Gamasutra Examines the Platform Game Genre

[Kefkataran]

This article at Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) takes a very long, in-depth look at platform games past, present, and future. It was released previously, but they just recently put up a great revised edition. Read the full article here (http://gamasutra.com/features/20060804/boutros_01.shtml).

Thanks to Naughty Dog and Insomniac, the PS2 has been awash with well-produced platform games and we’ve also recently been blessed by new outings from Mario and Sonic on Gamecube. However, although they’ve all been successful in their own respects, these games have failed to match the astronomical sales success enjoyed by their predecessors.

The conclusions Boutros comes up with are interesting if maybe not completely realistic. What do you guys think? Have we reached a point where a platform game must be hybrid with other genres (i.e. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank) in order to be viable in the market? Or can more "pure" platforming experiences like New Super Mario Bros. still succeed en masse?

[bapenguin]

I don't consider the NSMB a platformer. It's a sidescroller which IMO is totally different. I personally usually don't take a fondness to many platformers, but Sidescrollers makes this penguin all giddy inside.

[JazGalaxy]

I think the simple bottom line reason platformers haven't succeeded in the recent decade is purely due to the proliferation of 3D gaming and the emphasis on graphics over gameplay.

The bottom line is that without a good camera, a 3D platform game can't exist, and only about 1/10 of third person 3D games manage to program a camera that works well.

Also analog control is to be blamed, which isn't nearly as precise as digital control and oftentimes makes navigating the environment complicated when used in conjunction with the aformentioned faulty camera system.

The last and greatest problem is the graphics issue. When you go back and you look at Genesis era platform games, most of the non-sega produced ones absolutely suck. The reason for this tends to be that they try to make such large and detailed sprites that they don't animate well, and are too cumbersome to navigate with. There isn't enough screen real estate to accomidate their size, and the levels are build simplistically to commpensate. This is the same kind of problem we run into in 3D platformers. The graphics take precedent over game design and so the games don't play well.

The BIGGEST problem, as a final aside, I think, is that for some idiot reason game developers think that the camera in a 3rd person game should be on the avatar and not where the avatar is going. It's like playing a first person shooter where you're gun was smack dab in the center of the screen. In playing The Simpsons Hit and Run, I actually had to hold the right analog stick slightly down the entire time in order to tilt the camera up enough to see the horizon and ultimately where I was trying to go...

[Mason]

He's nuts. Modern 3D platformers have a lot more complex controls (just to deal with camera and navigation issues) than their 2D counterparts. Who needs a tutorial for a D-pad and a jump button? And plus, highly successful games like Super Mario World had optional tutorial information in-game. Hand-holding isn't the problem.

SMB3 was amazing because it added interesting strategic and resource acquisition/allocation elements to a genre which had previously lacked them. You could make fairly complex choices regarding your path, and pick up stored power-ups that you could then expend to give you an initial advantage on certain levels. The gradient of value and rarity ('shrooms vs hammer suits or p-wings) to those power-ups made it a very rewarding system.

Overall, he's getting correlation and causality mixed up. Modern platformers haven't done as well because the genre itself has so much more competition, and thus isn't the unchallenged flagship anymore. The only real problem with many modern platformers is an unfortunate near-total aim at the obsessive item-collector. There's nothing wrong with the basic gameplay concept, but in execution it makes the games seem a lot more like work than they should be.

[UnderHero5]

I don't consider the NSMB a platformer. It's a sidescroller which IMO is totally different. I personally usually don't take a fondness to many platformers, but Sidescrollers makes this penguin all giddy inside.
bap, Super Mario Bros being a platformer isn't a matter of opinion. It's a fact.
It's even in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platformer
Super Mario Bros = 2D Platformers. No question there.
Something like Castlevania or Contra would be 2D action games.

Anyway, I really enjoy 3D platformers and wish more would go back to the roots of the genre and stop mixing with shooters and whatnot.
Rachet & Clank is fun, don't get me wrong, but Mario 64 is still the best 3D platformer ever made if you ask me. Mario 64 pretty much defines 3D platformers, as Super Mario Bros defines 2D platformers.

New Super Mario Bros absolutely rocked. It sold great too. I think that proves that there's still a market for classic platforming action.

[danhoo]

bap, Super Mario Bros being a platformer isn't a matter of opinion. It's a fact.
It's even in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platformer
Super Mario Bros = 2D Platformers. No question there.
Something like Castlevania or Contra would be 2D action games.


Yeah -- Bap, a sidescroller could be a lot of things -- e.g. I'd consider Gradius to be a sidescrolling shoot-em-up, but it ain't a platformer.


Anyway, I really enjoy 3D platformers and wish more would go back to the roots of the genre and stop mixing with shooters and whatnot.
Rachet & Clank is fun, don't get me wrong, but Mario 64 is still the best 3D platformer ever made if you ask me. Mario 64 pretty much defines 3D platformers, as Super Mario Bros defines 2D platformers.

Agreed, Mario 64 still holds the 3D platformer crown in my opinion. Many disagree with me on this, but I still feel like they managed to really do the right thing with the camera in Mario 64 (like zoom it out to predefined locations, resulting in a more 2D-style view, when a behind-the-back view would have been awful) that some later 3D platformers didn't get right.

[Draft]

lol, there's a question? Hasn't NSMB sold like 2 million copies?

[Kefkataran]

I don't consider the NSMB a platformer. It's a sidescroller which IMO is totally different. I personally usually don't take a fondness to many platformers, but Sidescrollers makes this penguin all giddy inside.

How is NSMB a sidescroller rather than a platformer? Consider me puzzled.

lol, there's a question? Hasn't NSMB sold like 2 million copies?

Thus why I said en masse. NSMB is about the only straight-up old-school platformer that I can think of at least. It was wildly successful, but could more in that vein be?

[JazGalaxy]

With the success the GBA Castlevania games and the fundamental interest in games like Megaman Powered up and Ghosts and Goblins on the PSP, I'd say that game companies are beginning to understand that platform gaming isn't dead, it's just that they've been going about it all wrong.

Personally, the best worst platform game I've played in recent memory is Haven Call of The King. The gameplay in the game was VERY fun, but ultimately the game sucked because of how unfocused it was, and because of how painfully terrible the unfocused elements were. For example the writing was terrible, the "story" was terrible and uninteresting, the cut scenes were long and boring becuase of the aformentioned story, and the lack of music was deafening. (I know that's an oxymoron, but it makes sense when you play the game).

[Kefkataran]

Personally, the best worst platform game I've played in recent memory is Haven Call of The King.

I've heard that one brought up a lot in a similar manner. I've really been meaning to rent it some time just to see what people are talking about.

[Harlan Hoyt]

I always thought of a sidescroller as a game where the screen scrolls -- in Gradius or R-Type, for example. You have to move forward. Even in the older Mario games, the screen scrolled with you. I don't remember -- could you move backwards in Super Mario World, or was that a new innovation for NSMB?

I've never really enjoyed platformers outside the Mario/Sonic axis. Part of that is that I've never owned a PlayStation, I guess. I will say I bought Sonic Rush for the DS and I've been enjoying the hell out of that. It's fun to play NSMB and then Sonic. The difference in platformer philosophy is pretty apparent in the two. Two radically different approaches to platforming, both enjoyable.

[Kefkataran]

could you move backwards in Super Mario World, or was that a new innovation for NSMB?

In most levels you could move backwards yet. Almost all Mario games have had some worlds where the screen force-scrolls.