3D platformer

The 3D platformer genre was made popular by Super Mario 64.

A 3D platformer is a genre of video game which has similar play style as a platformer, but takes place in a 3D environment. Although isometric platformers simulate a 3D environment, for a game to be considered a 3D platformer, it should use an engine capable of a true 3D environment.

Personal

Like most people, the first 3d platformer I played was Super Mario 64. However, I found the game to be very frustrating with the poor camera tracking and bad controls. Although I put a lot of hours into the game, I never really found it enjoyable. The game soured me on 3d platformers all together, so I've made almost no attempt to play any others, and typically get frustrated at those that even feature 3d platform mechanics, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

History

Game designers began toying with the idea of 3D platformers shortly after platformers came into existence by turning the platformer at an angle to give it an isometric perspective. Congo Bongo released on 1983-02-14, and Crystal Castles, released on 1983-07-08, both have platforms on various levels, and require the player to maneuver their character up and down platforms and jumps over monsters, but these games don't use a true 3D environment, and, because of this, are quite limited in their 3D aspects, so they are in their own genre, isometric platformers.

The first game to use a true six-axis of freedom 3D engine where the player controls a character who jumps around platforms is a little-known game called Continuum (AKA Alpha Waves) released in August 1990. When 3D-accellerated consoles were released, developers began taking advantage of them and released Jumping Flash! on 1995-08-28, a first-person 3d platformer, and Floating Runner: Quest for the 7 Crystals on 1996-01-19, which uses the more common third-person perspective. However, the game that really defined the genre is Super Mario 64, released on 1996-06-23. Not long after that, the 3D platformer became much more popular on the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation platforms, and continues in popularity to this day.

Games

This is a list of 3D platformers that are important to me. For all games in this genre, see the category.

Title	Released	Developer
Super Mario 64	1996-06-23	Nintendo

Links