by mento
This was something I meant to put together closer to the announcement that Yooka-Laylee had been successfully funded. Here's a list of all the 3D platformers I've played, and my thoughts on them. There's gaps, of course. As well as the vast number of terrible licensed platformers, which didn't skip a beat in their unimaginative aping of bigger games when switching to 3D, there's a few gems that I somehow ignored.
3D platformers are one of my favorite genres, because they appeal to both my pre-existing love of their 2D ancestors and to my obsessive need to hunt for collectibles. In the present day, the genre's either fizzled out with the exception of big names like Mario or Ratchet & Clank, or they've evolved to become open-world games (depending on your interpretation of whether the two are closely linked or not). Either way, I'm stoked to see the "pure" 3D platformer model make a return to the big stage.
As a public service similar in manner to the "Aged Well" rating for the older items in my PC Games Memento list, I've also included a "TACO Hell" rating with each of the following 3D platformers. This should give you some idea of how much emphasis is placed on collectibles, with 1 being minimal (such as Conker's Bad Fur Day) and 5 being excessive to the point of ludicrousness (e.g. Donkey Kong 64).
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The granddaddy of the genre in many respects. Like Doom, it may not have originated the genre, but it was the first to codify it and invite endless imitators. I still consider this to be my second favorite Mario game after World. (TACO Hell: 3. Between the 120 Stars and the various 100-Coin Challenges for every course, there was plenty of collecting to do. It's probably sensible to use Mario 64's collectibles as our mean standard, honestly.)
I'm still a huge fan of 64's divisive follow-up, as it recreated a lot of what made Mario 64 a secret success: its challenges were mechanically and thematically diverse, it had a great sense of atmosphere and it controlled like a dream. Well, mostly. FLUDD could get a little finicky at times. (TACO Hell 3: Those 30 blue coins per stage were so well-hidden.)
Mario Galaxy was a huge deal at the time, the way it played around with gravity and physics on top of everything else. Unlike the prior two games, it didn't have to build a single world and set a bunch of challenges around it. It was free to create smaller but more thematically-focused stages and cut out a lot of dead weight. (TACO Hell: 2. You were only looking for stars this time, though there were 241 to find across two playthroughs.)
A lot more of the first. Odd that this got the GameSpot 10/10 and the first didn't. Probably inconsequential. It's still good. (TACO Hell: 2. Man, those Prankster Comets.)
Though a lot more linear than the above Mario games, the Super Mario 3D series were still 3D platformers. I recall fond memories of 3D Land, though it took the second harder playthrough to properly get the most out of its ideas. Sadly, most of the originality of the 64/Sunshine/Galaxy era had dissipated by this point. (TACO Hell: 2. Really, it's just those hidden green stars.)
Though 3D World looked great with the Wii U's HD and had a superb presentation all around, it felt just as creatively lacking as 3D Land did. (TACO Hell: 2.)
I suppose this barely counts, but then the idea of the Paper Mario games was to turn the idea of 2D on its head. Or on its side, at least. The first two were RPGs but this one felt more like a standard platformer. (TACO Hell: 2. Not an emphasis, but there's still some items to find.)
Wario World was a curious and not-bad take on the Wario Land series, which I'm chagrined to admit I fell off of right after the first one. (TACO Hell: 4. Wario's avaricious nature meant there was a lot of treasure to run back and forth to get, including a whole spectrum-themed collectible sidequest for each stage.)
I adore the Ape Escape games and the first was easily the best platformer for the original PlayStation, which saw what the N64 was doing and created a number of oddball experiments that didn't quite cause Nintendo any worry. I mean, the PS1's incredible RPG and racing game libraries sure did, but 3D platformers? Nah. (TACO Hell: 3. The whole game is about collecting monkeys. To the game's credit, the monkeys were hardly floating around passively.)
The jump to PS2 didn't diminish Ape Escape one bit, and it ramped up the goofy comedy and the collectibles to befit the generational leap. (TACO Hell: 4. We now have the Gachapon machine with hundreds of randomized collectible junk items up for grabs whenever you found the tokens to feed it.)
