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Your Opinion on the Platforming Genre

Justac00lguy

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Years ago, platforming was probably the biggest and most competitive genre in gaming. From the 2D sidescrollers like Megaman, Sonic and of course Super Mario Bros. to the transition into 3D with the revolutionary Super Mario 64. The latter inspired tons of great platforms in what was considered to be the "Golden Era" of gaming - take that phrase as you will though.

Fast forward to the 7th generation and it seems the market has heavily declined. You have the Mario games that continue to innovate as much as they can, but they simply face no competition; it's almost become a genre of its own. And apart from Mario you have a couple of platformers on the Playstation and indie titles, but the genre itself just doesn't feel the same. Maybe it's the evolution of gaming, I'm not sure. There just isn't any big mainstream attention like there was ten 10-15 years ago

Anyway, what's your current opinion on the Platforming genre? Do you feel it's still as good as ever, or do you feel otherwise? If so, would you like to see it make a comeback?
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
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To be honest, I've never been a big fan of the platforming genre. Aside from Sonic, there aren't many platforming games I like. I prefer games that play like Zelda. So, I guess my opinion on the platforming genre is "boring". It never really clicked with me. I guess the only reason Sonic did was because it was more fast-paced than the others. I don't really have an opinion on how it's evolved, seeing as it's not my type of game. I guess the more 3D they are, the more I like it. I guess I just don't like the side-scrolling aspect of some platformers.
 

Mercedes

つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
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Commercially the Mario games don't have much competition but definitely not critically, Ubisoft's new Rayman games instantly spring to mind as a shining example of some new platforming games. And yet, despite how good the Rayman games were, neither of them really achieved great success in terms of sales and I can't really think of any memorable, new platforming games that achieved any significant success either. Tis a shame.

As for my opinion on it, I think it's a great genre but it's kind of like puzzle games to me, in that I like puzzles but I don't want nothing but puzzles. Take Portal for instance, fun game, but I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed it without the great writing and characters. They held my interest while I went through the game. Similarly, I don't really like platformer games without additional offerings. Even Rayman Legends, which was probably the best platformer I've played since Galaxy got a little boring near the end, and none of the recent 2D Mario games, or 3D, did any better. Much worse. They didn't have that same hold as Portal did when the gameplay perhaps dragged on a bit. Maybe platformers aren't selling as good because a lot of people are like me in this regard? Or perhaps I'm just different with this opinion. Or modern gamers just dislike platformers! Who knows.
 

Salem

SICK
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May 18, 2013
I like platforming games, they're my favourite genre, I's kinda sad that aside from Mario and Sonic to some extend there isn't a lot of competitors besides Rayman, still there's indie gaming to look forward too, Shovel Knight and soon to be released A hat in time.^^
 
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Deleted member 14134

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Besides Mario the best platformers today seem to come from indie developers. For example super meat boy and limbo were two of the best games I've ever played for a fraction of the price of a Mario game. I'd like to see more creative indie platformers to be released within the coming years.

Also I'm looking forward to the game "Inside" from the developers of Limbo later next year.
 

Justac00lguy

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Besides Mario the best platformers today seem to come from indie developers. For example super meat boy and limbo were two of the best games I've ever played for a fraction of the price of a Mario game. I'd like to see more creative indie platformers to be released within the coming years.

Also I'm looking forward to the game "Inside" from the developers of Limbo later next year.
I'd like for these "indie" platformer to become more than just your average cheap game and maybe make the transition into a main series. Maybe all it takes is for these companies to put enough investment into reinvigorating the genre by taking that one risk. Because at the moment you only have one platformer out performing the rest as an actual mainstream game and that's only on the one platform. There's a lot of room for a company to move in and claim that territory on either PS4 or Xbox One.
 

Chinagin

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Love the platforming genre, but it needs to have some depth and innovation, rather than "jump here...and again...and again..." looking at you New Super Mario Bros series

Favorite platformer ever is Glover. That game took high intelligence and great patience to master. Any time anyone says that they hate it or that it sucks, I shake my head and mutter "you have so much to learn".
 

