Tuesday, June 7, 2022

3D platformers index and rough ranking

at 1:58 PM
UPDATE 5/24/22: 
- added Kirby FL (vague ranking) 
- added Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon after playing through the first dungeon. It's got some platforming

The following aren't ranked by core platforming gameplay alone, rather as complete experiences; great aesthetics benefit a platformer as much as any other game. As I add each game to the list, I ask myself: if I already possesssed all the games listed above, which of those remaining would I take next? Think of it like picking a kickball team. Every game ranked I have beaten from beginning to end! Most of them were 100%-cleared. 

3D PLATFORM GAMES tier list sorta

    S-tier; which are unique and as close to perfect as one can ask

  1. Super Mario Galaxy
  2. Super Mario 64
  3. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
  4. Ape Escape
  5. Rayman Revolution
  6. Sonic Adventure 2
  7. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
  8. Super Mario Odyssey

  9. A-tier; good ideas well-executed, challenging and rewarding

  10. Castlevania (64)
  11. Candleman
  12. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
  13. Super Mario 3D Land
  14. Sly Cooper & the Thievious Raccoonus
  15. Maximo: Army of Zin
  16. Sonic Generations
  17. Jak & Daxter
  18. Spyro the Dragon
  19. Super Mario Galaxy 2
  20. Jumping Flash! 2
  21. Bomberman Hero
  22. Rayman 3D
  23. Banjo-Kazooie
  24. Adventures of Cookie & Cream

    ? tier; both great and terrible


  25. Sonic Adventure - What the fuck is going on here? But when the Sonic character gameplay is left alone it's a free-form experimental high speed analog genius. That's about 15% of the content included.
  26. De Blob - The idea of directly interacting with surfaces is a fantastic one for a platformer. The idea of a motion controlled jump is a diabolical one. The Switch version may be worth visiting.

  27. B-tier; solid but dominated by better alternatives

  28. Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
  29. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
  30. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
  31. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - Fantastic story and a decent world structure, strong theming to the platforming but simple and with very limited movement
  32. Super Mario Sunshine
  33. Wario World
  34. Sonic Heroes
  35. Super Mario 3D World
  36. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
  37. Ape Escape 2
  38. De Blob 2 - De Blob already outlived its core idea, this is artifically distended even further with completion percentages and sidescrolling sublevels. Still a solid foundation, and there's a jump button now!
  39. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
  40. Rayman 2 (PS1)
  41. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
  42. Jumping Flash! - identical to its sequel, with a less challenging "hard" mode.
  43. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
  44. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

  45. C-tier; ones you can learn to live with, if you so choose

  46. Sonic and the Black Knight - The controls are a huge hurdle to get over and never more than 90% reliable - after that this is arguably the purest 3D speed-based Sonic game.
  47. Crash Bandicoot - Rudimentary and one-dimensional, but very well-made and fluid.
  48. Psychonauts - Not any fun to play or mechanically challenging, but the metaphorical level design is earnest and thoughtful. The anti-Bandicoot.
  49. Pac-Man World - Glaringly inconsistent and full of jank, with respectably element-focused level design.
  50. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - A completely ruined camera and redesigned stages that removes most of the challenging skill tests with easy but irregular and repetititious lilypad platforming
  51. Mega Man X7 - Alternatingly painful and impressive.
  52. American McGee's Alice
  53. Sonic: Lost World

  54. D-tier; mechanically unsound and unpredictable; far more irritation than value

  55. Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee - An alpha kit with fan created levels, always approximating ideas instead of creating them organically, though this is the one I am sorriest to rank so low.
  56. Rayman 3 - The direst expression of the 3Dplat's fatal flaw, combat. That it's supported only by poorly utilized power-ups and trivial jumping challenges is damning.
  57. Medievil - The jankiest game on this list, with all kinds of random interactions and glitchy behavior. 
  58. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy - Crash is a tightly mechanical near-rhythm platformer. An adaptation that changes the tuning and nothing else is insane.
  59. Jak II - One of the worst games I've ever played; utterly pointless meandering time-waster with arbitrary challenges as miserable balance. A tech showcase made unplayable.

Notable gaps I'll probably one day cover 

(red = in progress)
  1. Ape Escape 3 - I liked 2, but it was unremarkable compared to the first.
  2. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - It's Yuji Naka, but it's also Billy Hatcher.
  3. Bionic Commando ('09) - If this counts, do I need to include Spider-Man games?
  4. Donkey Kong 64 - About 15% complete. Gruelingly boring, flat, and repetitious
  5. Epic Mickey - Depends on Epic Mickey 2. I got that one free.
  6. Epic Mickey 2 - Dubious, but it's a late representative.
  7. Frogun - etc
  8. I-Ninja - Wild-card.
  9. Jak 3 - The Sony sequel mantra was "simplify the platforming and add minigames", so this is dubious.
  10. Mirror's Edge - Major gap. Potential gateway to other FPPs like Cloudbuilt and Clustertruck.
  11. Pac-Man World 2 - Wildcard.
  12. Prince of Persia ('08) - A dead end, but worth a look.
  13. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii) - The 360 one went too far brawler to qualify.
  14. Rocket: Robot on Wheels - Wildcard. Would need to emulate.
  15. Shinobi ('02) - About 80% through, and not sure it counts.
  16. Sly 2: Band of Thieves - About 30% through. Hardly qualifies.
  17. Sonic Unleashed - Werehog.
  18. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage - Similar-looking sequel.
  19. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz: HD - About 95% through.
  20. Vexx - About 80% through.

