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.
noooo its just nostalgia!! games weren’t better, they are better nowww!!!
Games in general have gotten worse, the quality only exists in the indie space nowadays. But there’s 1000s of them, so it’s not easy to find the gems. As for 3PP platformers… I guess the genre isn’t all that appealing to developers. Maybe there will be a new one when someone has an idea for a new fresh take on it. Great games are made from great ideas and passion, rather than them being made to fill a gap in the market.
I mean, I won’t say everything is better, but it’s not exactly as bad as you’re saying either.
Sure, 1000s of games are bad. 1000s of games were bad in the 90s and 2000s too. Bugsby 3D was allowed to exist.
OP isn’t even able to say games back in the day were good as he has already bashed N64 and Gamecube (lame move btw, Goemon’s Great Adventure I still play every year). He’s very much just thinking of PS2.
How many people have missed out on Hat In time exactly?
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.
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
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 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.
There are no 3rd person shooter-platformers on the other consoles, I’ve used a bunch of consoles including N64 and GameCube. They just don’t have the same kinds of games. I wish people would look past the fact they’re old and assuming it’s just a nostalgia thing… I can explain why the PS2 platformers are more complex and detailed and better
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
Can you give us better lists of games that fall into both your good and bad categories?
My hot-take answer was going to be that it’s all nostalgia and there haven’t really been any good ones (at least that I ever was aware of). Given your edit on nostalgia, maybe it’s not nostalgia for an individual game or games, but rather a a time and a style?
