Your favourite 3D platformers

2D Sonic is very much a game about exploration

And as much as some levels encourage speed you get a lot of levels where slower "standard" platforming is pretty much the norm

Hmm 3D platformers are basically my favourite type of game so it may be a little hard to narrow it down but I'll have a go

Odyssey! no wait, 64! no, Sunshine! no, Galaxy! no, Galaxy 2! no, BK! no, Tooie! no, Billy Hatcher! no, Yooka Laylee! no A Hat in Time! AAAAAAH! *head explodes*

Rapidly-Greying wrote:In this age of remakes and remasters, you'd think a ground up remake of SM64 using the Odyssey engine would be a no brainer for Nintendo to make.

No way Jose!

Odyssey is brilliant but 64 is still also brilliant with its own flavour of heavier, weightier, whoosh-sound-ier, belly-dive-ier, rocketing triple-jumpier feel compared with Odyssey.

Also that super-jump in a vertical tube thing in Jack&Daxter still looks and feels great!

deathofcows wrote:

Rapidly-Greying wrote:In this age of remakes and remasters, you'd think a ground up remake of SM64 using the Odyssey engine would be a no brainer for Nintendo to make.

No way Jose!

Odyssey is brilliant but 64 is still also brilliant with its own flavour of heavier, weightier, whoosh-sound-ier, belly-dive-ier, rocketing triple-jumpier feel compared with Odyssey.

Also that super-jump in a vertical tube thing in Jack&Daxter still looks and feels great!

Great isn't it

I always love the little basketball power cell dunk animation. Also really impressive for the time was being able to see the other levels from the one you were currently in.

I don't want a remake of that game, but I want a sequel that's not all emo guns and stuff. Just give me a proper platformer again.

Early noughties was a weird time so I can understand how they would have felt the pressure to do something different with the sequels but it's still depressing how quickly they abandoned the Jak 1 formula for something which, IMO, is significantly worse.

Anyone with a PC who wants to revisit the original Jak would do well to check out the OpenGOAL project (https://opengoal.dev/) which is essentially a reimplementation of the games engine for modern platforms - basically lets you play the first game (and mostly the second with some issues) on PC taking advantage of better resolutions, framerates etc.

Rocket Robot On Wheels was amazing but is sadly lost to limbo now. Released by Sucker Punch (the Infamous / Ghost of Tsushima lot) on N64 in 1999, published by UbiSoft. Lord knows what agreements would need to be made to secure a re-release.

deathofcows wrote:With PS Plus I downloaded Jak and Daxter ... really enjoying it!

The unskippable cutscenes are the worst part about replaying Jak and Daxter, and especially the opening cutscene which is pretty lengthy. I love the characters and world, but sometimes I just want to play! Fortunately the rest of the series has skippable cutscenes, but while I adore all of the Jak games I suspect the sequels might not be to your taste - Jak II (which is probably my overall favourite) and Jak 3 are "variety platformers" as opposed to strict 3D platformers in the sense they are genre fluid, open world games with missions that are a whole mix of platforming, shooting (including on rails and twin stick), racing (of various kinds), skateboarding, arcade-style minigames, and even aerial combat.

I don't think the advanced moveset is tutorialised in Jak and Daxter but it's well worth playing with, especially knowing you value character game-feel. Spoilering just in case:

deathofcows wrote:Also (just to make this the most ORKN-y post ever) I also downloaded Klonoa because it's on PS Plus, too. I know it's 2.5D not 3D but that's fun too! (even though old PS1 graphics look cooler to me in the same way J&D looks pretty awesome to me even now!)

Is this your first time playing the original, after having played the remake? I do think the original looks the best with its distinctive 2D sprites on 3D environments. Of course it's also just a great game

Victor Mildew wrote:I don't want a remake of that game, but I want a sequel that's not all emo guns and stuff. Just give me a proper platformer again.

Daxter (PSP) recently got a PS5 release, it's the closest to the first game as a pure platformer and well worth playing!

