platform game this article is about the video game genre for platformer units in petroleum refining see catalytic reforming part of a series onaction games subgenres actionadventure game action roleplaying game open world stealth game survival game survival horror battle royale beat em up fighting game platform game platformadventure game metroidvania shooter game firstperson shooter thirdperson shooter hero shooter light gun shooter roleplaying shooter shoot em up tactical shooter rhythm game topics capture the flag cover system firstperson shooter engine free look quick time event wasd keys lists list of beat em ups list of fighting game companies list of fighting games list of firstperson shooters list of freeware firstperson shooters list of thirdperson shooters list of shoot em up game companies list of survival games list of gun games list of maze video games list of platform games vte play media dustforce 2012 trailer showing platform game features such as enemies obstacles double jumping and wall jumping a platform game or platformer is a video game genre and subgenre of action game in a platformer the player controls a character or avatar to jump between suspended platforms and avoid obstacles environments often feature uneven terrain requiring jumping and climbing in order to traverse them the player often has some control over the height and distance of jumps to avoid letting their character fall to their death or miss necessary jumps the most common unifying element of games of this genre is the jump button but now there are other alternatives like swiping a touchscreen other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay as well such as swinging from objects such as vines or grappling hooks as in ristar or bionic commando or bouncing from springboards or trampolines as in alpha waves these mechanics even in the context of other genres are commonly called platforming a verbification of platform games where jumping is automated completely such as 3d games in the legend of zelda series fall outside of the genre platform games originated in the early 1980s which were often about climbing ladders as much as jumping with 3d successors popularized in the mid1990s the term describes games where jumping on platforms is an integral part of the gameplay and came into use after the genre had been established no later than 1983 the genre is frequently combined with elements of other genres such as the shooter elements in contra beat em up elements of viewtiful joe adventure elements of flashback or roleplaying game elements of castlevania symphony of the night while commonly associated with console gaming there have been many important platform games released to video arcades as well as for handheld game consoles and home computers north america europe and japan have played major parts in the genres evolution platform themes range from cartoonlike games to science fiction and fantasy epics at one point platform games were the most popular genre of video game at the peak of their popularity it is estimated that between onequarter and onethird of console games were platformers but is still commercially viable with a number of games selling in the millions of units since 2010 a variety of endless running platformers for mobile devices have brought renewed popularity to the genre history single screen movement this donkey kong 1981 level demonstrates extensive jumping between platforms the genres defining trait platform games originated in the late 1970s early 1980s most but not all early examples of platform games were confined to a static playing field generally viewed in profile space panic a 1980 arcade release by universal is sometimes credited as being the first platform game though the distinction is contentious while the player had the ability to fall there was no ability to jump so the game does not satisfy most modern definitions of the genre however it clearly influenced the genre with gameplay centered on climbing ladders between different floors a common element in many early platform games a difficult game to learn space panic remained obscure as an arcade game but the 1981 unauthorized clone apple panic was a hit for home computers another precursor to the genre from 1980 was nichibutsus crazy climber which revolved around the concept of climbing verticallyscrolling skyscrapers donkey kong an arcade game created by nintendo and released in july 1981 was the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps making it the first true platformer the game helped cement nintendos position as an important name in the video game industry internationally the following year donkey kong received a sequel donkey kong jr the third game in the series donkey kong 3 was not a platformer but it was succeeded by mario bros a platform game that offered twoplayer simultaneous cooperative play this title laid the groundwork for other popular twoplayer cooperative platformers such as fairyland story and bubble bobble which in turn influenced many of the singlescreen platformers that would follow beginning in 1982 transitional games emerged that did not feature scrolling graphics but had levels that spanned several connected screens pitfall released for the atari 2600 featured broad horizontally extended levels it became one of the bestselling games on the system and was a breakthrough for the genre smurf rescue in gargamels castle was released