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105-572: Sonic Heroes is a 2003 platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The player races a team of series characters through levels to amass rings , defeat robots, and collect the seven Chaos Emeralds needed to defeat Doctor Eggman . Within each level, the player switches between the team's three characters, who each have unique abilities, to overcome obstacles. Sonic Heroes downplays

210-422: A split screen multiplayer mode, in which two players can race or battle. Challenges in the multiplayer mode include kart racing and collecting as many rings as possible. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles receive a letter from Doctor Eggman, telling them that in three days, he will launch his Egg Fleet in an attempt to take over the world, challenging them to stop him. Rouge infiltrates one of Eggman's bases, where she

315-407: A tabletop role-playing game is characterized by the following: Campaigns with deep stories are typically found in single-player video games . Cooperative multiplayer video games may also have campaigns where players assist each other with a series of challenges or goals. Progressing through them together provides a coherent story. Campaigns in video games often incorporate cutscenes to tell

420-608: 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 IBM PC compatibles . Bug! , released in 1995 for the Saturn , has a more conservative approach. It allows players to move in all directions, but it does not allow movement along more than one axis at once; the player can move orthogonally but not diagonally. Its characters were pre-rendered sprites, much like

525-452: A 1980 arcade release by Universal , is sometimes credited as the first platformer. Another precursor to the genre from 1980 was Nichibutsu 's Crazy Climber , in which the player character scales vertically scrolling skyscrapers. The unreleased 1979 Intellivision game Hard Hat has a similar concept. Donkey Kong , an arcade video game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981,

630-401: A 2D plane are called 2.5D , as they are a blend of 2D and 3D. The first platformers to simulate a 3D perspective and moving camera emerged in the early-mid-1980s. An early example of this was Konami 's Antarctic Adventure , where the player controls a penguin in a forward-scrolling third-person perspective while having to jump over pits and obstacles. Originally released in 1983 for

735-432: A 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure , for its Dreamcast console. It used a hub structure like Super Mario 64 , but its levels were more linear, fast-paced, and action-oriented. Campaign (role-playing games) A campaign is a continuing storyline in a game. In role-playing games , it is a set of adventures . In video games, it may be a linked series of quests designed to tell a complete story. A campaign in

840-462: A balance between open-ended and guided exploration. Another platform-adventure released that year, Pony Canyon 's Super Pitfall , was critically panned for its vagueness and weak game design. That same year Jaleco released Esper Boukentai , a sequel to Psychic 5 that scrolled in all directions and allowed the player character to make huge multistory jumps to navigate the vertically oriented levels. Telenet Japan also released its own take on

945-481: A bouncing car that jumps on various platforms such as buildings, clouds, and hills. Jump Bug offered a glimpse of what was to come, with uneven, suspended platforms, levels that scroll horizontally (and in one section, vertically), and differently themed sections, such as a city, the interior of a large pyramid, and underwater. Irem's 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol combines jumping over obstacles and shooting attackers. A month later, Taito released Jungle King ,

1050-525: A brief burst of episodic platformers where the first was freely distributed and parts 2 and 3 were available for purchase. The abundance of platformers for 16-bit consoles continued late into the generation, with successful games such as Vectorman (1995), Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995), and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995), but the release of new hardware caused players' attention to move away from 2D genres. The Saturn , PlayStation , and Nintendo 64 nevertheless featured

1155-464: A chasm, and you could take a mountainside path; miss the jump, and you would run through the valley below. You could play these levels repeatedly and rarely take the exact same route. But while in Heroes you occasionally come to a fork in the road, you are likely to find yourself running basically the same trail every time you go through a level. This is disappointing, and especially surprising considering

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1260-442: A desire to keep the gameplay balanced prevented this. The game features several animated cutscenes produced by Vision Scape Interactive . Jun Senoue composed the majority of the soundtrack. His band Crush 40 performed the main theme, "Sonic Heroes", and the final boss theme, "What I'm Made Of". The theme songs for each team were performed by Ted Poley , Tony Harnell , Kay Hanley , Julien-K , and Gunnar Nelson . Iizuka said that

1365-450: A forward-scrolling effect similar to Sega's 1985 third-person rail shooter Space Harrier . 3-D WorldRunner was an early forward-scrolling pseudo-3D third-person platform-action game where players were free to move in any forward-scrolling direction and could leap over obstacles and chasms. It was notable for being one of the first stereoscopic 3-D games . Square released its sequel, JJ , later that year. The earliest example of

1470-665: A game that did not depend on the continuation of its predecessors. The team revived elements not seen since the Genesis Sonic games, such as special stages and the Chaotix characters. Sega released Sonic Heroes in Japan in December 2003 and worldwide in early 2004. It was a commercial success, with 3.41 million copies sold by 2007, but received mixed reviews. Critics praised the focus on fast gameplay and similarities to

