17 Sub-Genres of Platformer Games | List

Platformers (otherwise known as 'platform games') are easily my favourite type of video game, from the popular titles such as Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot to more obscure gems like Skullmonkeys, Tombi! and Heart of Darkness. I enjoy every form of platformer and I've played quite a few of them, both new and old!

So maybe you've played a platformer and you're wondering how to catagorise it to find similar titles, or maybe you're interested to know how varied games can be that are basically all about jumping from platform to platform, maybe you just want a lesson on the brief history of platformers, or you don't even know exactly what defines a game as a platformer. Well, if you're thinking any of those things you're in the right place, because I'm about to go through 17 sub-genres of plaformer games, starting from the most traditional, to the more obscure.

1

Traditional Platformer

Examples:

Super Mario Bros., Rayman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot

A traditional platformer is a game which follows almost all of the conventions of a platformer without having any (or very few) influences from other genres. Simply put, a platformer is a game in which you move and jump on platforms, across gaps and avoid obstacles primarily by jumping.

The stages in a traditional platformer are linear and these stages normally build up a world (the stages in a world are often themed the same and change when you move onto a new world). Typically, traditional platformers will have a 2D camera perspective however I would argue that certain 3D platformers also fall into the category (an example of which being Crash Bandicoot).

The first platformers ever created were Space Panic and Donkey Kong which are both (along with a lot of other Platformers made in the early 1980's) traditional platformers.

Although traditional platformers can feature enemies and an attack function (the punch from Rayman or the fire ball from Super Mario Bros.) the emphasis of traditional platformers is how well you are able to navigate the environments rather than defeating enemies. Certain traditional platformers are known as hop 'n' bop platformers because of the jumping mechanic being used both to traverse the levels and to jump on enemies to defeat them.

2

Action Platformer

Examples:

Bionic Commando, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

Action platformers are an example of an early development in the platformer genre. Rather than having a primary emphasis on navigating environments, action platformers have an equal emphasis on both navigation and defeating enemies. Often, action platformers will feature upgrade-able weapons or sub-weapons which you can pick up and swap for other sub-weapons.

Perhaps the most famous of this genre is the Mega Man series. Upon defeating the bosses of the game Mega Man will acquire new weapons which he is able to switch at any time, but in order to keep his ammo supply up, he'll need to find ammo through exploration or by defeating enemies. This creates an experience where the focus is not only on getting to the end of the level but in defeating enemies (for health and ammo) and defeating bosses (for the power-ups).

3

3D Platformer

(Collectathon Platformer)

Examples:

Spyro the Dragon, Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64

The 3D platformer (Which is mostly always a collectathon platformer) is a slightly newer breed of platformer. The 8-bit and 16-bit era of games (the NES and SNES) focused almost entirely on 2D games. This was because of technical limitations that consoles at this time had, but with the rise of the newer 32-bit and 64-bit consoles (in the mid 1990's), 3D games were easier to make and generally looked much better.

But with this new 3D perspective also came some big changes to the way platformers functioned. With 360 degree movement came a more open level design and because of this the focus on simply getting to the end of a level had to change. The focus of most 3D platformers became exploration and collecting different items which were often hidden or difficult to reach. Another trait of most 3D platformers are objectives or missions which gave players a specific thing to focus on rather than in a traditional platformer when it was always assumed the only objective is to make it to the end of the level.

Perhaps the most famous example of a 3D platformer (or collectathon platformer) is Super Mario 64 in which the player is given open areas to explore, level progression is non-linear and rather than making it to the end of the stage to progress, you must fulfill more specific criteria, like flying through five floating rings in order to unlock a Power Star which (upon collecting enough of them) will open new areas with even more levels to explore.

4

Run and Gun Platformer

Examples:

Contra, Metal Slug, Cuphead, Gunstar Heroes, Alien Hominid

Run and gun games generally aren't platformers, they are a sub-genre of the 'shoot 'em up' genre (but that's a story for another time). However some of them are a hybrid of platformer and run and gun and this combination of genres was (and still is) popular enough for it to be on this list.

A run and gun is simply a game which focuses on moving to dodge enemy attacks while also offering the player the capability to shoot back and defeat their enemies before they defeat the player. They focus almost entirely on ranged combat mostly using guns as the primary weapon. They are not necessarily platformers because they don't have to offer the ability to jump and can focus entirely on shooting and running. An old and new example run and guns which aren't platformer are Ikari Warriors and Hotline Miami respectively.

However, many classic (and new) run and gun games feature a jumping mechanic and heavily resemble action platformers because of this. The main difference between run and gun platformers and action platformers is that the latter still has a lot of emphasis on navigating obstacles and environments, whereas run and gun platformers have much less emphasis on this and a lot more emphasis on combat, often featuring a lot of on screen enemies and projectiles at the same time.