on the colecovision that same year adding uneven terrain and scrolling pans between static screens manic miner 1983 and its sequel jet set willy 1984 continued this style of multiscreen levels on home computers wanted monty mole won the first ever award for best platform game in 1984 later that same year epyx released impossible mission which further expanded on the exploration aspect and laid the groundwork for such games as prince of persia see also wraparound video games and flipscreen classification of early platformers the term platform game is somewhat ambiguous particularly when referring to games that predate the widespread international use of the term the concept of a platform game as it was defined in its earliest days is somewhat different from how the term is commonly used today following the release of donkey kong a genre of similarlystyled games emerged characterized by a profile view of tiers connected by ladders these included kangaroo ponpoko canyon climber miner 2049er lode runner and jumpman the two most common gameplay goals were to get to the top of the screen or to collect all of a particular item both of which are found in donkey kong the north american press including leading magazine electronic games labeled the genre climbing games the terms platform game and platformer have since gained wide use in north america and across europe and since the earliest uses the concept has evolved particularly as the genre peaked in popularity during the early 1990s many of the games that were part of the early platform genre such as donkey kong and miner 2049er are still regarded as platform games in the modern sense scrolling movement see also sidescrolling video game jump bug 1981 introduced scrolling to the genre the first platform game to use scrolling graphics came years before the genre became a trend only a few home systems of the early 1980s had hardware support for smooth background scrollingmost notably the atari 8bit family nevertheless sierra online released bcs quest for tires in 1983 on the colecovision and several home computer platforms it added uneven terrain and an emphasis on precision jumping super mario bros 1985 one of the best selling video games of all time based on the saturday morning cartoon rather than the maze game namcos 1984 pacland is a bidirectional horizontallyscrolling arcade platformer with walking running jumping springboards and a series of unique levels nintendos platform game super mario bros released for the nintendo entertainment system in 1985 became the archetype for many platformers to follow the title was bundled with nintendo systems in north america japan and europe and went on to sell over 40 million copies according to the 1999 guinness book of world records its success as a packin led many companies to see platform games as vital to their success and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the 8bit console generation sega attempted to emulate this success with their alex kidd series which began in 1986 on the master system with alex kidd in miracle world its a platformer that features horizontal and vertical scrolling levels the ability to punch enemies and obstacles and shops where the player can buy powerups and vehicles some of the bosses are fought through a minigame of rockpaperscissors where others you have to fight or crash the sukopako motorbike into a pirate bear the environments are varied including mountains caves oceans forests and underwater segments scrolling platformers went portable in the late 1980s with games such as super mario land and the genre continued to maintain its popularity with many titles released for the handheld game boy and game gear systems because of their small size technical constraints and blurring associated with the lcd technology fastpaced actionbased platformers were more difficult to develop for these handheld systems because of this many early handheld platformers leaned towards slowerpaced play styles and a greater emphasis on puzzles during sixth generation and early seventh generations home consoles largely transitioned to 3d games and handhelds became a bastion for traditional sidescrolling platform games until the release of new super mario bros wii 2009 revived interest in the subgenre on consoles new super mario bros 2006 is a very successful traditional platform game selling more than five million copies in japan and north america during its first year of release one of the first platform games to scroll in all four directions freely and follow the onscreen characters movement is in a vector game called major havoc which comprises a number of minigames including a simple platformer a shoot em up sequence a landing sequence and a breakout clone in 1985 enix released an open world platformadventure game brain breaker the following year saw the release of a more successful openworld platformadventure nintendos metroid which was critically acclaimed for having a balance between openended and guided exploration another platformadventure released that year pony canyons super pitfall was critically panned for its vagueness and weak game design that same year jaleco released esper boukentai a platformaction sequel to psychic 5 that scrolled in all directions and allowed the player character to make huge multistory jumps which were necessary to navigate the giant vertically oriented levels in 1987 capcoms mega man introduced