What ever happened to the 3D platformer?

The third of Sony’s new mascots was none other than Sly Cooper himself. Developed by Sucker Punch, now better known for the inFamous series, Sly was the least popular of the trio, but quite possibly my favorite. In my opinion, the Sly games are wittier and funnier than their counterparts and their characters more likable, but it’s the element of stealth that makes them stand out. The first game was a harder, more old-school platformer, where it was best to avoid enemies and stay out of the wandering gaze of search beams, but the sequels were a little more forgiving and let you play as sidekicks Bentley and Murray, amongst others. These games focused on multi-tiered missions with each character having a part to play in order for them to be a success, which were a precursor of sorts to Michael, Trevor and Franklin’s heists in GTA V.

However, the fact that Sly was the least successful of the three – and after Jak’s change of heart – was the only one without guns, showed the waning interest in traditional 3D platformers from mainstream gamers at the time. There were several other ‘me too’ platformers during this generation of consoles, including Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and Tak and the Power of Juju, but the less said about them the better. Even the likes of Super Mario Sunshine and Rayman 3 saw diminishing interest compared to their forebears. Soon the industry became bloated with lackluster examples of the genre, which in turn spawned a dirge of halfhearted racing spin offs. It seemed 3D platformers were beginning their descent into obscurity. There was still occasional life in the genre, most notable at this point in hybrid, platform adventure game Beyond Good and Evil, and the wildly imaginative Psychonauts. But both of these games sold poorly; it was clear the industry was moving on to bigger and brighter things.

New Challengers Approaching: Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3
With yet another set of consoles arriving, the emphasis on storytelling, realism and cinematic experiences was amplified. Naughty Dog were expected to create another new platforming series, but surprised everyone with the videogame equivalent of Indiana Jones in the Uncharted games. Sly disappeared, at least until a sequel finally showed up just this year, developed by understudy Sanzaru Games. Not many people paid it any attention, though – even with its budget price tag – which really shows how far the 3D platformer has fallen from grace. Only Ratchet and Clank and Mario have continued to pave the way for big 3D platformers, but the core Ratchet titles on PS3 have been well received commercially and critically, and the Super Mario Galaxy games are considered some of the best of the generation, so there is still hope yet.

However, 3D platformers really have been few and far between in this last generation, and one of the primary reasons that I think this is – despite the industry’s disillusionment with the genre – is due to the rise and success of the indie scene, and in turn the 2D platformer.

In recent years it has been increasingly easy for independent developers to get their hands on the tools and knowledge to make and publish games themselves. Due to the often small teams and lack of big budgets, there was a rise in 2D side-scrollers from indie developers, especially platformers, including Braid, Super Meat Boy, Limbo and Fez, just to name a few of the bigger ones. And once the larger publishers had caught wind of the hunger for these types of games again – beforehand the industry had almost dropped 2D games completely – there was an influx of big budget 2D platformers as well.

There were a slew of them from Nintendo themselves, rushing to reintroduce themselves and their old franchises as the pinnacle of the genre, including New Super Mario Bros Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Wario Land: Shake It! and Kirby’s Epic Yarn. But the character that most surprisingly reappeared in a 2D platformer – and a very good one at that – was Michel Ancel’s Rayman.

Having originally appeared in a mediocre 2D platformer in the 1990s, Rayman had moved on to the aforementioned Rayman 2, a unique and brilliant 3D platformer, before being farmed out to another team for the uninspired Rayman 3, while Ancel worked on pet project Beyond Good and Evil. Rayman survived after this, but only as a shadow of his former self, hosting the Raving Rabbids games, which eventually dropped him too, the brand seemingly stronger without the aging, limbless mascot. So it was a real surprise when Rayman Origins appeared and was, well, brilliant. Sporting gorgeous hand painted 2D visuals made possible by the Ubi Art engine, and borrowing New Super Mario Bros Wii’s four-player co-op, the game was a surprise hit. It’s sequel, Rayman Legends, recently landed and was even better.

The recent Puppeteer was another interesting and unique take on the 2D side-scroller from Sony’s Japan Studio. Each of the game’s levels is presented as a set on a stage of a theatre production, and the game takes a multi-tiered visual approach borrowing from the likes of Punch and Judy, Tim Burton and Studio Ghibli. The game’s two newest ideas were the protagonist’s head-swapping ability – a little like Kirby’s ability to swallow enemies and borrow their tricks – and the scissor mechanic, whereby the main character can chop through the scenery as a way of traversing the levels and attacking bad guys.

However, just like the recent Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Puppeteer was released as a budget title and yet still didn’t manage to set the sales charts on fire. It seems that even the 2D platformer is not as powerful as it has been in recent years, and proves that gamers’ likes and dislikes can be rather fickle.

There was one last attempt by Sony this generation in regards to the 3D platformer, though, and that came in the form of HD compilations of their three famous mascots. Some see these sort of HD remasters as a quick cash in on nostalgia, but they were also used to reacquaint audiences with those franchises before releasing new titles in their respective series (as seen with Sly) and to let people who perhaps missed out on them the first time around to see what all the fuss was about. Even though these collections were quite cheap and allowed us to replay old favourites in HD, each of the Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter and Sly collections have all sold under a million units worldwide as of November 2013, which arguably could be the final nail in the coffin regarding publishers’ faith in the genre.

Next Gen! (Or Now Gen)
So, with the recent release of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, what chance does the 3D platformer have of being a meaningful part of mainstream videogame conversation once more? Knack seemed to be the bastion of hope when first shown off by Mark Cerny during the PS4 reveal – not only for the genre, but for games of childlike wonder and whimsy in general. But since then it has received rather lackluster reviews and was ultimately a slightly patronizing, linear brawler, compared to an open, explorable platformer.

However, many of the biggest series today, such as the Assassin’s Creed games, show some aspects of lineage from the 3D platformer, including exploration and collectables, whereas other games like the first person parkour Mirror’s Edge take the momentum and reflex jumping skills of platformers and use them in new ways. Perhaps that’s what’s to become of the 3D platformer, for its best bits to be cannibalized into other genres. Even the whimsical cartoon mascots have moved on to the likes of the mobile scene with Angry Birds merchandise flying of the shelves all around the world.

Back on consoles, though, Ratchet did recently have a return to form with Into the Nexus (after a few failed spin offs), but that was released on PS3, was half the size of the normal games – billed as an epilogue to the PS3 trilogy – and was ultimately lost under next-gen hype. It seems, then, that the current savior of the genre is on the Wii U – a console that many argue isn’t even ‘next-gen’. I am of course referring to Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D World, the first 3D platformer the Kyoto giant has ever released in HD. The game is visually arresting as well as an absolute blast to play, and it reads as a ‘best of’ of the entire Mario series, reveling in its simultaneous use of nostalgia and innovation.

Although, even with a brilliant Mario title, it’s still the same old Mario we know and love. It seems – that at least at the moment – there is little hope for 3D platformers with new characters and worlds to look forward to on the newest consoles, and that’s a real shame. Growing up, 3D platformers were my favourite genre and I think they represent an important part of videogame’s repertoire, something that no other genre can replace, a genre that I think is important for kids to play and learn the tropes of the medium with. I think it’s more than likely that we’ll see another 3D Mario and Ratchet before long, maybe even another Sly, but what the genre and the industry really needs is something completely new to inject a sense of life and excitement, and sadly, that’s something I don’t see happening soon.