5

2.5D Platformer

Examples:

LittleBigPlanet, Tombi!, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, Pandemonium

The 2.5D platformer genre came about at around the same time 3D platformers did. Because 3D was new and seen as the way forward for video games, often when a 2D platformer was created it was made with the intention of seeming like it existed in a 3D space to avoid looking old fashioned.

2.5D platformers don't have a specific set of gameplay mechanics, rather than being a sub-genre it is more of a change in graphics which doesn't necessarily affect the function of a game. However, I feel that it's important to talk about on this list because some examples of 2.5D platformers changed the way 2D platformers were played, even if it wasn't in a substantial way. To put it simply, some 2.5D platformers allowed for 3D movement while retaining a 2D camera position (hence 2.5D).

Some games such as LittleBigPlanet (a popular and newer example of a 2.5D platformer) and Tombi! enable the character to move into the background and foreground of the stage which allows for a layered level design. Rather than having to stick to one path, you could move around obstacles and explore hidden areas behind scenery.

2.5D can also refer to games that (rather than enabling a bit of 3D movement) are modeled in 3D yet only allow left and right movement. A good example of this is Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty which has fully 3D graphics, but is a side scroller.

6

Endless Runner

Examples:

Bit.Trip Runner, Temple Run, Sonic Dash

Endless runner games are perhaps the newest sub-genre of the platformer on this list. They are predominant on mobile devices but do also exist on game consoles and PC. An endless runner is just that, a game where the character you control will run endlessly (without any input from the player) and the player must help them to jump over (or sometimes slide under) obstacles.

Rather than the objective being getting to the end of the levels, sometimes (although not always) the objective is to get the highest possible score you can. In a lot of endless runners the levels don't ever end and are procedurally generated (meaning they will be different every time you play). However some do follow a more traditional platformer approach and have level progression (like Bit.Trip Runner).

7

Beat 'Em Up Platformer

Examples:

Crash of the Titans, Sonic Unleashed, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Viewtiful Joe

This is another hybrid sub-genre, but for the same reason I put run and gun platformers on this list I feel that beat 'em up platformers deserve a spot here. A beat 'em up is a game in which a character will face many opponents at a time in melee combat (often hand to hand), they mostly always have a 2D camera perspective (but one in which you can move up and down as well as left and right) and they're mostly always multiplayer. This probably sounds similar to a fighting game like Street Fighter or Tekken, but the difference between the two are that a fighting game focuses on one on one combat and multiplayer is competitive whereas a beat 'em up (like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon) is one against a group of enemies and the multiplayer is cooperative. A 3D beat 'em up is called a hack and slash.

So where does all this come into the platformer genre? Well because of the fact that beat 'em ups and platformers were two of the most popular game genres in the 1980's it only makes perfect sense that a hybrid of the two genres would exist. It's mainly a newer occurrence for these genres to be merged, but there are a lot of examples of it happening recently.

One of the best examples of this is in the Sonic Unleashed Werehog sections, which are generally frowned upon by Sonic the Hedgehog fans but it does serve as a good example of what I mean. In these sections you'll need to do some traditional platforming but between the platforming are arena-like areas where Sonic will need to use hand to hand combat to defeat hordes of enemies which continuously spawn in waves. After beating them he can leave the arena and progress by doing platforming to the next arena section.

A 2D example of a beat 'em up platformer is Viewtiful Joe, which rather than separating the platforming and beat 'em up sections, like Sonic Unleashed, it keeps them together so the fighting and platforming takes place in the same area. It works like a traditional platformer but upon reaching an enemy you'll need to use hand to hand combat to defeat them. You do this by performing combos and attacking them at the right time rather than in a traditional platformer where the enemy dies in one hit (most of the time) and requires a lot less strategy.

8

Cinematic Platformer

Examples:

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Limbo, Another World, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia

Cinematic platformers are my personal favourite sub-genre of platformer, two of my favourite games of all time (Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Limbo) fall into this sub-genre and I've never actually played a cinematic platformer that I haven't liked.

How cinematic platformers differ to all other types is that they feature more realistic physics and main characters than other platformers. Often the main character will be human (or humanoid) and won't have the ability to jump high or fall far like in a traditional platformer. Often the main character will die in situations where an actual human would die (getting hit by a boulder, falling from a distance, getting shot, etc) so health bars are (mostly) absent. Because of this, cinematic platformers don't feature 1-up systems, rather the player will have unlimited continues. The punishment for dying is simply the loss of progress in the level. They often also feature trial and error style puzzles because of the lack of any real punishment for dying. A huge emphasis is put onto solving puzzles with not solving them (or not solving them fast enough) often ending in the death of the main character.