nonlinear level progression where the player is able to choose the order in which they completed the games levels this was a stark contrast to both linear games like super mario bros and openworld games like metroid gamesradar credits the level select feature of mega man as the basis for the nonlinear mission structure found in most openworld multimission sidequestheavy games secondgeneration sidescrollers sonic the hedgehog 1991 showed what new technology could do for the genre the advent of 16bit home consoles marked an evolutionary step for the genre by the time the genesis and super nes launched platform games were the most popular genre in home console gaming and were seen as vital for winning the console war there was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a format featuring a mascot character in 1989 sega released alex kidd in the enchanted castle the title was only modestly successful and sega realized it needed a stronger mascot to move genesis units that same year capcom released the platformer strider which scrolled in multiple directions and allowed the player to summon artificial intelligence ai partners such as a droid tiger and hawk to help fight enemies 1990 marked the release of the super nes along with the eagerly anticipated super mario world in order to fend off the new competition sega released sonic the hedgehog the sonic character was seen as a new model for mascots in the early 1990s particularly for his perceived attitude which characterized him as a rebel this attitude would soon become the status quo as companies attempted to duplicate sonics success with their own brightly colored anthropomorphisms very frequently these were characterized by impatience sarcasm and frequent quips these mascots which included gex mr nutz aero the acrobat awesome possum and bubsy have mostly faded from relevance a second generation of platform games for computers appeared alongside the new wave of consoles prince of persia featured an unprecedented level of animation games like shadow of the beast and turrican showed that platformers on the atari st and amiga could be respectable in their own right while many others were forgettable attempts to mimic the titles flooding the sega genesis and super nintendo markets the 1988 shareware game captain comic was one of the first attempts at a nintendostyle platformer for the ibmcompatible pc it inspired commander keen released by id software in 1990 which became the first pc platformer with smooth scrolling graphics keens success resulted in numerous consolestyled platformers on the pc including duke nukem duke nukem ii cosmos cosmic adventure and dark ages by apogee software all of which helped fuel the shareware model of game distribution decline of 2d the abundance of platformers for 16bit consoles continued late into the generation with successful games such as vectorman 1995 donkey kong country 2 diddys kong quest 1995 and super mario world 2 yoshis island 1995 but the release of new hardware caused players attention to shift away from traditional 2d genres the sega saturn playstation and nintendo 64 nevertheless featured a number of successful 2d platform games the 2d rayman was a big success on 32bit consoles mega man 8 and mega man x4 helped revitalize interest in capcoms mega man character castlevania symphony of the night revitalized its series and established a new foundation for later castlevania games oddworld and heart of darkness kept the subgenre born from prince of persia alive the difficulties of adapting platform gameplay to three dimensions led some developers to compromise by pairing the visual flash of 3d with traditional 2d side scrolling gameplay these games are often referred to as 25d the third dimension the term 3d platformer usually refers to games that feature gameplay in three dimensions and polygonal 3d graphics games that have 3d gameplay but 2d graphics are usually included under the umbrella of isometric platformers while those that have 3d graphics but gameplay on a 2d plane are called 25d as they are a blend of 2d and 3d the first attempts to bring platform games into 3d used 2d graphics and an isometric perspective these games are nearly as old as the genre itself one of the earliest examples being segas congo bongo in 1983 the first platformers to simulate a 3d perspective and moving camera emerged in the earlymid1980s an early example of this was konamis platform game antarctic adventure 1986 saw the release of the sequel to forwardscrolling platformer antarctic adventure called penguin adventure which was designed by hideo kojima in early 1987 square released 3d worldrunner designed by hironobu sakaguchi and nasir gebelli alpha waves 1990 was an early 3d platform game the earliest example of a true 3d platformer is a french computer game called alpha waves created by christophe de dinechin and published by infogrames in 1990 for the atari st amiga and pc bug 1995 extended traditional platform gameplay in all directions bug a sega saturn game that was released in 1995 offered a more conservative approach to true 3d platforming it allowed players to move in all directions but it did not allow movement along more than one axis at once the player could move orthogonally but not diagonally its characters were prerendered sprites much like the earlier clockwork knight the game played very similarly to 2d platformers but it was considered a true 3d title