3D platformers index and rough ranking

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

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


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


? tier; both great and terrible


24. 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.
25. 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.

B-tier; solid but dominated by better alternatives


26. Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
27. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
28. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
29. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - Fantastic story and a decent world structure, strong theming to the platforming but simple and with very limited movement
30. Super Mario Sunshine
31. Wario World
32. Sonic Heroes
33. Super Mario 3D World
34. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
35. Ape Escape 2
36. 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!
37. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
38. Rayman 2 (PS1)
39. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
40. Jumping Flash! - identical to its sequel, with a less challenging "hard" mode.
41. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
42. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

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


43. 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.
44. Crash Bandicoot - Rudimentary and one-dimensional, but very well-made and fluid.
45. Psychonauts - Not any fun to play or mechanically challenging, but the metaphorical level design is earnest and thoughtful. The anti-Bandicoot.
46. Pac-Man World - Glaringly inconsistent and full of jank, with respectably element-focused level design.
47. 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
48. Mega Man X7 - Alternatingly painful and impressive.
49. American McGee's Alice
50. Sonic: Lost World

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


51. 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.
52. 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.
53. Medievil - The jankiest game on this list, with all kinds of random interactions and glitchy behavior. 
54. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy - Crash is a tightly mechanical near-rhythm platformer. An adaptation that changes the tuning and nothing else is insane.
55. 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

2018: The worst year yet? in video games?

I started 41 new games this year and finished 43. As the uneven numbers suggest, among the 43 completed were quite a few being cleaned up from previous years, and among the 41 started, many remain in progress. The ratio remains on track from the past couple years*, demonstrating that I'm doing a good job keeping to my one-in/one-out rule. Given that the list is expanding more slowly now, I was hoping to finish at a higher advantage, but a couple factors kept the completion total in check.

First is that I binged on a lot of Switch arcade games. I'm guessing I bought nearly 20 NeoGeo / Arcade Archives titles over the spring and summer and finished nearly none of them. Arcade games are arcade games - good for repeated 10-20 minute bursts, but unlike platformers, you can't count on the brute force Arino-clear.

Speaking of sidescrolling platformers, I barely touched the staple genre this year, less because of disinterest than because the well is drying up. Sonic Mania led to a cleanup on aisle Chaos Emerald, and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze was fantastic, but I really didn't have much else to pick from. A dozen years and dozens of games later, I've whittled Wii's Virtual Console down to scraps, with remaining options the caliber of New Adventure Island and Kirby's Dream Land 3. And Rayman, over on PS3. Unless the contemporary trend of adventure-platformers abates or I find new patience with PC emulators, this looks to be the start of a long winter. A real shame - for many years there's been no safer bet than grabbing a random 16-bit sidescroller on a Saturday night and playing til the credits roll or the sun rises.

Run-and-guns at least seem to have retained some popular support beyond the plague of 'roguelite' and 'metroidvania', and the aforementioned arcade libraries are only helping. Beyond the many hours of Super C loops, Alien Soldier, Bleed, and (the final release version of) 20XX were among those I finished, with a few more newly underway. Mega Man X7 and X8 were more... rewarding... than expected, enough so that I intend to revisit both on the re-anniversary collection. 3D platformers provided plenty of substance too, with Rayman Revolution being the highlight, Rayman 3 being the lowlight, Jak & Spyro as pleasant surprises and Jak II an ill-forgotten curse. Sonic and the Black Knight happened too, and like X7, doesn't really deserve its awful reputation.

But the main story of the year is of course the shift in taste that has left me spending the majority of my time with racing games and shmups. I've always enjoyed both on a seasonal basis, but 2018 was an endless chain of both genres in parallel (though Raiden V did aggravate me off of shmups for a couple months). Nine 1CCs nearly doubled my lifetime total, and I'm still hoping to make Raiden IV the tenth before the new year. Deathsmiles was a clear favorite, though Axelay is close behind and only Forgotten Worlds caused any pain (well - any bad pain. All shmupping is pain). This was the other big detractor from the ratio - the length of shmups is hard to predict, and for each of the nine I beat, I started another, nearly none of which got finished (goddamn Ikaruga). Put a lot of hours into Mushi-F without much to show, but Akai Katana won't last much longer.