Cinematic platformers require a slower play style because you need to constantly be on the lookout for traps and enemies because they are all more of a threat than in other types of platformer and levels are always designed so that you can die at almost any stage by slipping up even a tiny bit. Traditionally, 2D cinematic platformers feature scrolling screens (rather than the camera following the character it stays static and upon reaching the side of the screen it will scroll to the next screen, like pages of a book) however newer cinematic platformers don't use this mechanic and the camera functions in the same way as a traditional platformer.

9

Metroidvania

Examples:

Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Cave Story, Shadow Complex

Metroidvania is a sub-genre of games which are inspired by the design of Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Where those games differ to other platformers is in the fact that although being 2D they are openly designed and non-linear (similar to a typical 3D platformer). The player will need to explore and collect various power-ups in order to open up new areas and progress through the game.

These games are also littered with secrets so exploration is highly rewarded. They also often feature a map system so you don't get too lost, a lot of backtracking and scarce save points (rather than letting you save whenever you want). Despite being called Metroidvania, not all games in this genre have to belong to the Metroid or Castlevania franchises, they just need to follow the same design philosophy.

10

Puzzle Platformer

Examples:

Fez, Braid, Spewer

Puzzle platformers are quite self explanatory. They're platformers that focus almost entirely on solving puzzles in order to progress through the game (rather than the emphasis being on exploration, navigating or defeating enemies). They normally feature a gimmick which is used throughout the entire game and because the level designs become more complicated as the game goes on it forces you to use that gimmick in different ways.

Examples of puzzle platformers and their gimmicks include Fez and it's camera rotation gimmick, Braid and it's time reversal gimmick and Spewer with it's limited projectile gimmick.

11

Single Screen Platformer

(Comical Platformer)

Examples:

Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., TowerFall Ascension

This is another classic example of a type of platformer. Single screen platformers (sometimes referred to as comical platformers or comical action games) are platformers in which the screen doesn't scroll and the action all takes place in one small area until a certain criteria is met. They are also mostly all cooperative multiplayer.

Bubble Bobble is the perfect example of this style of game. It features 100 levels, each of these being it's own self contained screen (which is static and doesn't scroll in any direction) and in order to progress through the game all of the enemies on the screen must be defeated. Only then will the screen scroll and move you to the next level. The reason Single screen platformers are known as comical platformers, is because they resemble comic book frames, you can only move onto the next frame when you've finished the one previous to it.

12

Hardcore Platformer

Examples:

Super Meat Boy, N++, VVVVVV

Hardcore platformers follow a design philosophy which was prevalent in 1980's platformers (such as Mega Man) but expand on it, creating a game which is designed to be extremely difficult to complete.

Whereas in the 1980's, platformers were often difficult in order to make players get more game-time out of their purchases, hardcore platformers are difficult purely because they want to reward accurate gameplay and challenge people who are used to playing difficult games.

Often the character you control will die in one hit from any enemy or obstacle meaning there's an element of trial and error in order to study every level carefully and work out the fastest and safest way of making it through. Luckily there are no lives in hardcore platformers and upon dying your character will instantly respawn at the start of the level (or checkpoint). They also don't offer a form of directly attacking enemies making the player character as defenseless as can be. It's all about avoiding obstacles and enemies and making it to the end of the level without getting killed.

13

Roguelike Platformer

Examples:

Rogue Legacy, Spelunky

A roguelike is a game which follows certain conventions of a game called Rogue. Rogue was a game made in 1980 and was designed as a electronic equivalent to tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Basically the gameplay of Rogue consisted of starting at the top of a randomly generated dungeon filled with traps, enemies, treasure and new weapons/armor and the objective is to get to the bottom of the dungeon to retrieve an amulet and then escape. Of course, as you get lower in the dungeon the enemies get harder to defeat and the traps become more deadly.

Because a roguelike only needs to follow some of the conventions of Rogue, it's sometimes a little bit difficult to actually define what roguelike actually means, however I would say that a roguelike platformer must meet the two following criteria:

Firstly, they must have a randomly generated level structure (every time you play it the levels are laid out differently) and secondly, they must feature a form of permadeath, meaning that when your character dies, progression through the game is lost (though not necessarily statistical progression if the game features leveling up or a similar system).

A roguelike doesn't have to be a platformer (a great example of a roguelike that isn't a platformer is FTL: Faster Than Light), but because of how broad the definition is, the genre does commonly fuse with platformers (as it does with other genres too).

