25 replies to this topic

[Ze_ro]

In my opinion, this genre has been catching a lot of heat lately... especially when the N64 is being discussed. Personally, I love 3D platform games like Mario 64, Rayman 2, Conker, and so on. I don't see why everone thinks they're all the same... in my opinion, the whole game is defined by the things you can do, and each has completely different abilities (except walking and jumping of course). I'm looking forward to seeing Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, as it looks to be a good one.

What do you guys think are the best 3D platformers out there? I'd have say Rayman 2 is the best one I've played so far... but I look forward to playing a lot of Mario Sunshine in the future...

--Zero

[shep]

My best:

Mario 64
Sunshine
Rayman 2
Donkey Kong 64
Conker
Sly Cooper and the Thevius Racconus
Ape Escape (a platformer if i can remember right)
Jak and Daxter
Ratchet and Clank


Honorable Mentions:
Vexx is interesting
Haven has a lot of diversity

[MegaManFan]

Some may dispute whether this is really a "3-D" platformer or not, but since you can climb up walls and move from the foreground to the background and vice versa, I'm gonna say Tomba for PS1 should be on the list.

[JagMX]

im just sick of EVERYTHING having to be 3D period. I want more 2d fighters, instead of the constant 3d fighting ames that keep comin out. I want more 2d platforms or anything else 2d, everything is friggin 3d now!
and some, yes some, seem to be somewhat the same. The N64 had a good amount that basically had the same look-and-feel to it.
3d is nice and all, but i know that there are others out there besides me who want some more 2d games

[chrisbid]

agreed, i get lost on open ended 3D games. There are games in 3D like klanoa that play like 2D games, that i can tolerate a lot more than open ended games like Mario 64. I play video games to escape reality, not recreate it

[Happy_Dude]

I hate the genre. The camera will ALWAYS move around during a life threatening manouver.

Conkers BFD would be the only one I liked.

[Inky]

ONce again, Pac Man World 2.....

[Gabriel]

As anyone can see from my sig, I dislike 3D platformers. I wrote a big ass long post about what I think of 3D platformers. Then I looked at it (always a good thing before hitting submit) and realized it was pissy and inflammatory. So I deleted almost all of it, and was left with this little paragraph and accompanying orphan sentences that sum things up without the ranting.

"There has been one and only one 3D platformer that I liked. That one was Jumping Flash for the PS1. Still, I didn't like Jumping Flash enough to keep it. I traded it or sold it to someone. I don't remember exactly. I also don't know if I'd still like Jumping Flash today, or if the appeal was just it's newness. I think the latter is the case.

I do think that most 3D platformers have serious pacing problems, and they tend to lack any gameplay focus other than wandering around."

[NE146]

I still maintain that Banjo Kazooie for the N64 is the best. I like it better than Mario 64 (and I liked Mario 64).. and of course it absolutely BLOWS AWAY crappy Donkey Kong 64

[Gregory DG]

I liked Sonic Adventure simply for the fact that you could zip through it without having to waste time hunting down little details.

[Ze_ro]

I really wanted to like Donkey Kong 64... in fact, I even bought the expansion pak pretty much entirely for this game. But there's just too much collecting! Everything in each level has a color to it that means you have to use a specific character to get that item.... I'll be walking around as Donkey Kong, and I'll find a horde of blue bananas... so then I go and change into Lanky Kong to get them... and shortly after I find a red coin, so I have to change into Diddy to get it. It's especially annoying since the change barrel is usually pretty far away It seems like a lame excuse to force me to use all of the characters, instead of actually providing barriers that I'd need certain characters to cross (the game does this as well, but not as often)

Another thing that I didn't like about DK64 was actually something I didn't like about Conker as well... and that's the context sensitive zones. It forces you to do something in a specific spot for no real reason. Why would I have to play my guitar on the roof of a building instead of just on the ground? I know these games aren't all about reality, but it seems stupid to me to force things like that. At least Conker wasn't quite as bad for that kind of stuff... but it was still a little annoying.

