Board 8 > Best Sony platformer?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Inspired by a discussion in the vgmusic discord. The early Playstations were a breeding ground for cuddly platforming mascots, they're not so abundant these days but for many of us these were foundational games from our childhoods. Some of these series fit in multiple genres but they are all under the platforming umbrella. Which was your fav?

(These series were all exclusive to a PS console and published by Sony Computer Entertainment at one point, that's why stuff like Croc and Klonoa isn't here)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/8/AAN44mAADvfy.png
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Jak had the best peak, but Ratchet is the most consistently good.

Ratchet really doesn't rely much on the platformer aspect. Spyro is the answer if we pretend it never extended beyond the PS1.

I voted for Sly but that series is also dead and I'm extremely biased here.

Ratchet & Clank, and it's not even close

I dearly love Ape Escape, Ratchet, Sly and Spyro. You can argue Ratchet stopped being primarily a platformer a while ago, but out of those series it's the one that's alive.

LBP is widely regarded as a weak platformer. I don't think it is that bad, but the focus is game creation and I think Mm improved on it by removing all the limits with Dreams.

I never considered Ratchet and Clank as a true platformer, at least that aspect of the series was never what I enjoyed about it.

First Sly Cooper however is probably the best 3D platformer I've ever played.

The reasons why Ratchet and Clank is good has nothing to do with its platforming.

Crash Bandicoot has the best individual levels of anything here, but every game has some levels that absolutely tank its average (4 is still really good, might be the best pure platformer on offer by any series)

Jak... I mean it had that one mines level in Jak 1 that was good? And that one underwater city level that was a worse Crash 2 sewer level? Rest is pretty mid insofar as platforming goes unless you count the bouncy car.

Spyro is a super elegant collectathon, but suffers even more heavily from uneven good/bad levels than Crash does, even if what he's doing vibes with me more. And he doesn't have a Crash 4.

Ape Escape might as well not be a platformer outside of those racing levels, and they're awkward.

Sly's the best of the bunch in terms of averages, both in how the platforming is implemented and how the overall game's story and tone mixes in with it. He does what both Crash and Spyro do really well in different games, and I don't think he ever sinks to the same lows that any other (non-Ratchet) series here does,

Sackboy feels like crap when he jumps I don't like it.

I'd say Sly overall, though Crash has the individual "best" platforming to his name and Ratchet's up there if you just ignore this being a platforming competition and just say "games".

Kamekguy posted...

The reasons why Ratchet and Clank is good has nothing to do with its platforming.

I guess if people say this enough times everyone just accepts it's true

Huh, I thought LBP was more popular. Easily my pick from what I've played (Jak, Crash, Sly, Spyro)

MZero posted...

Huh, I thought LBP was more popular. Easily my pick from what I've played (Jak, Crash, Sly, Spyro)

Wow they really do exist

Sly 1 is an all-time great, for sure. And Ratchet never dropped platforming entirely. It ebbed and flowed with maybe Deadlocked being the non-spinoff low point. The newest one has straight-up pure platforming mini-areas like Mario, although I don't recall them ever being all that tough. You could say Sly 2 and 3 have less of a platformer identity than most of the main R&Cs.

Character design wise, I think Spyro is on top.
Musically it'd be very tough, but I think I'd put either Spyro or Ape Escape on top.

In terms of the games, I slightly prefer Spyro to Crash and slightly prefer the original R&C trilogy to the original J&D trilogy, so Insomniac has ND's number there. But having said that, Sly 2 is a serious contender for my single favourite game out of all of these. But I don't think 1 and 3 live up to 2's heights, where as the other series are a bit more consistent.

Ended up voting Spyro, but barely.

I will always feel like Jak 2 and 3 tried to evolve into the formula that R&C turned into perfection.

They wanted to be a platform shootery thing but never managed the concept as well as R&C.

clearly the answer is Journey

ok but actual platformers idk

I didn't have a PS2 growing up so I missed out on the later platformers, I've played Ratchet since but I really want to give Sly a go now. Bring it back to life, Suckerpunch!

Did anyone play Sackboy's Big Adventure? Seemed to review well as a Mario 3D World-like.

Kamekguy posted...

Spyro is a super elegant collectathon, but suffers even more heavily from uneven good/bad levels than Crash does, even if what he's doing vibes with me more. And he doesn't have a Crash 4.

Now I'm sad there isn't a 'true' Spyro 4 :(

I've only played Sly 3 and 4, but the platforming in those is brilliant and much more complex than what little I've played of Ratchet. The story in 3 isn't that bad, either; I still take great amusement in them deciding to steal Tsao's treasures and set him up to be arrested by a woman just because he's a misogynistic asshole. That guy deserved it and I wish jerks like him would get theirs more often.

