are good and I like them.

To be fair, the only recent game who sorta gave me that feeling was Sonic Boom. And you know what happened to that, so I've no hope to see something similar soon.
 
Splatoon seems like a Mario Sunshine type of game.

New main Sonic game this year too... eventually

I think that I need to see that Pac-Man game more closely
 
We can only hope that Nintendo will do another 3D Mario for the launch of their next handheld/console. I know people (myself included) would want such game sooner, but I just don't see Nintendo making another 3D Mario for either 3DS or Wii U due to 3D Land and 3D World.
 
Lord British said:
I played the first one and you couldn't jump - it was more like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, or Gauntlet Legends. Is that different now?
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They added jumping in the third one, Swap Force. It adds a lot to the series, and while the platforming is never complex it does scratch the itch.
The 3DS entries are all platformers as well, and while Ive enjoyed all of them I think the first is the only essential one. Its the most platforming focused and has the strongest level design.
 
Lijik said:
The Portal games are more traversal heavy than some big name platformers and platforming is kind of the main component to the genre. Its right in the name
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Which big name platformers are you thinking about here? And the fact that you traverse an area most of the time does not make a game a platformer, you do basically nothing but traverse areas most of the time in Metroid Prime, Forza Horizon or Uncharted and none of those are even remotely close to platformers.
 
Muntu said:
I'm sure R&C PS4 will happen so I wish they'd just announce it already

Love the series so much

e: fuck i need to replay them now
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It was announced a while ago. It's a "reimagining" of the first game based off the movie.

It's supposed to be coming out this year.
 
As many others have mentioned earlier, just wait till the tools become so abundant that any indie devs can create beautiful platformers with ease. Right now they're well past that point with 2D platformers, as evident by the saturation rate, pretty soon you'll be swimming in 3D platformers :P
 
Trogdor1123 said:
I totally forgot about R&C coming to PS4, that's exciting! Have we seen anything at all?
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Nothing, although considering it's supposed to be out this year, I expect to see something fairly soon, or at least at E3. All of the PS3 games have come out in October/November so it'll probably be the same case here.
 
Yoshi said:
Which big name platformers are you thinking about here? And the fact that you traverse an area most of the time does not make a game a platformer, you do basically nothing but traverse areas most of the time in Metroid Prime, Forza Horizon or Uncharted and none of those are even remotely close to platformers.
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Banjo for instance has very little actual platforming compared to Jak 1 or a Mario. Very little of how the game challenges the player has to do with tricky jumps inherent to the genre- ie. platforming. And dont play dumb having to navigate platforms for something like the paint puzzles in Portal 2 is not at all like Forza and you fucking know it.
 
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