and let players walk up walls and on ceilings it was a moderate success and spawned a sequel called bug too in 1995 delphine software released a 3d sequel to their popular 2d platformer flashback entitled fade to black it was the first attempt to bring a popular 2d platform game series into 3d while it retained the puzzleoriented level design style and stepbased control and bore a strong resemblance to its predecessor it did not meet the criteria of a platform game and was billed as an action adventure it used true 3d characters and set pieces but its environments were rendered using a rigid engine similar to the one used by wolfenstein 3d in that it could only render square flat corridors rather than suspended platforms that could be jumped between fade to black would set the stage for other series such as metroid and duke nukem that would gradually shift away from the traditional platform formula while retaining many of its gameplay conventions there was a great deal of pressure on sony sega and nintendo to release mascot platformers before the 1996 holiday season sony chose to adopt an existing project by developers naughty dog a small developer at the time who had recently released the questionable way of the warrior the move paid off their game crash bandicoot beat nintendos new console to market in north america and was released in time for the holiday in japan crash would remain sonys unofficial mascot for the next several years before switching to multiplatform releases in the following console generation sega did not fare as well they had tasked their american studio sega technical institute with bringing sonic the hedgehog into 3d their project titled sonic xtreme was to have featured a radically different approach for the series with an exaggerated fisheye camera and multidirectional gameplay reminiscent of bug its development was rocky due in part to conflicts with sega enterprises in japan and a rushed schedule and the game never made it to market reshaping the genre in 1991 nintendos shigeru miyamoto had conceived of a 3d mario game super mario fx while working on star fox in 1994 a small developer called exact released a game for the x68000 computer called geograph seal the game was a fully 3d polygonal firstperson shooter hybrid with a pronounced platform jumping component players piloted a froglike mech that could jump and then doublejump or triplejump high into the air as the camera panned down to help players line up their landings in addition to shooting jumping on enemies was a primary means of attack the following year exact released their followup to geograph seal as an early title for sonys new playstation console jumping flash released in april 1995 is generally regarded as a direct continuation of the gameplay concepts in geograph seal super mario 64 1996 replaced the linear obstacle courses of traditional platform games with vast worlds nintendo released super mario 64 in 1996 before then there was no established paradigm for bringing platform games into 3d mario 64 set a new standard and it was imitated by many subsequent 3d platformers its gameplay allowed players to explore open 3d environments with greater freedom than any previous attempt at a 3d platform game to aid this nintendo added an analog control stick to its nintendo 64 controller something which had not been included in a standard console controller since the vectrex and which has since become standard on other controllers this allowed for the finer precision needed for a free perspective players no longer followed a linear path to the ends of levels either with most levels providing objectivebased goals there were a handful of boss levels that offered more traditional platforming super mario 64 brought a change in the goals of some platformers in most 2d platformers the player only had to reach a single goal to complete a level but in mario 64 each level contained a mission based structure that rewarded items needed to unlock new areas many 3d platformers followed this trend such as banjokazooie spyro the dragon and donkey kong 64 creating the collectathon genre this allowed for more efficient use of large 3d areas and rewarded the player for thorough exploration of their environment but also contained less jumping and involved more elements of actionadventure games as platform games settled into this new freeroaming model it became necessary for developers to program a dynamic intelligent camera this was a nonissue with 2d platformers which were able to maintain a fixed viewpoint the addition of a free camera also made it more difficult for players to judge the exact height and distance of platforms making jumping puzzles more difficult some of the more linear 3d platformers like tork prehistoric punk and wario world used scripted cameras that allowed for minimal player control others with more open environments such as super mario 64 and banjo kazooie needed intelligent cameras that follow the players movements these intelligent cameras were not perfect and required the player to adjust the view at times when the view was obstructed or simply not facing what the player needed to see rpgs first person shooters and more complex actionadventure games were all capturing more market share even so tomb raider became one of the best selling series on the playstation along with insomniac games spyro and naughty dogs crash bandicoot one of the few 3d titles