--Zero

[NE146]

Ze_ro said:

I really wanted to like Donkey Kong 64... in fact, I even bought the expansion pak pretty much entirely for this game. But there's just too much collecting! Everything in each level has a color to it that means you have to use a specific character to get that item.... I'll be walking around as Donkey Kong, and I'll find a horde of blue bananas... so then I go and change into Lanky Kong to get them... and shortly after I find a red coin, so I have to change into Diddy to get it. It's especially annoying since the change barrel is usually pretty far away It seems like a lame excuse to force me to use all of the characters, instead of actually providing barriers that I'd need certain characters to cross (the game does this as well, but not as often)

Another thing that I didn't like about DK64 was actually something I didn't like about Conker as well... and that's the context sensitive zones. It forces you to do something in a specific spot for no real reason. Why would I have to play my guitar on the roof of a building instead of just on the ground? I know these games aren't all about reality, but it seems stupid to me to force things like that. At least Conker wasn't quite as bad for that kind of stuff... but it was still a little annoying.

--Zero

I couldn't have stated it better myself. I was looking forward to DK64 but those particular reasons (such as changing characters to get the damn blue bananas vs. the yellow bananas) to artificially extend the gameplay made it particularly annoying. Plus, the environments were just generic as all heck.

That's why I like Banjo. It's a collecting game, but it's the best of it's kind imho. And the various "worlds" it puts you in just make it that much better.

[Vic George 2K3]

My favorite 3D-platform games are Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, and Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.

I never played Conker's BFD, and considering how the character went from cutesy-clean to cussy-cute in the manner of South Park, I don't regret not playing it.

Donkey Kong 64 was a little too complicated for me to enjoy, and the same goes for Banjo-Tooie.

[ElectricTroy]

The fun in 3D platformers comes from collecting all the coins, jiggies, or whatever without dying. They are just like Pac-Man or Pitfall.

I really haven't played many 3D platformers... just Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Sunshine. I didn't like Mario Sunshine because washing stuff is too much like a lame summer job, but I thought Mario 64 and Banjo were very, very cool. Fun, rapid-paced, and challenging to survive.

[AtariX]

Enjoyed NiGhts on the Saturn and Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. I haven't really bought a 3D platformer in a couple of years. I guess you could consider GunValkyrie a 3D platformer/3D shooter. GunValkyrie on the Xbox was one of my favorite games of 2002. The next 3D platformer I'll buy will probably be Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox. That just might be the best 3D platformer ever. The new Castlevania on the PS2 looks like it might be good as well.

[Cafeman]

I hated and despised 3D platformers early on, back when low frame rates and bad 3D absolutley prohibited their being much fun. But I've softened a bit over the years.

Frankly, a 2D platformer can bore me just as much as a 3D one if it doesn't have any talented or inspired art & design behind it. And even when it DOES have talented folks and a good idea, the 3D platformer is inevitably glitchier due to camera issues and depth perception errors. Since it's hard to fine-tune a 3D platformer's , erm, PLATFORMING to the degree that 2D ones could have, the developers add all the collectey unlockey stuff and make the actual gameplay too easy!!!

Well, I'm not going to to type the next 12 paragraphs that have been floating in my head for years, but I will say that Tomb Raider (the first one) and Mario 64 were the first GOOD 3D platformers. I'm pretty much done with Mario 64 though but it was revolutionary. Since then, I've enjoyed Sonic Adventure (despite bad camera and other 3D flaws) and Rayman2, and Super mario Sunshine too (which could have been more exciting though).

Pac-Man World 1 and 2 are great platforming updates to good old classic Pac! Better than Ms Pac Maze Madness IMO. I loathe what Rare did with Donkey Kong 64, but both my kids enjoy the game. Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper are both well-done 3D platformers, but not really innovative to me. Spyro the Dragon was decent too, as were the Crash Bandicoot first 2 games. Note that the reason I'm giving Crash any praise at all is (1) I think his world is pretty cool and (2) it is actually challenging (especially part 1!).

(_)3

[Ze_ro]

I never much liked the Crash Bandicoot games, and I think it was because of the linearity of the levels. Mario 64 and others were so open-ended that you had so many more ways of accomplishing things. Crash Bandicoot just seemed more constrained.