1575-609: A high quality of animation. The 1988 shareware game The Adventures of Captain Comic was one of the first attempts at a Nintendo-style platformer for IBM PC compatibles . It inspired Commander Keen , released by id Software in 1990, which became the first MS-DOS platformer with smooth scrolling graphics. Keen's success resulted in numerous console-styled platformers for MS-DOS compatible operating systems, including Duke Nukem , Duke Nukem II , Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure , and Dark Ages all by Apogee Software . These fueled

1680-497: A job offer from a mysterious client, where they execute a series of tasks to prove themselves. The four teams chase down Eggman through various zones, crossing paths with each other at several points, until they all end up on the Egg Fleet. There, Rouge discovers an armada of Shadow Androids, wondering if their Shadow is just one of them too. The Chaotix end up rescuing their mystery client, revealed to be Eggman. He explains that he

1785-401: A level, they are graded based on their performance; an "A" rank is highest, while an "E" is lowest. Enemy robots are scattered around levels and must be defeated by jumping on them or other means of attack. The level designs differ slightly between each story. Espio, Charmy, and Vector's levels are distinguished from the other teams' because they are mission -based, requiring players to fulfill

1890-631: A number of successful 2D platformers. The 2D Rayman was a big success on 32-bit consoles. Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 helped revitalize interest in Capcom 's 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 platformer gameplay to three dimensions led some developers to compromise by pairing

1995-441: A quarter and a third of all console games. By 2006, the genre had experienced a decline in sales, representing a 2% market share as compared to 15% in 1998. In spite of this, platformers are still being commercially released every year, including some which have sold millions of copies. A platformer requires the player to maneuver their character across platforms to reach a goal while confronting enemies and avoiding obstacles along

2100-470: A shift in design. Later 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie , Spyro the Dragon , and Donkey Kong 64 borrowed its format, and the "collect-a-thon" genre began to form. In order to make this free-roaming model work, developers had to program dynamic, intelligent cameras. A free camera made it harder for players to judge the height and distance of platforms, making jumping puzzles more difficult. Some of

2205-406: A side-scrolling action game some platform elements: jumping between vines, jumping or running beneath bouncing boulders. It was quickly re-released as Jungle Hunt because of similarities to Tarzan . The 1982 Apple II game Track Attack includes a scrolling platform level where the character runs and leaps along the top of a moving train. The character is little more than a stick figure , but

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2310-666: A specific objective, like collecting items, to clear a level. Teams contain three character types: Speed (such as Sonic), Flight (such as Tails), and Power (such as Knuckles), which the player toggles between. Speed characters can perform attacks that allow them to lock onto enemies and objects, dash across lines of rings, and can form whirlwinds to climb up poles. Flight characters can temporarily fly and attack airborne enemies, while Power characters can break through objects and glide on gusts of air. By acquiring certain items or enemies, characters can level up , becoming more efficient when fighting enemies, though these level up items are lost if

2415-647: A spiritual successor to E-102 Gamma from Sonic Adventure ); Team Rose, which has Amy Rose , Cream the Rabbit from Sonic Advance 2 , and Big the Cat from Sonic Adventure ; and Team Chaotix, consisting of Espio the Chameleon , Charmy Bee , and Vector the Crocodile from Knuckles' Chaotix . Each team has its own campaign , called a story. Each also represents a different difficulty . Amy's team, for example,

2520-725: A teenager with a rebellious personality to appeal to gamers who saw the previous generation of consoles as being for kids. The character's speed showed off the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, which had a CPU clock speed approximately double that of the Super NES. Sonic 's perceived rebellious attitude became a model for game mascots. Other companies attempted to duplicate Sega's success with their own brightly colored anthropomorphisms with attitude. These often were characterized by impatience, sarcasm, and frequent quips. A second generation of platformers for computers appeared alongside

2625-488: Is central to the genre, though there are exceptions such as Nintendo 's Popeye and Data East 's BurgerTime , both from 1982. In some games, such as Donkey Kong , the trajectory of a jump is fixed, while in others it can be altered mid-air. Falling may cause damage or death. Many platformers contain environmental obstacles which kill the player's character upon contact, such as lava pits or bottomless chasms. The player may be able to collect items and power-ups and give

2730-403: Is designed for beginners, while Shadow's is aimed at more experienced players. The game begins with a tutorial followed by fourteen normal levels and seven boss fights . Gameplay is generally similar in each story: the player must race through levels to advance the story and collect rings for protection and lives . Level themes vary from beaches to casinos. When the player reaches the end of