to retain the linear level design of 2d games also many of the nintendo 64s best sellers were first and secondparty platformers like super mario 64 banjokazooie and donkey kong 64 into the 21st century by the sixth generation era platformers were no longer seen as hot system sellers sega finally produced a 3d sonic game sonic adventure on its new dreamcast console it used a hub structure like mario 64 but featured more linear actionoriented levels with an emphasis on speed although the game was a hit it was not enough to save the dreamcast from an early discontinuation in 2001 nintendo launched its gamecube console without a platform game but in 2002 it released super mario sunshine the second 3d mario game while the title was well received at the time of its release it has since received criticism regarding such factors as its short length lack of location variety and level design which featured an abundance of open space making for a much slowerpaced game other notable 3d platformers trickled out during this generation maximo was a spiritual heir to the ghostsn goblins series billy hatcher and the giant egg offered yuji nakas take on a mario 64influenced platformer and psychonauts became a critical darling based on its imaginative levels and colorful characters raymans popularity continued though the franchises third game was not as well received as the first two a hybrid platformershooter game from insomniac games called ratchet clank further pushed the genre away from such gameplay as did universal interactive studios rebooted spyro trilogy and microsofts attempt to create a mascot for the xbox in blinx the time sweeper platformers remained a vital genre but they never recaptured the popularity they once held in 1998 platform games had a 15 share of the market and even higher during their heyday but only four years later that figure had dropped to 2 and franchises like tomb raider began to sag other forms of thirdperson action games have cut into the sales of platformers while genres such as rpgs and firstperson shooters have continued to grow in popularity a broader and more diverse video game market has developed and no single genre has managed to achieve the same kind of dominance that platform games did during the 8 16 and 3264bit console eras recent developments trine 2009 mixed traditional platform elements with more modern physics puzzles despite a much smaller presence in the overall gaming market some platform games continue to be successful into the seventh generation of consoles 2007 saw the release of super mario galaxy and ratchet clank future tools of destruction to positive critical and fan reaction sonic unleashed featured stages containing both 2d and 3d styles of platform gameplay this formula was also used in sonic colors and sonic generations two crash bandicoot platform games were also released 2007 and 2008 freedom planet 2014 is a more traditional retrostyle platformer it draws heavy influence from early sonic the hedgehog games and features pixelated spritebased graphics nintendo has revived the genre in recent years releasing numerous platform games to high sales new super mario bros was released in 2006 and has sold 1845 million copies worldwide it is the bestselling game for the nintendo ds and the fourth bestselling nonbundled video game of all time while super paper mario super mario 64 ds sonic rush yoshis island ds kirby super star ultra and kirby squeak squad also have strong sales and keep the genre active after the success of new super mario bros consumers and publishers have shown renewed interest in 2d platformers which can be attributed both to handheld consoles such as the nintendo ds and playstation portable and lowrisk downloadable services offered by wiiware xbox live arcade playstation network and steam these range from classic revivals such as bionic commando rearmed contra rebirth and sonic the hedgehog 4 to original titles like splosion man and henry hatsworth in the puzzling adventure wario land the shake dimension released in 2008 was a platformer that featured completely twodimensional graphics and a rich visual style subsequent games such as braid a boy and his blob and the behemoths battleblock theater also use completely 2d graphics new super mario bros wii is particularly notable as unlike the majority of 2d platformers in the 21st century it was a direct release for a nonportable console and not restricted on a content delivery network the success of new super mario bros wii led to nintendo releasing similar 2d platformer games for their classic franchises the following year donkey kong country returns and kirbys return to dream land in 2009 independent developer frozenbyte released trine a 25d platform game that mixed traditional elements with more modern physics puzzles the game proved to be a commercial success eventually selling more than 11 million copies it spawned a sequel trine 2 which was released in 2011 the 2d platformer rayman origins was also released in 2011 as a retail title on several platforms in 2012 nintendo released two more 2d platform games new super mario bros 2 for the 3ds and new super mario bros u for the wii u nintendo has also released 3d platform games with gameplay elements of 2d platform games namely super mario 3d land for the 3ds in 2011 and super mario 3d world for the wii u in 2013 the latter of which also included cooperative multiplayer gameplay each has