Through the Lens: Video Games - Game Design Theory - page 122

Platformers

Examples: Super Mario Brothers , Banjo-Kazooie , Sonic the Hedgehog ,
Spelunky

Platformers are real-time video games that involve navigating an ava-
tar through space, usually jumping from platform to platform. A central
theme of platformers is that if you fall of a platform or miss a platform
on a jump you fall to your death, and either lose a life or the game. Part of
me didn't want to address platforming games in this topic, but the popu-
larity of Super Mario Brothers and hundreds of other titles it inspired
forced my hand.
My reason for not wanting to include them is that there's kind of
only one game involved—the game is one in which you jump from plat-
form to platform to get to the end of the level. Simple as that! Many
games have added new features or some new spin to the core mecha-
nism, but in a way, you can say that all of the games are really different
expressions of the same core game. Then again, perhaps that could be
said of most video-game genres—or even all genres in any medium!
But I think that this characteristic is a little bit more pronounced in
platformers.
As with the other genres, the platformer genre has splintered into
two subgenres with the advent of 3D graphics. With Nintendo's Mario 64 ,
millions were introduced to the idea of a platforming game that was fully
3D. This dramatically changed the nature of the gameplay in platformers,
which I'll get into more next.

Tension Release

Figure 21 . An illustration showing where tension and release are found in a
platforming jump. Tension is felt up to the point of no return, which in Super
Mario Brothers is roughly at the apex of the jump. The more control you give
players in midair, however, the more the area of tension shrinks.