2835-474: Is in a vector game called Major Havoc , which comprises a number of mini-games, including a simple platformer. One of the first raster -based platformers to scroll fluidly in all directions in this manner is 1985's Legend of Kage . In 1985, Enix released the action-adventure platformer Brain Breaker . The following year saw the release of Nintendo's Metroid , which was critically acclaimed for

2940-602: Is surprised to discover Shadow , last seen falling from the Space Colony ARK, asleep in a pod. When she awakens him and one of Eggman's robots, E-123 Omega, from their stasis, the three reluctantly agree to work together, with Omega wanting revenge for being locked up and Shadow, who has amnesia, wanting answers regarding who he is. Amy helps Big and Cream track down Big's pet, Froggy, and Cheese's brother, Chocola Chao, who were both reportedly kidnapped by Sonic. The Chaotix Detective Agency (Vector, Espio and Charmy) receive

3045-465: Is the endless runner , where the main character is always moving forward and the player must dodge or jump to avoid falling or hitting obstacles. Various names were used in the years following the release of the first established game in the genre, Donkey Kong (1981). Shigeru Miyamoto originally called it a "running/jumping/climbing game" while developing it. Miyamoto commonly used the term "athletic game" to refer to Donkey Kong and later games in

3150-555: Is the same, but the PS2 version runs at 30 frames per second (FPS) in contrast to the other versions running at 60 FPS. Sega's Noah Musler explained that running the PS2 version at 60 FPS would have caused performance problems. Iizuka also noted the system is less powerful than the GameCube and Xbox. Iizuka and Naka decided against including console-exclusive content so players could have the same experience regardless of console. Sonic Team

3255-626: The Atari 2600 , with 256 horizontally connected screens, became one of the best-selling games on the system and was a breakthrough for the genre. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's 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 multi-screen levels on home computers . Wanted: Monty Mole won

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3360-610: The Dreamcast featured elements of action-adventure and exploration , Sonic Heroes focuses on linear platforming and action , similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog games for the Sega Genesis . The story is also simpler than those of the Sonic Adventure games. In it, series antagonist Doctor Eggman threatens to use a weapon to destroy the world and sends out legions of robots. Four groups of three characters from

3465-683: The MSX computer, it was subsequently ported to various platforms the following year, including an arcade video game version, NES , and ColecoVision . 1986 saw the release of the sequel to forward-scrolling platformer Antarctic Adventure called Penguin Adventure , which was designed by Hideo Kojima . It included more action game elements, a greater variety of levels, RPG elements such as upgrading equipment, and multiple endings . In early 1987, Square released 3-D WorldRunner , designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nasir Gebelli . Using

3570-530: The Master System with Alex Kidd in Miracle World . It has horizontal and vertical scrolling levels, the ability to punch enemies and obstacles, and shops for the player to buy power-ups and vehicles. Another Sega series that began that same year is Wonder Boy . The original Wonder Boy in 1986 was inspired more by Pac-Land than Super Mario Bros. , with skateboarding segments that gave

3675-694: The Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for the genre. It was bundled with Nintendo systems in North America, Japan, and Europe, and sold over 40 million copies, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records . Its success as a pack-in led many companies to see platformers as vital to their success, and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the third and fourth generations of video game consoles. Sega attempted to emulate this success with their Alex Kidd series, which started in 1986 on

3780-708: The PS2 Classics line for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on February 22, 2012. Sonic Heroes received generally "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregator Metacritic . Some reviewers felt the game was better than the previous 3D Sonic games but still below the quality of the 2D games. The PS2 and PC's version's reviews were considerably worse than others; reviewers noted clipping , graphic faults, and its lower frame rate. The aesthetics and sound were generally well received. IGN lauded detailed, varied, and realistic character models, and wrote that

3885-514: The RenderWare game engine so the game could be programmed and ported with ease to each platform. Though Sonic Team was able to transfer some textures and models from the Sonic Adventure games into Sonic Heroes , most of their work started from scratch. Sonic Team found challenges in working with the Xbox and PS2, platforms with which they had little experience. The content in all versions

3990-631: The Sonic series' 12th anniversary. Development was led by producer Yuji Naka and director/lead designer Takashi Iizuka , and lasted 20 months. The majority of the development team had worked on previous Sonic games. Iizuka did not want to make a sequel to Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), as he worried it would only appeal to Sonic fans. Interested in returning to gameplay similar to the Genesis games, Sonic Team decided to design Sonic Heroes so casual players not familiar with Sonic could adapt. Iizuka said

4095-493: The Sonic Adventure games were still present in Sonic Heroes and hurt the experience greatly. GameSpot said although the camera worked well most of the time, coordination between camera position and character movement caused problems, such that pushing forward may not move the character in the same direction the camera is facing. They also wrote that the game suffered from problems with the collision detection and noted all