I also really liked The Lost Frontier (PSP/PS2) which has a significant aerial dogfighting portion to it, and some pretty middling werehog-style "dark daxter" levels, but otherwise is again much more of a platformer as it drops the guns and brings back eco powers. Of the two though Daxter is definitely the one to play.

I really tried to give Daxter a go but it's just a horrible experience playing a PSP game with the associated borked controls and visuals in 2024 on a big screen. It's also set in the Jak II era setting so therefore is inherently less interesting and likeable than Precursor Legacy!

Yeah I don't know what the upscaling is like for TV play. Camera on L/R is fine though!

The mini-hub is very Jak II but the various levels are a good mix of locations - hotel, construction site, sewers, fish factory all fit well with the pest control theme. It's definitely much more colourful and closer to Precursor Legacy in tone.

OrangeRKN wrote:Yeah I don't know what the upscaling is like for TV play. Camera on L/R is fine though!

The mini-hub is very Jak II but the various levels are a good mix of locations - hotel, construction site, sewers, fish factory all fit well with the pest control theme. It's definitely much more colourful and closer to Precursor Legacy in tone.

The upscaling was Not Good™

I might look into other means of playing it to see if those fare better...

OrangeRKN wrote:

deathofcows wrote:With PS Plus I downloaded Jak and Daxter ... really enjoying it!

I don't think the advanced moveset is tutorialised in Jak and Daxter but it's well worth playing with, especially knowing you value character game-feel. Spoilering just in case:

crouch + jump = high jump
crouch + punch = uppercut
punch + jump = punch followed by uppercut
roll + jump = long jump
long jump + x = high jump on landing

deathofcows wrote:Also (just to make this the most ORKN-y post ever) I also downloaded Klonoa because it's on PS Plus, too. I know it's 2.5D not 3D but that's fun too! (even though old PS1 graphics look cooler to me in the same way J&D looks pretty awesome to me even now!)

Is this your first time playing the original, after having played the remake? I do think the original looks the best with its distinctive 2D sprites on 3D environments. Of course it's also just a great game

Great heads up on extra moves! Currently away but look forward to trying on getting back!

And sorry for my confusing message but it's actually the remake Klonoa I was playing on PS Plus! I've just looked up the old (PS1 and Wii) versions on YouTube.

Jenuall wrote:Uh, it was bad enough when people were having the gall to include one Banjo game in their lists, but two of them?

Had a google around and found this site which lists 164 games that they categorise as 3D platformers: Every 3D Platformer Ever Made

I don't think it's exhaustive and the criteria they use is a bit different to OR's suggestion but it's an interest list. It does surprise me that there haven't been more of these games in the ~25 years that the genre has existed

Mario Sunshine is missing from this list, how odd

Herdanos wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Uh, it was bad enough when people were having the gall to include one Banjo game in their lists, but two of them?

Had a google around and found this site which lists 164 games that they categorise as 3D platformers: Every 3D Platformer Ever Made

I don't think it's exhaustive and the criteria they use is a bit different to OR's suggestion but it's an interest list. It does surprise me that there haven't been more of these games in the ~25 years that the genre has existed

Mario Sunshine is missing from this list, how odd

What a shame

I thought I'd total how many games from that list I've played and I came to 33/164, or 20% of the genre (obviously the list is a few years out of date and not exhaustive). Not too bad!

I just tallied up mine now and spookily I've also played 33! I wonder how much overlap we've got, my list spoilered below if anyone is interested:



It is a bit of an odd list really, seems quite arbitrary around what is included and what isn't (why no Sonic Heroes or Unleashed for example?!)

I'm playing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy again for the first time since I originally completed it about 20 years ago
It's great though, really enjoying it, and I'd forgotten so much about it that it's like playing it for the first time again.

Victor Mildew wrote:I always love the little basketball power cell dunk animation.

I love that too - so satisfying to watch.

Love 3D platformers in general. Here's the ones I've played from that big list, although there are some on there that I own but haven't yet played.