Please prove me wrong and suggest me some modern ones that stand up to the older ones.
Also, why are there no 3rd person shooter/3D platformer hybrids aside from Ratchet & Clank / Jak series? This seems like an untapped genre hybridisation that works well together. Like literally why is no one making games like this. I would love some examples of 3rd person shooter platformers to prove me wrong again.
Edit: It’s not a nostalgia thing. The quality of the PS2 platformers was actually better. Even ones I discovered recently that exist on PS2 or that I hadn’t played before. If I compare them side by side with modern 3D platformers, they look like s*** compared to the PS2 ones. And case in point, there are literally no open world 3rd person shooter-3D platformers with detailed worlds/graphics outside of PS2 (that I know of) and those are the kinds of 3D platformers I enjoy most… give me an example to prove me wrong. Ok technically I know of a few examples which meet some but not all of this criteria (only because I’ve looked far and wide for them) but they’re very basic and nowhere near as intricate as these games.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
This seems like an appeal to nostalgia to me… they’re old games, and therefore I must simply be blinded by nostalgia rather than the possibility that those older games might have actually been better in certain measurable ways…?🤔
An appeal to nostalgia is a claim that more or less boils down to “things were better in the past.”
The NES era has a special place in my heart because those were basically the first games I played and those stick with you. But… I am not about to claim that modern equivalents aren’t as good. And I don’t feel the need to prove otherwise because I know that it isn’t their objective quality or lack thereof that made them special to me. So the question is why is it so important to you that you can “prove” the PS2 era 3d platformers were objectively superior? Are you going to suddenly flip a switch in your head that changes your opinion of them if someone manages to “prove” otherwise?
AND you have to keep in mind that you are more likely to remember good games and forget mediocre ones. There is a bias toward older games being thought of as being better because most of the garbage ended up being lost to time. Today’s stinkers are still fresh on everyones’ mind.
Thing better when I was a teen that now that im adult. It also works for music and basically everything.
It’s not that. I’m going to have to edit my post now because I was already considering writing that disclaimer. It’s not a nostalgia thing. There are literally no 3rd person shooter 3D platformers outside of PS2 and those are the kinds of 3D platformers I enjoy most… give me an example to prove me wrong
I’m not sure I understand - what would you call Banjo-Kazooie? Or even Super Mario 64? What do you mean by “3d platformer”? Like “open world” kinda game?
Everyone knows the 3D platformer genre died out and people stopped putting effort into them as much, so it would be more like if someone had a favourite genre of music that went out of fashion and was hard to find anymore.
Can’t comment on the 3rd person shooter/3d platformer hybrids, but games like Mario Odyssey are fantastic modern 3d platformers. Meanwhile I’ve recently replayed some 3d platformers from the n64-gamecube eras and found they didn’t hold up as well as I remembered.
Super mario odyssey is the most polished and impressive 3d mario game ever made. Not sure how people think that n64 mario is better except for nostalgia.
I think it comes down to the combo of nostalgia in combo with iconic games. For example, Mario 64 was so cool when it came out. Even the feel of it was new and different to anything else available.
It laid the groundwork for what made future platformers good
I agree the N64 and GameCube ones aren’t as good as the PS2 ones from an objective standpoint. All the best platformers exist on PS2, I really don’t know why. They just went on a roll.
I think the platforming zeitgeist has shifted to 2D.
- Metroid Dread, Hollow Knight, Mario Wonder, Shovel Knight.
But 3D platforming is still alive as a genre.
- Mario Odyssey, Sonic Frontiers, Yooka-Laylee.
And the remake scene for 3D is popping off right now.
- Crash, Spyro, Ratchet, Mario 3D All Stars, Metroid Prime Remastered.
Specifically for the subgenre of 3D third-person platform-shooters, check out Splatoon 3. For 3D first-person open-world platform-shooters, Metroid Prime 4 is in development.
But for “3D open world third-person platform-shooter,” that genre is essentially Ratchet & Clank. But these days I think Insomniac is busy with Spider-Man. You can maybe count Jak in there, but Naughty Dog hasn’t touched that franchise in ages.
I think the take away is that each franchise has it’s own niche. What you’ve described is so specific that you’re really just talking about Ratchet. Open your requirements a bit more, and you’ll find plenty of great, new platforming experiences.
Also, if you think there’s untapped potential, I encourage you to make something! Unity is actually pretty easy to use.
Hey, you’re forgetting Rayman!
I think it’s basically Ratchet & Jak, yeah. I would count Jak II and 3 in that genre, not Jak 1 so much although it’s a great game.
If I could make games, I would definitely be making a Ratchet & Jak styled game, some kind of 3rd person shooter-platformer with detailed environments. But I just don’t understand why big studios don’t jump on the opportunity, instead the Jak franchise is dead (or dormant, still hoping for a return) and they only make Ratchet games occasionally, and no one seems to even attempt to make an original IP like those games despite their success and appeal and huge potential in next gen. It’s mind boggling
You’re remembering the cream of that era and comparing it to all of the current area. It’s natural, but misleading.
A Hat In Time is great.
As much as you deny it, you are just experiencing Nostalgia. I was an N64 and GameCube kid and never really had much to do with PlayStation. I played Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter well into the PS4 days and was underwhelmed with both.
Ratchet and Clank had at least three good games on the PS3, and Rift Apart definitely counts as a modern game. I wish Insomniac (and other game devs) woul devote more resources to making hybrid shooter/platformers, but the devs who made those great PS2 games are being replaced by newer devs who want to make different things. Also publishers want to cash in on big money-making trends like live service games.
Would you consider Jet Set Radio a platformer? If so then Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is really, really good (and it has a kickass soundtrack like the JSR series did). Other than that, I haven’t really spent a lot of time playing platformers. At the very least there have been some good remasters like the Spyro Reignited trilogy and Crash Bandicoot remaster.
I think I’ve heard some of the recent Sonic games have been good, though I don’t really play Sonic stuff so I can’t verify that myself.
I’ve heard Super Mario Wonder is really good, but that’s not really 3d (though iirc there are some 3d wonder flower sections).
Warframe might help scratch the 3d platformer itch, it’s got a decent amount of platforming tiles, especially on Jupiter (the maps are proceedurally generated from a tile set, the Jupiter tiles have a lot of verticality); though platforming isn’t by any means a focus.
If you’re okay with foregoing 3rd person view, you might give Mirror’s Edge a try. It’s a 1st-person parkour/freerunning game.
If you like the collect-a-thon aspect, check out the Lego games, especially stuff like Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, etc. those are very much collect-a-thons and tend to have platforming elements to them. They’re a lot of fun.
Otherwise… Maybe platformers just need a revival like the boomer-shooters got. From what I’ve heard, Yooka-Laylee kinda tried, but it ended up being nostalgia-bait and not too great standing by itself.
Does stuff like Uncharted/Tomb Raider count? I mean those were solid games that are basically platformer shooters?
I loved the 3D platformers from back then, including the ones based on whatever movie was out at the time
I really enjoyed MDK/MDK2 as a kid. I don’t know any modern platformers to comment on quality now vs then.
I thought Tinykin from last year was really good. A bit short, and certainly not the hardest game on earth, but still fun.