4200-510: The action-adventure and exploration -based gameplay of its predecessors Sonic Adventure (1998) and Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) in favor of returning to the linear style of Sega Genesis -era Sonic games. Heroes was the first multi-platform Sonic game, produced for the PlayStation 2 , Xbox , GameCube , and Windows . Sonic Team USA's Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka led the game's 20-month development. The team wanted Sonic Heroes to appeal beyond Sonic series fans and so designed

4305-537: The virtual camera , it had to be constrained to stop it from clipping through the environment. In 1994, a small developer called Exact released a game for the X68000 computer called Geograph Seal , which was a 3D first-person shooter game with platforming. Players piloted a frog-like mech that could jump and then double-jump or triple-jump high into the air as the camera panned down to help players line up their landings. In addition to shooting, jumping on enemies

Sonic Heroes - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-599: The 1980 arcade video game Space Panic , which has ladders but not jumping. Donkey Kong , released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". Donkey Kong inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as Miner 2049er (1982) and Kangaroo (1982), while the Sega arcade game Congo Bongo (1983) adds a third dimension via isometric graphics . Another popular game of that period, Pitfall! (1982), allows moving left and right through series of non-scrolling screens, expanding

4515-522: The 1995 spinoff game Knuckles' Chaotix , were revived for Sonic Heroes because Sonic Team thought they were unique and had never used them. Iizuka said he did not consider the Chaotix in Sonic Heroes the same team from Knuckles' Chaotix , claiming to have created new characters using the same designs from 1995. The game marks the debut of E-123 Omega in the Sonic series. Sonic Team wanted to include as many teams as possible, but time constraints and

4620-797: The 20th anniversary game Sonic Generations for PS3, Xbox 360 , and Windows, while the Nintendo 3DS version includes the special stages and the Egg Emperor boss fight. In the game's remaster, Sonic X Shadow Generations , the Rail Canyon level and Metal Overlord boss fight return. Seaside Hill has also appeared in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (2009), Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (2010), and its 2012 sequel . Platform game The genre started with

4725-468: The Enchanted Castle , which was only modestly successful. That same year, Capcom released Strider in arcades, which scrolled in multiple directions and allowed the player to summon artificial intelligence partners, such as a droid, tiger, and hawk, to help fight enemies. Another Sega release in 1989 was Shadow Dancer , which is a game that also included an AI partner: a dog who followed

4830-484: The Genesis Sonic games. GameSpot found Sonic Heroes the closest Sonic Team ever got to recreating the classic 2D Sonic gameplay in 3D. They praised the game for stripping away the shooting and hunting elements from the Sonic Adventure games, and called it "a purer, more action-packed Sonic experience" than previous games. IGN considered Sonic Heroes a major improvement from Sonic Adventure , writing " Sonic Heroes does an absolutely sensational job of re-creating

4935-424: 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! . Due in part to conflicts with Sega Enterprises in Japan and a rushed schedule, the game never made it to market. In the 1990s, platforming games started to shift from pseudo-3D to "true 3D," which gave

5040-416: The Hedgehog". 1UP found the concept was more repetitive than innovative. Eurogamer considered the gameplay original but "boring and obvious" and thought that the controls were clunky and unorthodox. While Eurogamer argued Sonic Heroes was not difficult, Game Revolution described it as hard to a fault, exclaiming they "[died] all the time." Buchanan wrote that "when you switch away from Sonic and Tails,

5145-703: The U.S., 420,000 in Europe, and 150,000 in Japan), 1.57 million units from March 2004 to March 2005, and 420,000 units in the U.S. from March 2006 to March 2007, for total sales of at least 3.41 million. By the end of 2004, it had been branded as part of the Player's Choice line on the GameCube, the Greatest Hits line on the PS2, and the Platinum Hits line on the Xbox. After Sonic Heroes , Sonic Team USA

5250-469: The United Kingdom press. Examples include referring to the " Super Mario mould" (such as Kato-chan & Ken-chan ) as platform games, and calling Strider a "platform and ladders" game. The genre originated in the early 1980s. Levels in early platform games were confined to a single screen, viewed in profile, and based on climbing between platforms rather than jumping. Space Panic ,

5355-455: The Year". Another term used in the late 1980s to 1990s was "character action games", in reference to games such as Super Mario Bros. , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Bubsy . It was also applied more generally to side-scrolling video games , including run and gun video games such as Gunstar Heroes . Platform game became a common term for the genre by 1989, popularized by its usage in