Notable gaps I'll probably never cover

  1. Banjo-Tooie - I don't love Rare and hear this is even more distracted than Kazooie.
  2. Bubsy 3D - I probably should.
  3. Conker's Bad Fur Day - Banjo-Kazooie's aesthetic is already hard enough to stomach.
  4. Pac-Man World 3 - Depends on Pac-Man World 2.
  5. Prince of Persia 3D - Need a way to play it.
  6. Ratchet & Clank - The three I've played are *so* similar, even if this is the original.
  7. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - depends on Sly 2.
  8. Sonic the Hedgehog ('06) - If it wasn't for the load times I'd suffer through.
  9. Spyro: Year of the Dragon - Depends on Spyro 2, but knowing Insomniac...
  10. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - infuriatingly, this is not the same game as the HD one.
  11. Yooka-Laylee - we'll have to see how the new wave of 3D platformer fangames fares.

Others that exist

  1. 40 Winks
  2. A Hat in Time
  3. Balan Wonderworld
  4. Blue Fire
  5. Chameleon Twist
  6. Chameleon Twist 2
  7. Cloudbuilt
  8. Clustertruck
  9. Croc
  10. Croc 2
  11. Crash: Twinsanity
  12. Geograph Seal
  13. Gex 3D
  14. Glover
  15. It Takes Two
  16. Jett Rocket
  17. Medievil 2
  18. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
  19. Ratchet & Clank Future: Into the Nexus
  20. Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
  21. Scaler
  22. Shadow the Hedgehog
  23. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
  24. Sonic and the Secret Rings
  25. Sonic Colors
  26. Sonic Forces
  27. Tonic Trouble

Master list

  1. 40 Winks
  2. A Hat in Time
  3. Adventures of Cookie & Cream
  4. American McGee's Alice
  5. Ape Escape
  6. Ape Escape 2
  7. Ape Escape 3
  8. Balan Wonderworld
  9. Banjo-Kazooie
  10. Banjo-Tooie
  11. Bionic Commando ('09)
  12. Blue Fire
  13. Bomberman Hero
  14. Bubsy 3D
  15. Candleman
  16. Castlevania (64)
  17. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
  18. Chameleon Twist
  19. Cloudbuilt
  20. Clustertruck
  21. Conker's Bad Fur Day
  22. Crash Bandicoot
  23. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
  24. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
  25. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
  26. Crash: Twinsanity
  27. Croc
  28. Croc 2
  29. De Blob
  30. De Blob 2
  31. Donkey Kong 64
  32. Epic Mickey
  33. Epic Mickey 2
  34. Gex 3D
  35. Geograph Seal
  36. Glover
  37. I-Ninja
  38. It Takes Two
  39. Jak & Daxter
  40. Jak 2
  41. Jak 3
  42. Jett Rocket
  43. Jumping Flash!
  44. Jumping Flash! 2
  45. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
  46. Maximo: Army of Zin
  47. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
  48. Medievil
  49. Medievil 2
  50. Mega Man X7
  51. Mirror's Edge
  52. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
  53. Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
  54. Pac-Man World
  55. Pac-Man World 2
  56. Pac-Man World 3
  57. Prince of Persia ('08)
  58. Prince of Persia 3D
  59. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
  60. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
  61. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
  62. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
  63. Psychonauts
  64. Ratchet & Clank
  65. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
  66. Ratchet & Clank Future: Into the Nexus
  67. Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
  68. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
  69. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
  70. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
  71. Rayman 2 (PS1)
  72. Rayman 3
  73. Rayman 3D
  74. Rayman Revolution
  75. Rocket: Robot on Wheels
  76. Shadow the Hedgehog
  77. Shinobi ('02)
  78. Sly 2: Band of Thieves
  79. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
  80. Sly Cooper & the Thievious Raccoonus
  81. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
  82. Sonic Adventure
  83. Sonic Adventure 2
  84. Sonic and the Black Knight
  85. Sonic and the Secret Rings
  86. Sonic Colors
  87. Sonic Forces
  88. Sonic Generations
  89. Sonic Heroes
  90. Sonic Lost World
  91. Sonic the Hedgehog ('06)
  92. Sonic Unleashed
  93. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
  94. Spyro the Dragon
  95. Spyro: Year of the Dragon
  96. Super Mario 3D Land
  97. Super Mario 3D World
  98. Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
  99. Super Mario 64
  100. Super Mario Galaxy
  101. Super Mario Galaxy 2
  102. Super Mario Odyssey
  103. Super Mario Sunshine
  104. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
  105. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD
  106. Tonic Trouble
  107. Vexx
  108. Wario World
  109. Yooka-Laylee