achieved critical and commercial success 2017 saw the release of a number of 3d platformers which caused media speculation of a renewal of the genre these games included yookalaylee and a hat in time both of which were crowdfunded on the website kickstarter the release of super mario odyssey on the nintendo switch which was an updated return to the open ended gameplay style popularized by super mario 64 saw some of the most critical acclaim in the franchises history the crash bandicoot n sane trilogy compilation on the playstation 4 sold over two million copies worldwide and some critics noted the increased difficulty from the original playstation games subgenres there are many games that are platformers that do not adhere to any of the subgenres below but the following are some of the more recognizable archetypes for different platform styles there are many more vaguely defined subgenres that are not mentioned here because they are not as easily defined puzzleplatform game see also puzzle video game this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed july 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message play media the puzzles in 2012 puzzle platformer fez are based on a screen rotation mechanic puzzle platformers are characterized by their use of a platform game structure to drive a game whose challenge is derived primarily from puzzles enixs 1983 release door door and segas 1985 release doki doki penguin land for the sg1000 are perhaps the first examples though the genre is diverse and classifications can vary doki doki penguin land allowed players to run and jump in typical platform fashion but they could also destroy blocks and were tasked with guiding an egg to the bottom of the level without letting it break the lost vikings 1992 was one of the more popular titles in this genre as well it featured three characters players could switch between each with different abilities players had to use all three characters to reach the level goals this subgenre has a strong presence on handheld platforms wario land 2 moved the wario series into the puzzleplatformer genre by eliminating the element of death and adding temporary injuries such as being squashed or lit on fire and specialized powers wario land 3 continued this tradition while wario land 4 was more of a mix of puzzle and traditional platform elements the game boy update of donkey kong was also a successful portable puzzleplatformer and saw a sequel on game boy advance called mario vs donkey kong klonoa empire of dreams the first handheld title in its series was also a puzzleplatformer in more recent years the genre has experienced some revival especially in independent game development braid uses time manipulation for its puzzles and and yet it moves uses frame of reference rotation in contrast to these sidescrollers narbacular drop and its successor portal are firstperson camera games that use portals to solve puzzles in 3d since the release of portal there have been more puzzle platformers that use a firstperson camera including purity and tag the power of paint runandgun platform game this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed july 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message broforce is a runandgun platform game that spoofs on several action film heroes the run and gun platformer genre was popularized by konamis classic contra gunstar heroes and metal slug are also among the most popular examples of this style sidescrolling run and gun games are an attempt to marry platform games with shoot em ups characterized by a minimal focus on precise platform jumping and a major emphasis on multidirectional shooting these games are sometimes called platform shooters this genre has strong arcade roots and as such these games are generally known for being very difficult and having very linear oneway game progression there are games which feature a heavy degree of shooting but do not fall into this subgenre mega man metroid vectorman jazz jackrabbit earthworm jim and turrican are all platformers with a heavy focus on action and shooting but unlike contra or metal slug platform jumping elements as well as exploration and backtracking still figure prominently run and guns are generally very pure and while they may have vehicular sequences or other changes in style they stay focused on shooting throughout cinematic platform game another world like other cinematic platformers features a realistically proportioned character and rotoscoped animation cinematic platformers are a small but distinct subgenre of platform games usually distinguished by their relative realism compared to traditional platformers these games focus on fluid lifelike movements without the unnatural physics found in nearly all other platform games as these games tend to feature vulnerable characters who may die as the result of a single enemy attack or by falling a relatively short distance they almost never have limited lives or continues challenge is derived from trial and error problem solving forcing the player to find the right way to overcome a particular obstacle prince of persia was the first cinematic platformer and perhaps the most influential other games in the genre include flashback and its 2013 remake another world heart of darkness the first two oddworld games blackthorne bermuda syndrome generations lost heart of the alien weird dreams limbo inside onescapee deadlight