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5460-529: The acrobatics evoke the movement that games such as Prince of Persia would feature. B.C.'s Quest For Tires (1983) put a recognizable character from American comic strips into side-scrolling, jumping gameplay similar to Moon Patrol . The same year, Snokie for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers added uneven terrain to a scrolling platformer. Based on the Saturday morning cartoon rather than

5565-415: The basis for the non-linear mission structure found in most open-world, multi-mission, sidequest -heavy games. Another Capcom platformer that year was Bionic Commando , which popularized a grappling hook mechanic that has since appeared in dozens of games, including Earthworm Jim and Tomb Raider . Scrolling platformers went portable in the late 1980s with games such as Super Mario Land , and

5670-549: The console as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, along with Super Mario World , while Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis . Sonic showcased a new style of design made possible by a new generation of hardware: large stages that scrolled in all directions, curved hills, loops, and a physics system allowing players to rush through its levels with well-placed jumps and rolls. Sega characterized Sonic as

5775-421: The criteria of a platformer, 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. Sega had tasked their American studio, Sega Technical Institute , with bringing Sonic

5880-551: The development period of Sonic Heroes was the most stressful of his career because of deadlines and Sega management. A fellow designer became ill, so he worked relentlessly, lost 22 pounds (10 kg), and suffered from insomnia . Sonic Heroes was the first multi-platform Sonic game: it was developed for the GameCube , PlayStation 2 (PS2), and Xbox . Unlike the Sonic Adventure games, made using proprietary software , Sonic Team partnered with Criterion Software to use

5985-419: The earlier Clockwork Knight . The game plays very similarly to 2D platformers, but lets players walk up walls and on ceilings. In 1995, Delphine Software released a 3D sequel to their 2D platformer Flashback . Entitled Fade to Black , it was the first attempt to bring a popular 2D platformer series into 3D. While it retained the puzzle-oriented level design style and step-based control, it did not meet

6090-493: The final product. The GameCube version was released in North America on January 6, 2004, followed by the Xbox and PS2 versions on January 27. The European version was released on February 2, 2004. A Windows version was released in North America on November 16, 2004, followed by Europe on November 26 and Japan on December 9. The game was rereleased through the Sonic PC Collection for Windows on October 2, 2009, and

6195-521: The first award for Best Platform game in 1984 from Crash magazine. Later that same year, Epyx released Impossible Mission , and Parker Brothers released Montezuma's Revenge , which further expanded on the exploration aspect. The first platformer to use scrolling graphics came years before the genre became popular. Jump Bug is a platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi under contract for Hoei/Coreland and released to arcades in 1981, only five months after Donkey Kong . Players control

6300-482: The foreground and background, and the camera panning and curving around corners. Meanwhile, Pandemonium and Klonoa brought the 2.5D style to the PlayStation . In a break from the past, the Nintendo 64 had the fewest side scrolling platformers with only four; Yoshi's Story , Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards , Goemon's Great Adventure , and Mischief Makers —and most met with a tepid response from critics at

6405-540: The franchise's history separately team up to put a stop to Eggman's plans. The player navigates using one of the teams, who serve as the player characters . The teams include Team Sonic, which consists of series regulars Sonic the Hedgehog , Miles "Tails" Prower , and Knuckles the Echidna ; Team Dark, which includes Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat from Sonic Adventure 2 , and new character E-123 Omega (considered

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6510-470: The game a greater sense of speed than other platformers at the time, while its sequel, Wonder Boy in Monster Land added action-adventure and role-playing elements. Wonder Boy in turn inspired games such as Adventure Island , Dynastic Hero , Popful Mail , and Shantae . One of the first platformers to scroll in all four directions freely and follow the on-screen character's movement

6615-483: The game itself kind of stops cold. Especially when you play as one of the other three teams that feature ancillary characters from Sonic’s stable as they play through similar levels with slightly different goals." Charles Herold of The New York Times wrote that "getting stuck on the fourth level exposed one of the game's major flaws: the levels are fairly static. The old 2-D Sonic games always seemed to have several different routes through different landscapes. Jump across

6720-498: The gameplay from its precursor but traded the frog-like mech for a cartoony rabbit mech called Robbit. The title was successful enough to get two sequels and is remembered for being the first 3D platformer on a console. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer said Jumping Flash was perhaps "one of the most important ancestors of every 3D platformer in the following decade." It holds the record of "First platform videogame in true 3D" according to Guinness World Records . Another early 3D platformer

6825-403: The genre continued to maintain its popularity, with many games released for the handheld Game Boy and Game Gear systems. By the time the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 launched, platformers were the most popular genre in console gaming. There was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a system, featuring a mascot character. In 1989, Sega released Alex Kidd in

