There was a time, around the beginning of the seventh generation of consoles, when 3D platformers nearly faced extinction. As the industry moved toward big-budget, story-driven action/adventure games, the prevailing sentiment seemed to be that the collectathon nature of most 3D platformers had fallen out of favor. Before the genre itself went dormant for nearly an entire generation, it saw some attempts to evolve with action-centric designs on Sony consoles from the likes of Naughty Dog and Insomniac with the Jak sequels and the Ratchet & Clank series. While the sixth gen was certainly a prosperous time for a 3D platformer fan, it was clear even then that developers working within the genre were trying to distance themselves from the strictly collectathon roots of the N64/PS1 games that came before them. Even then it seemed like people no longer wanted to settle for simply exploring colorful environments looking for oodles of collectible MacGuffins.
This one always felt great to me. That music really sells it, and it always nicely punctuates the end of a level.
Fast-forward to today and it's clear that people missed the simple joy of hunting down collectibles in 3D platformers. The genre has been seeing something of a renaissance in the last few years, and most of the 3D platformers that have released recently seem to be proudly hearkening back to that collectathon style of the N64 classics that many of us remember fondly.
The randomized celebratory animations from the duo added some nice diversity to acquiring Power Cells.
I'm not sure why I always have to preface what should be a rather straightforward thread topic with such a lengthy preamble, but I can't help myself. Let's cut to the chase.
What collectible from a platformer (2D or 3D) is the most enjoyable to find and acquire?
Several factors affect how fun it is to earn or find a collectible in a platformer. The accompanying fanfare/music/animation when you grab it, how well hidden they are, how challenging they are to earn via the game's structure, etc. Let us know why your favorite collectible is so satisfying to collect.
This is another instance where the sound design greatly enhances the enjoyment of acquiring a game's main collectible.
This one always felt great to me. That music really sells it, and it always nicely punctuates the end of a level.
Fast-forward to today and it's clear that people missed the simple joy of hunting down collectibles in 3D platformers. The genre has been seeing something of a renaissance in the last few years, and most of the 3D platformers that have released recently seem to be proudly hearkening back to that collectathon style of the N64 classics that many of us remember fondly.
The randomized celebratory animations from the duo added some nice diversity to acquiring Power Cells.
I'm not sure why I always have to preface what should be a rather straightforward thread topic with such a lengthy preamble, but I can't help myself. Let's cut to the chase.
What collectible from a platformer (2D or 3D) is the most enjoyable to find and acquire?
Several factors affect how fun it is to earn or find a collectible in a platformer. The accompanying fanfare/music/animation when you grab it, how well hidden they are, how challenging they are to earn via the game's structure, etc. Let us know why your favorite collectible is so satisfying to collect.
This is another instance where the sound design greatly enhances the enjoyment of acquiring a game's main collectible.