Hanyou

didn't build that
The decline of the platforming genre is part of what has made gaming far, far less interesting to me since the Dreamcast's death. That the FPS has replaced platformers as the industry's go-to genre is just awful for me.

Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic Generations were a couple of my favorite last-gen games. Wish we had more like them.

With the Donkey Kong Country Returns and Super Mario Galaxy series, I firmly believe that the best recent platformers could stand with the best platformers of the past--if only we had more of them.
 
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platforming is like my speciality but obviously zelda is not a platformer except zelda 2 what if zelda was a platformer like the 3d mario games that would be really interesting.
 

Mamono101

生きることは痛みを知ること。
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The platformer genre was what I played for most of my early years of gaming and I think that there has been a decline in the sense that the modern platformer, unless an indie title, lacks innovation. I also turn to platformers such as Rain, Braid, The Bridge and Limbo when trying to get across what I feel a platformer should be. Each one of those titles has some sort of unique tool which makes for interesting puzzle solving.

It's this very same puzzle solving that I find lacking in modern titles and is what I enjoy most about gaming (outside of the story). As Hanyou pointed out, the FPS genre is getting almost preferential treatment when it comes to games and their conception. Very little attention is being given to puzzles in games of any genre outside of flipping a switch and being done with it. An easy example of this is the Resident Evil and Splinter Cell titles which began to focus more on action oriented gameplay. Even modern Zelda titles have toned down the puzzles.

I've also always preferred the earlier Mario games to their new iterations and I think overall, my preference is for the 2D platformer over the 3D platformer but occasionally a I'll stumble across a game that I feel got it right. The most recent example of this that I can think of is the Where The Wild Things Are Wii game. It's probably the most recent 3D platformer that I've played and actually enjoyed, despite all the negative criticism that that game gets.
 

Kylo Ken

I will finish what Spyro started
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Ohio
I can't help but to think of that Dorkly skit about this. But yeah, platforming will never get old, it's just so good. For me, Nintendo always had the best platforming games.

"MY GIRLFRIEND HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED, I HAVE TO SAVE HER, WITH JUMPING!"
 

Snow Queen

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I think the platforming genre is timeless, yet kind of stale at the same time. Platforming games never really get old, but not much new and interesting things have been done with the genre. Overall I think it's one of the better genres due to it's sheer lastability, but I want something fun and exciting done with it.
 

Akuhime-sama

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I don't really think "platforming" should be really considered a genre... I mean, most games are platformers.
You can have multiple platformers with different genres.

Like- there are Adventure platformers, and then there are RPG Platformers, and such...
They're both platformers, but different genres.

Because what defines a platformer, is the jumping from one platform to another. That's an aspect of gameplay that is used so much that doesn't really make it a whole genre.
That's kind of like saying that games that use controllers are their own genre.... a LOT -in fact nearly all- video games use controllers. It doesn't quantify it being a genre.

--

But I digress... In terms of the platforming aspect, I really don't think it's much of an issue in determining what you like in a game. It's just kind of something that's there. Yes, at times it can get annoying, (like- if you fall from a high place and there are no easy ways back up), but that depends on other things, not the jumping alone.

So, I can't really answer, since I just find it as a neutral factor in a game, and not a genre at all.

Now, if you ask me how I feel about Adventure genre, then I could say I enjoy it quite well.
 
Last edited:
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I love platformers but I haven't seen a lot that grab me lately. DCKR frustrates me with its sometimes imprecise and weird motion controls, Mario is decent, Mega Man and Kirby are always good fun platformers and I'd like Rayman a little more if he wasn't so floaty but I still have fun with it.
 

Iridescence

Emancipated Wind Fish
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United States
Platformers in the 80's and early 90's, kind of like shooters today, were the best format to make an immersive adventure given the technology.

NES and SNES didn't really have 3D capability, so it was most efficient to focus on moving in one direction, but using up and down to steer your character.

Platformers can still be good today with great atmosphere and interesting level concepts. Super Meat Boy was great. But they have to do more to stand out than they used to.
 

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