There were some great-looking games atSummer Game Festthis month, but few got me as pumped asAstro Bot. Big publishers don’t tend to put their weight behind 3D platformers anymore, so it’s exciting to see Sony letting its little mascot be its big fall release.
Why Did The Industry Move On From Mascot Platformers?
We still getMariogames from Nintendo (though the last original 3D Mario is seven years old at this point), Sony still puts out aRatchet & Clankgame every few years, and Sega is still devoted to theBlue Blur. But most studios moved on from their mascot platformers years or even decades ago. Sucker Punch, which released the cinematic open-world action gameGhost of Tsushimain 2020, first found mainstream success on the PS2 with theSly Coopertrilogy. Naughty Dog, which we now associate with gritty, grounded human stories likeThe Last of Us, got big withCrash Bandicoot.
But Astro Bot’s Team Asobi points to a different world, one where big publishers are still investing in the kind of game that sold systems in the ’90s and early ’00s. Would that be a better world? Not necessarily, but it’s instructive to see how these studios shifted from all making one kind of game (3D platformers) to all making another kind of game (cinematic third-person action adventures).
The industry would be better off with more variety. I don’t want Naughty Dog to stop making The Last of Us or for Sucker Punch to abandon Ghost of Tsushima. But I think Insomniac — which came to prominence on the PS1 withSpyro the Dragon— points to a better way. Insomniac makes flashy, realistic-looking games. A lot of them. Its first Spider-Man game came out in 2018, and it’s already made two more. But Insomniac also takes breaks to do different stuff. In fact, over the course of the past decade, Insomniac has put out18 games. Here’s the full list:
Insomniac Is Committed To Trying Things
Insomniac has shown an admirable dedication to throwing all sorts of things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Its portfolio covers the whole gamut of gaming. There’s an Xbox game in there (Sunset Overdrive), three marquee triple-A Sony system sellers (theSpider-Manseries), two 3D platformers (Ratchet & Clank andRift Apart), a casual game (Slow Down, Bull), three mobile games, a remaster, a Metroidvaniapublished by GameStop, and several VR and AR titles.
One of those VR games, Stormland, is one of my colleague Eric Switzer’spersonal favorites.
I would bet that the vast majority of gamers are only aware of the Spider-Man games, the Ratchet & Clanks, and maybe Sunset Overdrive. Insomniac’s reputation wasn’t hurt in the least by releasing Slow Down, Bull, despite the fact that it has justnineuser reviews on Steam. There’s no real harm in spreading the net a little wider — as long as the net doesn’t cost a couple hundred mil. Experimentation is the lifeblood of the medium.
Which is why my plea to Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Rare, and all the other studios that have left 3D platformers in their past is this: come on, give it a try. Make another Jak & Daxter, check in on Sly Cooper, see how those guys are doing. The industry would benefit from the variety, and I bet the developers at your studios who fell in love with games because of Mario, or Sonic, or Conker’s Bad Fur Day would treasure the chance to bring those series to a new generation.
