Platform Games
A screenshot of the original Donkey Kong.Platform game, or platformer, is a video game genre characterized by the player having to climb up and down, or jump from and to, platforms and ledges, while fighting enemies and collecting objects required to fully complete the game. Often, the player has the ability to gain powers or weapons, called power-ups. Generally, platform games, due to their unrealistic nature, have cartoon-like graphics, and with the recent advent of cel-shaded animation may appear to be hand-drawn; in addition, platformers' character and adversaries are usually legendary creatures (e.g. dragons and goblins) or anthropomorphic animals (e.g. a gorilla who rolls barrels).
Platform games originated in the early 1980s and made the transition to 3D in the mid-1990s. Sometime after the genre's inception, the term came to describe games where jumping on platforms, as opposed to shooting, was the main gameplay focus. However, many platform games feature projectile weapons, including the Mario and Castlevania franchises.
History
A screenshot of the milestone Super Mario Bros.
The 2D era
Platform games appeared in the early 1980s, when video game consoles were not yet powerful enough to render 3D games. They were confined to static environments fitted to the screens, with the playable character viewed from a profile angle. The protagonist climbed up and down ladders or jumped from platform to platform, often while combating foes and collecting power-ups. The first game of this kind was Donkey Kong, an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in 1981. Soon level advancement changed from being mainly vertical to largely horizontal, as well as introducing multiple screen-width spanning scrolling environments. Pitfall!, released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982, is considered by many to have started the trend. Manic Miner (1983) and its sequel Jet Set Willy (1984) were among the most popular platformers on home computers.
Nintendo's Super Mario Bros., released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, spawned a revolution not only in the platform game genre, but in the video game industry as a whole. It introduced players to huge and intricate worlds, and set a precedent in gameplay and level design for other game developers to follow, and to this day many people consider it one of the best games ever made. Its popularity was unprecedented, and its record sales of 40.23 million copies worldwide is still unmatched. The game was for many the first experience of a platformer and solidified Mario's position as Nintendo's mascot.
The popularity of platform games continued into the 1990s, with many titles being released for the handheld Game Boy and Game Gear, and the 16-bit Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. A trend following the release of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 was for developers to create platform games starring a funny animal cartoon character often intended to become the mascot of their developer; examples include Earthworm Jim, Zool, Cool Spot, Donkey Kong Country, and Rocket Knight Adventures. Frequently, games based upon licenced films, TV show, and comic book franchises would be platformers, such as those based on Aladdin, Jurassic Park, Batman, James Bond, and Mickey Mouse.
A common criticism of platform games (particulary licensed games, which are often rushed to release to meet concurrent release with the property they're based on) was their lack of originality in chosen subject matter, generally falling back on standard snow-, fire- or jungle-themed environments and linear level structure. Games such as Earthworm Jim were widely praised for moving away from the formulaic and into more surreal and imaginative settings.
Although the number of 2D platform games created has declined since the mid-1990s, when the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo began to be abandoned in favor of systems with stronger 3D capabilities, the genre has enjoyed continued success on handheld devices such as the Game Boy Advance.
The 3D era
Super Mario 64 replaced the linear obstacle courses of traditional
platform games with vast worlds.
The term "3D platformer" may refer either to a gameplay involving all three dimensions, a use of real-time 3D polygons in levels and characters, or both of these. The advent of 3D platformers brought a change in the goals of some platformers. In most 2D platformers, the player only had to reach a single goal to complete a level, but in many 3D platformers, each level had to be combed for collectable items such as puzzle pieces (Banjo-Kazooie) or stars (Super Mario 64). This allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for thorough exploration, but some found collecting countless trinkets more tedious than challenging. Donkey Kong 64 was widely criticized because of how the player had to frequently rotate between five different characters in order to pick up different colors of bananas and other items. However, not all 3D platformers were like this, most notably Crash Bandicoot. It remained true to the 2D tradition by using fairly linear levels, each with a goal at the end.
Some of the earliest 3D platform games were released on the Sega Saturn: Clockwork Knight was released in December 1994 as a launch game in Japan (and subsequently as a launch game in the U.S.) While the game featured levels and boss characters rendered in 3D, it could be considered "2.5D" due to its 2D gameplay and the use of prerendered 2D sprites for regular characters, similar to Donkey Kong Country (the sequel improved upon this with some 3D effects such as hopping between the foreground and background, or the camera panning and curving around a corner). Bug!, another Saturn game that was released in 1996, used 3D level designs but restricted the player to set paths (which often went left-to-right more than front-to-back). Its characters were sprite-based (while the developer claimed that all characters were "rendered in glorious 3D"[1], a less misleading word would be "prerendered"). Another 3D platfomer was on the Sony PlayStation - Jumping Flash!, released in April 1995, was one of the earliest games for the system, and predated Super Mario 64 by over a year. The game used mostly 3D polygons and featured a first-person perspective.
Though Super Mario 64, released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan in June 1996, was not the first 3D platformer, it redefined the genre and became the landmark game which set the rules for following titles of the type. The gameplay was innovative in allowing the player to explore large 3D environments in all dimensions at will. Nintendo's newly introduced analog control stick, allowing for 360 degrees of movement, was another strong factor in its success. Moreover, while most 2D titles had previously consisted of a fairly linear path through the game, progressing from easy to difficult levels, Super Mario 64 used a central hub for access to levels, which became the predominant design.
Following successful series of 3D platform games in 1990s include Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, both for the PlayStation.