and rain world comical action game this genre lacks a commonly agreed upon name in the west but games in the genre are most commonly called comical action games cags in japan the original arcade mario bros is generally recognized as the originator of this genre though bubble bobble is also highly influential these games are characterized by single screen nonscrolling levels and cooperative twoplayer action a level is cleared when all enemies on the screen have been defeated and vanquished foes usually drop score bonuses in the form of fruit or other items cags are almost exclusively developed in japan and are either arcade games or sequels to arcade games though they are also a common genre among amateur doujinshi games other examples include don doko don snow bros and nightmare in the dark isometric platform game see also isometric graphics in video games knight lore an example of threedimensional space represented on lowend hardware arguably a subgenre of both 3d and 2d platformers isometric platformers present a threedimensional environment using twodimensional graphics in isometric projection although not the first isometric games the earliest examples of isometric platform games are the arcade game congo bongo and ant attack for the sinclair zx spectrum both released in 1983 knight lore an isometric sequel to sabre wulf helped to establish the conventions of early isometric platformers this formula would be repeated in later games like head over heels and monster max these games were generally heavily focused on exploring indoor environments usually a series of small rooms connected by doors and have distinct adventure and puzzle elements japanese developers blended this gameplay style with that of japanese actionadventure games like the legend of zelda to create games like land stalker and light crusader while these games are more generally classified as action adventures they are also isometric platformers and an evolution of earlier conventions in the genre this influence would later travel to europe with adeline softwares sprawling epic little big adventure which blended rpg adventure and isometric platforming elements before consoles were able to display true polygonal 3d graphics the isometric perspective was used to move some popular 2d platformers into threedimensional gameplay spot goes to hollywood was a sequel to the popular cool spot and sonic 3d blast was sonics outing into the isometric subgenre platformadventure game see also metroidvania many games fuse platform game fundamentals with elements of actionadventure games such as the legend of zelda or with elements of rpgs typically these elements include the ability to explore an area freely with access to new areas granted by either gaining new abilities or using inventory items many 2d games in the metroid and castlevania franchises are among the most popular games of this sort and so games that take this type of approach are often labeled as metroidvania games early examples of freeroaming sidescrolling 2d platformadventures in the vein of metroidvania include nintendos metroid in 1986 and konamis castlevania games vampire killer in 1986 endless running game endless running or infinite running games are platform games in which the player character is continuously moving forward through a usually procedurally generated theoretically endless game world game controls are limited to making the character jump attack or perform special actions the object of these games is to get as far as possible before the character dies endless running games have found particular success on mobile platforms they are wellsuited to the small set of controls these games require often limited to a single screen tap for jumping games with similar mechanics with automatic forward movement but where levels have been predesigned or procedurally generated to have a set finish line are often called autorunners to distinguish them from endless runners game designer scott rogers named sidescrolling shooters like scramble 1981 and moon patrol 1982 and chasestyle game play in platform games like disneys aladdin 1994 8bit version and crash bandicoot 1996 as forerunners of the genre in february 2003 gamevil published nom for mobile phones in korea the games designer sin bonggu stated that he wanted to create a game that was only possible on mobile phones therefore he made the player character walk up walls and ceilings requiring players to turn around their mobile phones while playing to compensate for this complication he limited the games controls to a single button and let the character run automatically and indefinitely like the people in modern society who must always look forward and keep running while the concept thus was long known in korea journalists credit canabalt 2009 as the title that singlehandedly invented the smartphonefriendly singlebutton running genre and spawned a wave of clones temple run 2011 and its successor temple run 2 have become especially popular endless running games the latter became the worlds fastestspreading mobile game in january 2013 with 50 million installations within thirteen days list of platform game series notes and references wikimedia commons has media related to platform games platform games at mobygames video games platform at curlie the evolution of gaming computers consoles and arcade from ars technica vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 