A brief history of the 3D platformer

Segataritensoftii · July 9, 2007

Ah, the platformer. A staple of classic and modern gaming. The category of greats such as Super Mario World, Sonic, and Jazz Jackrabbit. The pick-up-and-play genre that has enthralled many since it's introduction in 1981 with Jump Bug, and it's later popularization by Donkey Kong just months later.

The 3D analog of this genre is almost as old as the platformer itself. Let's go way back to 1981, when Sega was looking for a way to cash in on the lucrative success of Donkey Kong. The result: the top-down isometric platformer Congo Bongo (Tip Top for all you europeans). While the graphics weren't exactly true 3D, they were amazing for the time and the 3D game play was innovative. Isometric platformers quickly became very popular on the home computer front, with such classics as 3D Ant Attack, Knightmare, and Head Over Heels leading the way in this new, uncharted world of 3D. There were also other, more innovative efforts, such as Trailblazer, a game where you rolled a ball down a path and jumped over gaps, Kosmonaut, which further capitalized on the 3D aspect by adding above-ground obstacles for the player to avoid, and Impossaball, a side scrolling game where you controlled a bouncing ball by tilting the playfield.

Moving backwards in time to 1984, we take a look at I, Robot, a revolutionary arcade game by Dave Theurer that, while not exactly a platformer, was the first 3D game resembling one using filled polygons. The first true Polygon based 3D platformer using filled polygons would come later, with Alpha Waves (later known as Continuum) in 1990. What is notable about this game is that it has a few elements prevalent in 3D platformers today, such as the behind the back third person perspective a la Mario 64. In 1992, The developers of Kosmonaut released Skyroads, which was basically a version of the same game that allowed jumping on top of higher elevations.

Many of the last few big innovations in 3D platforming would be coming from a certain island nation on the other side of the world, Japan. In 1994, a small developer making games for the humble X68000 platform named Exact made a breakthrough. They had created the first truly workable system for 3D platform games. Using that system was a unique game called Geograph Seal. Geograph Seal managed to give players the same fun, addictive qualities of a 2D platformer while still remaining intuitive and a hell of a lot more fun. This game was in the first person and let the player easily guide him or herself from platform to platform using a very fun triple jumping mechanic and tight and responsive control to help the player with depth perception. Sound familiar? Read on. One year later, Exact created a platformer with very similar gameplay to their Geograph Seal on the PSX. It's name: Jumping Flash. With Jumping Flash, Exact took their style of 3D platforming even further by making a genuinely memorable game that further capitalized on the platforming aspect and made a giant leap (no pun intended) in the history on 3D platform gaming.

Alas, Exact's efforts were all for naught, as there would soon be 3 games that were all making an attempt to be the "be-all, end-all" of 3D platform gaming. Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic Xtreme. Jumping Flash was lost in the rush, and just barely managed to hang on until 1999, when the series was sold to developer house Sugar & Rockets, who killed it by releasing the mediocre Japan-only sequel, Robbit Mon Dieu.

In mid 1996, it already looked like the platform wars had a clear winner. Sonic Xtreme had been cancelled due to poor managment and slow progress, and Crash was not nearly the be-all, end-all game that Sony made it out to be. So there could only be one winner, and here it is. "It's a me, Mario 64!" Yes, that's right, folks. Mario 64 was the winner of the 3D platform wars, and it certainly deserved it's victory. It was memorable, fun, and most of all, versatile. There was just one problem. You kept having to constantly control the freaking camera! Indeed, camera problems plague many 3D platformers these days, so it's easy to see why they've declined so much in popularity. Maybe if the engines from Jumping Flash or Sonic Xtreme had become popular, the platformer would still be extremely popular today because it would have retained much of it's pick up and play qualities in the jump.