In 2002, Super Mario Sunshine, the second 3D Mario game, was released. Although not as revolutionary as its predecessor, it features difficult platform areas that were similar to some levels from Super Mario 64.
A notable use of characters in the sixth generation era is the characters being paired or grouped together, pioneered by Banjo-Kazooie in 1998. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sonic Heroes are examples of these types of paired games. The derivation of the platform genre can also be seen by the genre being mixed with action, tactical, and other genres: Blinx, Maximo, and Sly Cooper are good examples.
The complaints over lack of innovation carried over with the transition from 2D to 3D, but new criticisms sprang up as well. The most major largely focused on the difficulty of creating a consistently unobtrusive in-game camera system. 2D platformers were not susceptible to the problems of judging jumps through 3D environments on a 2D screen with little more than a tiny shadow on the ground to guide the player to the correct landing spot (problems which were even more obvious when the player was jumping "towards the screen"). Worse still was cameras getting "stuck" behind objects in the gameworld, obscuring the action at critical moments. Developers have attempted to alleviate these problems in various ways: making objects between the camera and the player's avatar semi-transparent; introducing "free cameras" which increased flexibility but required input from the player to control the camera as well as their character; Tomb Raider used grid-like layouts for platforms so that the experienced player could tell whether they could "make" a jump as long as they used the correct button press; the more recent Galleon attempted to unify character and camera control. To this date, arguably no platform game has been completely free from this type of criticism: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was praised for flexible and spectacular camera angles during exploration sequences, but suffered during combat sections.
Chronology of significant platform games
A timeline of significant platform games.
Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1981) - First game featuring Mario (known as Jumpman
at the time).
Space Panic (Universal, 1980).
Pitfall! (Activision, 1982) - First platformer that originated on a console.
Miner 2049er (Big Five Software, 1982).
Jumpman (Epyx, 1983).
Manic Miner (Bug-Byte, 1983) and its sequel Jet Set Willy (1984).
Chuckie Egg (A'n'F, 1983).
Monty on the Run (Gremlin Graphics, 1985) - ZX Spectrum & CBM 64 classic.
Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985) - Perhaps the most well known platformer;
best-selling game of all time.
Mega Man (Rockman) (Capcom, 1987)
Haunted Castle (Konami, 1988)
Captain Comic (Michael Denio, 1988) - Possibly first PC platformer.
Prince of Persia (Br?erbund, 1989) - Renowned for high-quality animation.
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo, 1990) - Highest grossing console game before
Pok?on.
Commander Keen (id Software, 1990) - First major PC platformer.
Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991) - First platform game to be considered a
rival to the Mario series.
Another World (Delphine Software, 1991) and Flashback (1992) - Praised for
cinematic qualities and fluid and realistic animation of human characters.
ToeJam and Earl (Sega, 1992) - First platformer where two playable characters
played a significant role.
Aladdin (Genesis version, Virgin Interactive, 1993) - One of the first
widely-praised film-licenced games; the game's graphics were created by Disney
animators who had worked on the film.
Jazz Jackrabbit (Epic MegaGames, 1994).
Earthworm Jim (Shiny Entertainment, 1994).
Donkey Kong Country (Rareware, 1994) - The game's 2D sprites were created from
pre-rendered 3D graphics.
Clockwork Knight (SEGA Entertainment, 1994) - Early 2.5D platformer; levels and
bosses rendered in 3D, with 2D gameplay and pre-rendered sprites.
Jumping Flash! (Exact, 1995) - Early 3D platformer; first PS1 platformer; 3D
models and gameplay.
Bug! (Realtime Associates, 1995) - Early 3D platformer; limited-3D gameplay,
pre-rendered 2D sprites.
Super Mario 64 (Nintendo EAD, 1996) - Highly innovative (and widely-acclaimed)
free-roaming 3D platform game.
Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog, 1996) - The only other platform game considered to
be a major rival to Mario.
Tomb Raider (Core Design, 1996) - Brought the adventure, puzzle and exploration
aspects of games such as Prince of Persia into 3D.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Popular 2D game, similar to Super Metroid;
demonstrated continuing popularity of 2D gaming on newer consoles.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (Epic MegaGames, 1998) - First online platformer.
Spyro the Dragon (Insomniac, 1998).
Banjo-Kazooie (Rare, 1998) - Introduced the paired videogame protagonist.
Sonic Adventure (Sega, 1999) - Successfully brought Sonic into 3D.
Prince of Persia 3D - (Red Orb Entertainment, 1999) - Transferred Prince of
Persia into 3D. Did not fare terribly well; mostly eclipsed by Sands of Time.
American McGee's Alice (Rogue Entertainment, 2000) - Possibly first dark
platformer or "M" rated platformer.
Conker's Bad Fur Day (Rare, 2001) - One of the first adult-aimed platformers,
also one of the first games to combine platforming and third-person shooting.
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (Naughty Dog, 2001) - First completely
free-roaming game where there are no levels or loading screens.
Super Mario Sunshine (Nintendo, 2002).
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (Sucker Punch, 2002). The first platform
game to use cel-shaded graphics.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - (Ubisoft, 2003) - Considered to be the true 3D
successor of the Prince of Persia series. It is known for having the elements of
an action/adventure while keeping true to its platformer roots. It is also
credited for its unique gameplay feature that allows the player to manipulate
time within the game.
Psychonauts (Majesco, 2005) - Game by Tim Schafer, considered the best
multi-console platform game in sixth generation era.
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