HOT TOPIC
EARLY 3D PLATFORMERS
RETROBATES MULL OVER THE SCENE’S MOST INTRIGUING ISSUES
The team look back at the popular genre’s tentative steps in the third dimension
»[PlayStation] Despite releasing afterwards overseas, Crash Bandicoot made its PAL debut before Super Mario 64 did.
DARRAN JONES
NICK THORPE
TIM EMPEY
This month’s cover star has had us yearning for the days of yore when the platformer was making its first tentative steps into 3D. Nick, Darran and Tim look back at the stars and duds of this transformative era.
DARRAN
What’s the first 3D platformer you can remember playing?
NICK
I think mine would have actually been Crash Bandicoot on a friend’s PlayStation. Well, unless Pandemonium counts?
TIM
Well Pandemonium is a platformer that uses 3D visuals, so yes. I played it too, but Tomb Raider was the big one for me. Funny-ish story, Woolworths in Portadown didn’t have it so I gota friend to drive all the way to Belfast and I picked it up there, while my mate picked up a fine from the police for some traffic violation. Oops.
DARRAN
I played Bug! on my mate’s Saturn, but around the same time I saw the Japanese version of Super Mario 64 and that floored me. Would it be correct to say that Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider created the template for most of the early games?