This past year has seen the remarkable resurgence of the platformer genre. Having seemed to slide out of relevance under the mass of shooters, open world adventures and online gaming that the last generation helped to flourish, there’s been a boom of 3D platformers as indie developers look to revive the genre’s classic past, look for new and intriguing control methods, and more.
The Nintendo Switch has had an incredible first year of games, and Super Mario Odyssey is one of its many highlights. This is Nintendo at their inventive best, thanks to the introduction of Cappy to journey with Mario as his new hat. Cappy helps to both lower the bar for newcomers with his thrown attacks, but also allows for even greater technical platforming, as Mario and Cappy can string together jumps, dives, bounces and more to reach places that might otherwise be off limits.
Cappy letting you possess other creatures, characters and objects in the game creates this playful and fun atmosphere as you explore the many open and freeform kingdoms in the game, picking up power moons left right and centre. You’re encouraged to simply explore each world to find the secrets that are hidden around every corner, soaking in all the nostalgic moments and homages that the game features.
Super Mario Odyssey is a masterpiece and there’s no game more worthy of being Best Platformer 2017.
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Sonic Mania – Runner Up
Fans of the blue hedgehog have been crying out for a classic 2D Sonic game for years, and boy does Sonic Mania deliver. A few years ago, a game such as Mania would have been practically unimaginable, and yet Sega opened up to the idea of letting external developers and long term fans of the series create a game to answer that desire for a 2D Sonic.
While the game naturally plays heavily on nostalgia, revisiting classic stages, recalling musical themes from the days of the Mega Drive, this is more than just a remix or rehash of those games. Headcannon & PagodaWest Games have faithfully recreated the look and feel of the 90s, but then taken it in new directions. It could be simply bringing a new gimmick to an existing zone, creating new zones to dash through, adding the new UFO chasing Special Stages, and some simply outstanding boss design.
In any other year, this could have been an easy winner in this category.
Snake Pass – Runner Up
And now for something completely different. While definitely overshadowed by veterans of the genre, Sumo Digital sought to create a whole new paradigm for 3D platforming with Snake Pass. Instead of bouncing from platform to platform, Noodle is a surprisingly realistic slithering snake that you can wrap around structures to use as leverage for when you need to reach out across a gap. It takes getting used to, that’s for sure.
Barring a few all-too-familiar frustrations with the 3D camera and difficulty level, Sumo have created a wonderful and inventive new for form for the 3D platformer to create.
Honourable mentions (in alphabetical order)
- Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy
- A Hat in Time
- Yooka-Laylee
For us it was a no-brainer, but what platformers have stood out for you this year? Comment below to let us know!
Avenger
Was it ever in doubt :p
JR.
I guess I’d have to go with Knack II, if you consider that a platformer. Such a great and underappreciated game. Much better than the first.
Yooka-Laylee was an ok old-school platformer but I doubt anyone will be pining for a remaster in 10 years. Skylar & Plux was alright but again, were still in B-list territory. I can’t think of any A-list platformers on the PS4 this year. I miss games like Ratchet & Clank (when it was good) and Sly Cooper. I’d even settle for a Mini-Ninjas 2.
Hopefully we’ll start to move away from the old-school ‘nostalgic’ platformers and start seeing more modern platformers (on the PS4 at least). I can’t comment on Nintendo or Xbox offerings but Nintendo does seem to be the home of the modern A-list platformers.
ron_mcphatty
Well, that’s a sale made! It’s been great to hear all the praise for Mario, especially all the stuff about it being the best since 64.
Sonic Mania is great, the developers did such a great job bringing back the old formula so faithfully.
I’d give an honourable mention to Unbox. Having played it now on the PS4 it’s a great tribute to the old Rare platformers of the nineties, plenty of daftness and irritating, tricky jumps. The Switch patch to optimise the graphics has helped but it still looks crap compared to the PS4 version, I hope Prospect keep working on it.