6930-413: The genre, such as Super Mario Bros. (1985). Donkey Kong spawned other games with a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal, a novel genre that did not match the style of games that came before it, leaving journalists and writers to offer their own terms. Computer and Video Games magazine, among others, referred to the genre as "Donkey Kong-type" or "Kong-style" games. "Climbing games"

7035-619: The intensely fast and unpredictable looping, corkscrewing stages from the classic games in 3D". 1UP.com and GameSpy agreed that the game was a step in the right direction for the series. Levi Buchanan of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "when Sonic is in charge, Sonic Heroes is a pure action game. It's an enjoyable throwback to the Genesis era, when Sonic was all about speed, running circles around Mario, collecting rings while Nintendo's plumber searched high and low for his shape-altering mushrooms. And for gamers who have been numb in

7140-419: The intention was for the music "to return to the roots of the Sonic experience" and be exciting and fast-paced. Naka believed that Sonic Heroes , a Sonic -themed McDonald's Happy Meal toy line, and the anime series Sonic X would expose the franchise to a new generation. Sega released Sonic Heroes in Japan on December 30, 2003, two weeks later than intended, to ensure there were "no compromises" in

7245-454: The levels were open and had objectives. Completing objectives earned the player stars, and stars were used to unlock more levels. This approach allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for exploration, but it meant less jumping and more action-adventure . Even so, a handful of boss levels offered more traditional platforming. Until then there was no settled way to make 3D platformers, but Super Mario 64 inspired

7350-451: The main character new abilities for overcoming adversities. Most games of this genre consist of multiple levels of increasing difficulty that may be interleaved by boss encounters, where the character has to defeat a particularly dangerous enemy to progress. Simple logical puzzles to resolve and skill trials to overcome are other common elements in the genre. A modern variant of the platform game, especially significant on mobile platforms,

7455-489: The maze game, Namco's 1984 Pac-Land is a bidirectional, horizontally-scrolling, arcade video game with walking, running, jumping, springboards, power-ups , and a series of unique levels. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani described the game as "the pioneer of action games with horizontally running background." According to Iwatani, Shigeru Miyamoto described Pac-Land as an influence on the development of Super Mario Bros. . Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. , released for

7560-405: The more linear 3D platformers like Tork: Prehistoric Punk and Wario World used scripted cameras that limited player control. Games with more open environments like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie used intelligent cameras that followed the player's movements. Still, when the view was obstructed or not facing what the player needed to see, these intelligent cameras needed to be adjusted by

7665-534: The new wave of consoles. In the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Amiga was a strong gaming platform with its custom video hardware and sound hardware . The Atari ST was solidly supported as well. Games like Shadow of the Beast and Turrican showed that computer platformers could rival their console contemporaries. Prince of Persia , originally a late release for the 8-bit Apple II in 1989, featured

7770-433: The pace. To improve replay value , the grading system was made more difficult. The special stages from the 2D games were revived to "refresh players' minds" and change the pace. Player reactions to previous games influenced the design; for example, the team did not include modes like Big's fishing from Sonic Adventure and Tails' shooting from Sonic Adventure 2 after both were criticized. The Chaotix , who had appeared in

7875-408: The platform-action game, Valis , which contained anime -style cut scenes . In 1987, Capcom 's Mega Man introduced non-linear level progression where the player is able to choose the order in which they complete levels. This was a stark contrast to both linear games like Super Mario Bros. and open-world games like Metroid . GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature of Mega Man as

7980-416: The play area. Nintendo 's flagship Super Mario Bros. (1985) was a defining game for the nascent genre, with horizontally scrolling levels and the player controlling a named character—Mario, which became a mascot of the company. The term platform game gained traction in the late 1980s, as did the alternate form platformer . During their peak of popularity, platformers were estimated to comprise between

8085-561: The player around and aid in battle. In 1990, Hudson Soft released Bonk's Adventure , with a protagonist positioned as NEC 's mascot. The following year, Takeru's Cocoron , a late platformer for the Famicom allowed players to build a character from a toy box filled with spare parts. In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan, along with the eagerly anticipated Super Mario World . The following year, Nintendo released

8190-441: The player loses a life. By collecting keys hidden within levels and reaching the end of a level without getting hit, players can enter special stages . In special stages, players dash across a tube, collecting spheres containing boost power while avoiding obstacles. There are two types of special stages: Bonus Challenge and Emerald Challenge. Bonus Challenges are optional and award the player with extra lives. Emerald Challenges task

8295-405: The player more control over the character and the camera. To render a 3D environment from any angle the user chose, the graphics hardware had to be sufficiently powerful, and the art and rendering model of the game had to be viewable from every angle. The improvement in graphics technology allowed publishers to make such games but introduced several new issues. For example, if the player could control

