LogFAQs > #975310301

Dikitain posted...

3D platformers always seem slow and boring to me.

I feel like that's kind of inevitable. If you consider a difficult 2D platformer that requires fast-paced, pixel-perfect execution, directly translating that same speed and demand for precision into 3D means you've got that same difficulty plus the need to control a camera and deal with an extra dimension of precise aiming, which is obviously much, much more difficult than the 2D equivalent. That means that in order to have comparable difficulty, the speed and precision have to be toned down to leave room for the other challenges, which inherently makes them less exciting and makes developing the skills needed to handle that kind of overall difficulty less enjoyable and satisfying. That, in turn, tends to drive developers to focus less on making 3D platformers about executing difficult platforming and more about exploring and solving puzzles that can be made more interesting in a complex 3D environment than they could in a 2D stage.

That's mostly why I don't really consider them to be the same genre, at least not to an extent that directly comparing them is reasonable. The most basic concept is all that really unites them. The core design philosophies that build on that concept are quite different from each other, resulting in very distinct experiences.