Anyone ever play a Dreamcast game called Super Magnetic Neo? It's possibly one of the most Japanese games I've ever played, and it's really bizarre, but it does a similar forced linearity thing.

At least it usually prevents the bad camera angles that plague other games... Sonic Adventure seemed really good at first, but when you got to the later levels, it was obvious that they hadn't spent as much time on them, and the camera angles suffered. I remember particularly the temple where you were on a stone snake and had to jump to other stone snakes while they flew through the sky. Only problem was that the camera would force itself such that you were either jumping towards or away from the screen, so it was almost impossible to judge your jump. Man was that frustrating. Otherwise the game was excellent though. That whale scene in the first level is still really impressive to me. I look forward to Sonic Heroes.

--Zero

[Cafeman]

Oh yeah, I had a love/hate thing with Super Magnetic Neo one summer. On the one hand, I love it's positive/negative polarity game mechanism. On the other hand ... it's darn hard! Caf jr loved to play SMN too, he played it (and did better at it) than I did, and back then he was like 6 yrs old or so!

+1 Super Magnetic Neo.

Concerning what you said about Sonic Adventure -- true, some later levels were way stupid with the glitchy and unfair camera angles. But when Sonic Adventure is good, it's REALLY good.

[Ze_ro]

Yeah, Super Magnetic Neo was frustratingly hard... especially for a game that had such a kiddie exterior!

--Zero

[shep]

Also forgot to mention some that people reminded me of, like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Nights I absolutley love and hope a GCN sequel is on the way! Conker is also great as well as Banjo Kazooie

[AtariDude]

Inky said:

ONce again, Pac Man World 2.....

I just got Pac Man World 2 yesterday. It is a really fun game and having the option of playing some of the classic pacman games in one setting is fun although I am just getting started and have only collected enough coins to unlock the first Pac Man game.

[Yar]

Ze_ro said:

I really wanted to like Donkey Kong 64... in fact, I even bought the expansion pak pretty much entirely for this game. But there's just too much collecting! Everything in each level has a color to it that means you have to use a specific character to get that item.... I'll be walking around as Donkey Kong, and I'll find a horde of blue bananas... so then I go and change into Lanky Kong to get them... and shortly after I find a red coin, so I have to change into Diddy to get it. It's especially annoying since the change barrel is usually pretty far away It seems like a lame excuse to force me to use all of the characters, instead of actually providing barriers that I'd need certain characters to cross (the game does this as well, but not as often)

--Zero

I have to agree with you there. It could be fun at times, but stuff just took so damn long to do! It would be great it it weren't so tedious and time consuming.

Being a huge fan of the series, I'd have to say that the Metroid games overall are my favorite platformers.

[JagMX]

shep said:

Also forgot to mention some that people reminded me of, like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Nights I absolutley love and hope a GCN sequel is on the way! Conker is also great as well as Banjo Kazooie

the sonic adventure games were great, even with the annoying camera angels at times
and nights / x-mas nights are great games - even tho i wouldnt mind seein a re-vamp on a newer system, i feel that game cant get any better, or look any better - but thats just me, i think the saturn did it right and it cant get any better

[chrisbid]

the sonic games wouldve been pretty good had they just stuck with sonic. all the extra characters slowed the game way down, it really hurt SA2. The Knuckles levels were very obnoxious and tedious, while the tails levels were ok at best, they certainly didnt enhance the game.

[Ze_ro]

The only other thing that annoyed me in Sonic Adventure (after the camera angles) was the weird world that you were in. Or maybe it was lack of weirdness that made it annoying. What was with Sonic and co. being the only non-humans? They would have been better off in a forest instead of a city... or at least making the city populated by other talking animals. Somehow having to walk around and talk to humans made things a lot more lame than they had to be.

As for the characters, I haven't played much SA2 yet, but I liked the different characters in the first game. Each was different enough that it made for some variety in the gameplay. Big and Amy were kinda crappy though.

--Zero