8400-440: The player with catching a Chaos Emerald before it disappears. If players collect all seven Emeralds and clear each story, an additional Last Story is unlocked. The Last Story reveals the plot was orchestrated by Metal Sonic , Eggman's top enforcer and a robotic copy of Sonic, in an effort to destroy his namesake. Outside the main game, players can unlock promotional trailers to view and music to listen to. The game also features

8505-993: The player. In the 1990s, RPGs , first-person shooters , and more complex action-adventure games captured significant market share. Even so, the platformer thrived. Tomb Raider became one of the bestselling series on the PlayStation , along with Insomniac Games ' Spyro and Naughty Dog 's Crash Bandicoot , one of the few 3D games to stick with linear levels. Moreover, many of the Nintendo 64 's bestsellers were first- and second-party platformers like Super Mario 64 , Banjo-Kazooie , and Donkey Kong 64 . On Windows and Mac , Pangea Software 's Bugdom series and BioWare 's MDK2 proved successful. Several developers who found success with 3D platformers began experimenting with titles that, despite their cartoon art style, were aimed at adults. Examples include Rare 's Conker's Bad Fur Day , Crystal Dynamics 's Gex: Deep Cover Gecko and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver , and Shiny Entertainment 's Messiah . In 1998, Sega produced

8610-444: The replay value. IGN offered similar praise, praising its easy-to-learn, strategic controls. Game Revolution wrote the system added diversity. However, IGN also thought it was not as ambitious as expected and did not change the overall experience. GameSpot agreed the controls were easy, but considered the large number of teams unnecessary: "no one cares about these peripheral characters... People play Sonic games to play as Sonic

8715-403: The series' original 2D entries, a choice that some considered an improvement from the Sonic Adventure games. Reviewers also highlighted its graphic design and detailed environments and textures. However, they felt it did not address the problems of previous Sonic games, such as the camera and voice acting. Sonic Heroes is a 3D platformer . While the preceding Sonic Adventure games for

8820-486: The shortcomings were present in the Sonic Adventure games. IGN agreed the camera had not been improved. The voice acting was especially derided; IGN joked players should "turn down the volume during cut-scenes", and GameSpy compared the voice work to the likes of Playskool . The editors of GameSpot ultimately named Sonic Heroes the best GameCube game of January 2004, and called it "the fastest and most authentic 3D Sonic experience we've seen yet." Sonic Heroes

8925-475: The soundtrack, Game Revolution found it upbeat and catchy, offering particular praise for the music of Bingo Highway. Although they called the music laughable and not an improvement from previous games, IGN thought the rest of the sound was high quality, and praised its "perfectly implemented" sound effects running in Dolby Pro Logic II . Multiple reviewers found the gameplay similar to that of

9030-515: The story, breaking up the game into alternating interactive and non-interactive sequences. In open world video games, campaigns usually consist of a series of linked quests that require players to travel to specific locations to continue the story. Players who dislike being forced to travel and complete specific quests may ignore the main story. In this sense, campaigns are the game's main story, as opposed to side quests . Heavily scripted video games that force players to progress linearly through

9135-490: The team play element. With three characters whose different abilities let them overcome different challenges, it would make sense to have dozens of areas per level where the various characters can lead you to different paths. But the game too rarely capitalizes on this potential." The game was criticized for not addressing the problems of prior Sonic games. 1UP wrote the problems with the camera and "hit-or-miss lock-on attacks that leave you plunging to your doom" that plagued

9240-473: The teams had collected, they work together to take down Metal, with Sonic turning Super (accompanied by Tails and Knuckles) to defeat him. After Metal Sonic is defeated and reverts to his original form, Sonic and everyone go their separate ways, while the Chaotix chase after Eggman, demanding payment from him. Sonic Heroes was developed by the 19-member Sonic Team USA in San Francisco to commemorate

9345-423: The textures were detailed and crisp. They also praised the realistic shading and lighting effects. Although GameSpot thought the graphics were not much of an improvement from previous games—comparing them to "a glorified Dreamcast game"—they still praised its steady frame rate, art design, and vibrant colors. Eurogamer disliked the shiny models, but was still pleased by the imaginative aesthetics. In regards to

9450-399: The thumb long enough to remember those heady days, the return to form is most welcome. (Especially after those underwhelming Dreamcast Sonic Adventure games that Sega ported to the GameCube.)" Reviewers called the casino level, Bingo Highway, a highlight. Reviewers were generally divided over the team-based gameplay. GameSpy argued it was well-balanced and thought it greatly increased

9555-489: The time. Despite this, Yoshi's Story sold over a million copies in the US, and Mischief Makers rode high on the charts in the months following its release. The term 3D platformer usually refers to games with 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