14

Minimalist Platformer

Examples:

Thomas Was Alone, The Impossible Game, 140, LOVE

A minimalist platformer features simplistic graphics and control schemes (mostly only movement and jumping functions). Most of the time the main character will simply be a square or another basic shape and most of the environments will also be made up of these same basic shapes. As such there is a lot of colour in these games to make it so you can tell yourself apart from the background and obstacles. Despite being very basic visually, they often feature some cunning puzzles or difficult platforming.

There aren't many examples I can think of that fit into this category but Thomas Was Alone is probably the most popular one. Even though it features simple graphics and controls, the story is quite deep which creates a strange juxtaposition between the game itself and the story it's telling.

Whereas Thomas Was Alone has puzzle game influences, The Impossible Game and 140 are both rhythm based games where the platforming sections change or are determined by the beat of the music. So minimalist platformers are defined entirely by the graphics and controls rather than a specific gameplay style.

15

First Person Platformer

Examples:

Mirror's Edge, Portal, Metroid Prime

This is a sub-genre which didn't exist until very recently (relatively). First person camera perspectives have always been primarily thought of as being for shooter games like Doom, Call of Duty and Halo but there do exist other examples of genres which use the first person perspective and platformers are no exception to this.

Although uncommon, first person platformers do exist, though they are mostly always not a pure platformer and more of a hybrid of genres. This doesn't change the fact that they are fundamentally still a platformer though.

Mirror's Edge is probably the best example of a first person platformer because although it does have shooter elements, these aren't the main part of the game and are entirely optional. Mirror's Edge is all about jumping between platforms and navigating obstacles (just like in a traditional platformer), but it uses a more realistic approach, featuring a normal human as the main character in a realistic environment and focusing on parkour/free-running to create a more 'true to life' platforming experience rather than the more fantastical approach used in most other platformers.

16

Isometric Platformer

Examples:

Sonic 3D Blast, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, Knight Lore, Super Mario 3D World

Isometric platformers are probably the most obscure sub-genre of platformer simply because there aren't that many of them in comparison to other platformers. They're the only platformer sub-genre on this list that is almost entirely extinct nowadays (aside from Super Mario 3D World).

An isometric camera angle is similar to a top down camera angle, only not fully top down and more looking at the area diagonally. The best way of explaining it is if you picture a cube as a room and imagine the camera as being in one of the top corners of the cube looking down at the room.

This was used primarily in the 2D era of gaming (the NES and SNES era) to give the illusion of 3D movement despite the game still technically being 2D (it's complicated I know). This is probably why this camera angle isn't seen very much today, because actual 3D graphics are possible so there's no need for this kind of angle to be used.

Technically, Super Mario 3D World isn't isometric because it actually does use 3D graphics, but the camera is simply placed to be reminiscent of actual isometric games, but because true isometric games don't exist anymore, this 3D isometric style is the successor to the true isometric style.

Needless to say, this changed the standard platformer because your character could now move up, down, left and right in a similar way to the 3D platformer (only more limiting) which gave rise to slightly more exploration based games.

17

Hybrid Platformer

Examples:

Ratchet and Clank, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Rather than being a specific genre a hybrid platformer is a game which has heavy platformer influences while also taking aspects from other game genres too. The reason this is at the bottom of the list isn't because it's the most obscure, but because all hybrid platformers also fall into one of the other sub-genres I've mentioned on this list (a game can't just be a hybrid platformer, it has to fall into other categories too).

A few examples are Ratchet and Clank which is a 3D collectathon fused with run and gun gameplay, Sly 2: Band of Thieves which is a 3D platformer fused with a stealth game, the Uncharted series which are third person shooters fused with a 3D platformer, Journey which is an adventure game fused with 3D platformer and Mark of the Ninja which is a 2D platformer fused with the stealth genre.

It doesn't have to be that a platformer is merged with an entirely different genre either, some of the games I've used as examples on this list fall into more than one category, like Portal which is a first person platformer, but it's also a puzzle platformer or The Impossible Game, which is a minimalist platformer but it's also an endless runner. This would make those games a hybrid platformer too.

Even games you wouldn't consider to be platformers at all (like Half Life) often have platforming sections (though this doesn't make it a hybrid platformer because it doesn't focus a lot on this), this shows that platformers are still a part of video game DNA even to this day. This is probably due to them dominating the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th generations of video games and arguably saving the entire game industry from the video game crash of 1983 with games like Super Mario Bros.. The impact that platformers have had on the game industry is undeniable and this is most likely why so many variants of them exist, why so many genres choose to merge with it and why it's still going strong even to this day.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my list of 17 sub-genres of platformer games and gained some insight into just how varied games that are fundamentally just about jumping on platforms can be. If you know of any sub-genres I've missed out on (and there's bound to be some), mention them in the comments section below or on the Rob's Retro Reviews Facebook page (available by clicking HERE)! I would love to hear what your favourite type of platformer is too! Thanks for reading!