Fuel may be the best driving game and the best open-world game I've ever played, combining a huge world of Skyrim-like terrain with simulation-nuanced physics and as wide a range of vehicles as can be fitted with tires. The races are fucking hard and the landscape is complex, complicated further by the free-range navigation imported from the continuous overworld. It's hard to express how many light-years more interesting this is than something as precious and decompressed as GTAV, but it's buggy, doesn't have side-quests, and the netcode was weak (forget the hundred hours of single-player gameplay), so it tanked in ratings and sales. Burnout 3, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and ExciteTruck provided some arcade counterpoints, though Burnout got hairy at points with insane AI and arbitrary traffic creating challenges too reflex-dependent to be especially satisfying - still, it's close enough to working that three times out of five you can see the great game underneath. It'll be interesting to check out Paradise. Crazy Taxi snuck in there too, but I wasn't feeling the alien technical maneuvers that seem fundamentally cabinet-bound. Ultimately I've wrapped back around to Codemasters with GRID 2, strapping the mechanical range and dynamism of Fuel to more traditional level design. So far that's a go.

A few action-adventures and RPGS filled the adrenaline troughs, but not many made the clear list. It did feel good to finally retire Darksiders II after many years of prolongation, and my feet are starting to sink into the mud and muck of Ys VIII. Yakuza 3 is a really neat River City Ransom sequel which, unexpectedly for a beat-em-up, would probably win story-of-the-year if I'd finished it (actually, no, Wolf Among Us). 60 hours into Final Fantasy VII I am STILL on disc 1. OCD and materia are a dangerous mix.

That's about it for the year. Greg and I partner-played six games, all distinctly unnotable: Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 6, Munch's Oddysee, Rayman 3, Pikmin 2, and Metal Gear 2. The dual themes of the series were A.) solid foundations spoiled by overfocusing on one stupid element (dungeons in Pikmin, combat in Rayman, etc.) and B.) going on for way longer than necessary. I pretty much disliked all of them, though RE2 is more boring than bad, Munch is a promising alpha, and RE6 was shallow incredibly trashy eye-rolling fun. I mean RE6 was definitely the best one. That's how good a collection of games we're talking about.

* 2015: 74/54, +20
* 2016: 55/55, +0 (I may have tracked 'started' differently for 2016)
* 2017: 60/59, +1

2018: The worst year yet?

I think we all know and remember by now what a terrible year 2017 was. It is scarred onto our brains like those ubiquitous marks on pears that make you never want to buy them at the grocery store, as each and every one of us struggles through treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder which doctor's are campaigning to have renamed as "2017 disorder". Carrie Fisher died. A show I liked on TV got canceled. Netflix. And probably the worst thing about it is that it came directly after 2016, which was far and away the worst year of all time, for reasons that I cannot recount without being immediately hospitalized into a psychiatric health facility.

The question we've come together today to answer, as we count down the final years of 2018 (which interestingly enough is only the 2017th year since there wasn't a year zero or August for a while) is whether things have gotten any better. Let's a take a look back at the ten biggest events that afflicted us all this year and consider how things stack up.

1. Kavanaugh got supreme court
2. The rape crisis
3. The opioids
4. (*U.S. ONLY*) Democrats won Congress but Republicans won the other half (end *U.S. ONLY*)
5. The heat doesn't work in my new apartment
6. At Super Bowl they didn't kneel for the flag
7. Trump took a picture shaking hands with a fascist tyrant who murdered more people
1. (Trump tweets) (not a separate event)
8. Slatestar doesn't support marijuana anymore
9. Lives lost that the world probably cannot cope without:
1. Stan Lee
2. Charlie Krauthammer
3. John McCain
4. John Carpenter
5. Lyric McHenry McHenry, who appeared on EJ Johnson’s Rich Kids of Beverly Hills spinoff EJNYC, was found dead in the sidewalk in New York City on August 14. She was 26 years old. 
6. Simon Kerr
7. Joe Jackson
8. Aretha Franklin
9. Everyone in Marvel when Thanos snapped (spoiler)
10. Suicides
1. Anthony Bourdain
2. Avinci
1. Possibly not a suicide
11. Margot Kidder, Superman's Wife
12. David Spade
13. What the hell Mark E. Smith died and no one told me about this? That's what I get for not checking Prindlebook anymore
10. Bill Cosby was in the news again

The evidence is definitely in and we can safely declare that 2018 is definitely the worst year ever, and that's with a month and a half left for things to get worse. Post in the comments how your life changed because of some of these events.