Crash and Spyro had a couple good games but fizzled out. Since Sly is newer and more refined despite also fizzling, that's where my vote went. I really hope that series gets a reboot soon. It deserves it.

Ratchet but tomba was cool

Sly 1 was one of the better 3D platformers I've played and I am really not a fan of the entire genre, so I voted for Sly overall. (Shame that Sly 2 wasn't anywhere near as good.)

Jak 1 was ok, played a bit of Crash but never liked it.

I have played and finished at least one game in every series except Knack.

Tombi/Tomba > Sly > Jak > Ape Escape > Crash > LBP > Ratchet > Jumping Flash > Spyro.

I have... never played any of them, save for Crash, and I hated it.

I imagine now that I'd like Ratchet if it plays anything like Jet Force Gemini did back on N64.

Crash is rough. It's got the NES approach to difficulty, in a 3D platformer with digital movement control, and I do not enjoy it.

Crash Bandicoot is pretty much the only one I've played in any major capacity.
I've played some of the original Spyro games though.

The only game I've played extensively out of these series is Ape Escape 3 so I guess that wins by default.

Hmmm. I voted for Ape Escape because the 1st one is probably one of my favourite games ever. 2nd one is great and the 3rd is pretry cool too.

Crash was great until ND stopped developing it but after Twinsanity it really went downhill.

Sly is okay. 4th one is the best one.

R&C would be my favourite if it was still mostly a platformer but it isn't anymore and that is a good thing!

J&D has Jak 1 as excellent, Jak 3 as good and Jak 2 as nonsense garbage.

Spyro is also great. All 3 of them.

Jak is so damn good. It used the mechanics as a way to explore the world, not just get to the end of the level. Even 2 which got caught in the dumb edgy trend, the level design was still really good. And the hoverboard and guns were actually pretty fun.

most_games_r_ok posted...

J&D has Jak 1 as excellent, Jak 3 as good and Jak 2 as nonsense garbage.

Surprised to see love for Jak 1. It wasn't bad but it also didn't really do anything that other collectathon platformers didn't do much better.

Thought the games were a lot better in 2 and 3 even if the style change was a bit weird.

Jak 1 was rad

Jak 2 and 3 made me profusely vomit v____v

Ratchet and Clank

Oh I got real mad at Jak 1 the last time I played it. That double-jump is miserable!

I've only played one Ratchet game and it was fine but didn't wow me, maybe I picked a lesser entry (Tools of Destruction on PS3) or maybe it's just not for me!

I loved all three PS1 Spyros as a kid, and Crash 3 and Ape 1 were both fun. Don't think I've touched any of the others. Fun seeing the varying opinions within the fans of Sly and Jak lol.

paperwarior posted...

Oh I got real mad at Jak 1 the last time I played it. That double-jump is miserable!

The worst double jump in any game

And Tools of Destruction is a lower tier Ratchet game

Jaks probably the one I remember the most but Ratchet is the one Ive played the most games out of?

2016 Ratchet was pretty good

Oh, I didn't mean Deadlocked was the worst one, I meant it was the least platforming-focused. ToD is rather rough. They turned it around for CiT but they're still struggling to find the level of the PS2 games.

Do Insomniac still do R&C or have they moved on like with Spyro? Also I now realise Insomniac is 1-2 here, Naughty Dog BTFO.

andylt posted...

Do Insomniac still do R&C or have they moved on like with Spyro? Also I now realise Insomniac is 1-2 here, Naughty Dog BTFO.

They made the one for PS5. Many of the others have been passed along to other studios by now if they even still exist.

Never played Jak 1, but how did they mess up a double-jump so bad?

HaRRicH posted...

Never played Jak 1, but how did they mess up a double-jump so bad?

By barely increasing how much higher than you jump with a single jump

If something in the game requires a double jump, then heaven help you because your timing has to be impeccably perfect

That's the best kind of double jump - one that you don't need but it gives a little bit of extra airtime to adjust in case you need it. Spyro's extra jump is like that too.

If the double jump is actually double, then you effectively have one jump, which is the double jump. There's no reason to ever do a regular jump, which is effectively a half jump.

Whoa what is all this hate on the Jak 1 double jump.

Well, it doesn't help that the single jump is also pathetic, which makes the double jump look even more pathetic

For me, it just led to a lot of frustration when I would encounter a jump I felt like I should have easily been able to make and then I couldn't

When I played it the double jump would just not execute outside of an extremely small window, leading to a lot of what happens in a platformer when your inputs suddenly fail in midair. I don't know if it was just the HD trilogy because I had no memory of it from playing the original.

I like littlebigplanet

But its spyro for me