Category:Platform Game: Difference between revisions

{{IndexTrope|wppage=Platform game}}

For many years, the dominant form of console video game. The [['''Platform Game]]''' or [['''Platformer]]''' is characterized by gameplay dominated by leaping over or [[Goomba Stomp|onto]] enemy characters and between platforms of varying heights. In the traditional 2D platformer, play progresses from left to right. Other such games, mostly involving infiltration or return scenarios, choose the sneaky approach from the right. Some games (especially older ones) [[Ratchet Scrolling|only allow movement in one direction]]. An [[Auto Scrolling]] platformer advances the scenery independent of the [[Player Character]]'s movement, and thus the player can be pinned by a platform as it scrolls off the screen. Auto scrolling was rare for entire games, but frequently appeared for individual levels.

The 3D equivalent to the platformer is almost always rendered in the third person, as with ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]'', but ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' and its sequels are considered by many to be hybrids of the 3d Platformer and the [[First-Person Shooter]] (with [[Metroidvania]] elements, of course). The only straight first-person platformer series is ''[[Jumping Flash]]'' Lately, many games have been combining elements of Third-Person [[Action Game|Action Games]]s as well, such as the ''[[Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy|Jak and Daxter]]'' and ''[[Ratchet & Clank|Ratchet and Clank]]'' series.

Like most game genres, platformers are steadily [[Evolving Trope|evolving]] with the times; they started as linear obstacle courses, but gradually became less linear, with multiple level paths, [[Hub Level|playable overworld areas]], and/or map screens with different routes; eventually, the genre even began branching into the [[Metroidvania]] genre. They became much less linear with the jump to 3D, and became known as '[[Gotta Catch Em All|collectathon]]' titles. [[Super Mario 64|The]] [[Banjo-Kazooie|first]] [[Gex|few]] were fine, but after the thousandth or so knock-off, gamers eventually began to get sick of this. As a result, "collectathon" titles began waning in popularity. As of rightthe now2010s, the genre is in a weird stage of either being based on particular gimmicks, or going back to its roots. The former became puzzle games of a sort (eventually becoming prevalent enough [[Puzzle Platformer|to be considered a sub-genre]]), and the latter tend to be more linear, pure platforming challenges, and spawned the [[Platform Hell]] phenomenon.

Subgenres include [[Cinematic Platform Game]] (which has a more realistic style), [[Platform Hell]] (which is [[Harder Than Hard|really, really freaking hard]]<ref>Let's, put[[Harder itThan thisHard|harder wayeven]] -than [[Nintendo Hard]] is an understatement!</ref> - no, ''seriously''), and [[Puzzle Platformer]] (which combines elements of [[Puzzle Game|Puzzle Games]]s).

[[Category:PlatformVideo Game Genres]]

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