9660-540: The top down perspective, Frogger (1981) as climbing games. In a December 1982 Creative Computing review of the Apple II game Beer Run , the reviewer used a different term: "I'm going to call this a ladder game, as in the 'ladder genre,' which includes Apple Panic and Donkey Kong ." That label was also used by Video Games Player magazine in 1983 when it named the Coleco port of Donkey Kong "Ladder Game of

9765-437: The video game industry internationally. The following year, Donkey Kong received a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. and later Mario Bros. , a platformer with two-player cooperative play . It laid the groundwork for other two-player cooperative games such as Fairyland Story and Bubble Bobble . Beginning in 1982, transitional games emerged with non-scrolling levels spanning multiple screens. David Crane's Pitfall! for

9870-455: The visual flash of 3D with traditional 2D side scrolling gameplay. These games are often referred to as 2.5D. The first such game was Saturn launch title , Clockwork Knight (1994). The game featured levels and boss characters rendered in 3D, but retained 2D gameplay and used pre-rendered 2D sprites for regular characters, similar to Donkey Kong Country . Its sequel improved upon its design, featuring some 3D effects such as hopping between

9975-428: The way. These games are either presented from the side view, using two-dimensional movement, or in 3D with the camera placed either behind the main character or in isometric perspective . Typical platforming gameplay tends to be very dynamic and challenges a player's reflexes, timing, and dexterity with controls. The most common movement options in the genre are walking, running, jumping, attacking, and climbing. Jumping

10080-413: Was Floating Runner , developed by a Japanese company called Xing and released for PlayStation in early 1996, before the release of Super Mario 64 . Floating Runner uses D-pad controls and a behind-the-character camera perspective. In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario 64 , which is a game that set the standard for 3D platformers. It let the player explore 3D environments with greater freedom than

10185-493: Was a major commercial success. By October 2004, the game had sold over one million copies in Europe. The PlayStation 2 version received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association , indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. According to Sega's financial reports, Sonic Heroes sold 1.42 million units from its release to March 2004 (850,000 in

10290-505: Was a primary way to attack. This was the first true 3D platform-action game with free-roaming environments, but it was never ported to another platform or released outside Japan, so it remains relatively unknown in the West. The following year, Exact released their follow-up to Geograph Seal . An early title for Sony's new PlayStation console, Jumping Flash! , released in April 1995, kept

10395-532: Was found in any previous game in the genre. With this in mind, Nintendo put an analog control stick on its Nintendo 64 controller, a feature that had not been seen since the Vectrex but which has since become standard. The analog stick provided the fine precision needed with a free perspective. In most 2D platformers, the player finished a level by following a path to a certain point, but in Super Mario 64 ,

10500-469: Was interested in making Sonic Heroes ' s narrative feature characters teaming up to overcome evil, rather than Sonic Adventure ' s approach of individual character stories. This led to the conception of the "team action" concept. Iizuka stated Sonic Team had a considerable amount of freedom in designing the game due to its new scope. The Chao -raising system—a staple of the Sonic Adventure games—was removed because Sonic Team feared it would disrupt

10605-472: Was locked up and betrayed by Metal Sonic, now going by "Neo Metal Sonic", who had adopted the guise of Eggman and taken control of the Egg Fleet to prove himself superior to Sonic. Using the data he collected from observing all the teams in action and the power of Chaos copied from Froggy and Chocola, he transforms into his ultimate state, the "Metal Overlord". Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds all

10710-420: Was renamed Sega Studios USA. Their next project was Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), a spinoff starring Shadow set shortly after the events of Sonic Heroes . In 2008, after working on a few more games, the division was merged with Sonic Team in Japan. In 2017 series retrospective, USgamer ranked Sonic Heroes among the franchise's bottom half of games. They wrote that the system of switching between characters

10815-418: Was the first game to allow players to jump over obstacles and gaps. It is widely considered to be the first platformer. It introduced Mario under the name Jumpman. Donkey Kong was ported to many consoles and computers at the time, notably as the system-selling pack-in game for ColecoVision , and also a handheld version from Coleco in 1982. The game helped cement Nintendo's position as an important name in

10920-574: Was unwieldy and annoying, but still interesting because it made the game feel like a puzzle video game . They also praised the design of E-123 Omega. Sonic Heroes marked the debut of recurring Sonic character E-123 Omega, and reintroduced the obscure Chaotix. Its concept of switching between characters as necessary was reused in Sonic Team's Sonic Forces (2017) and Sumo Digital 's Team Sonic Racing (2019); Sumo Digital cited it as inspiration for their game. The Seaside Hill level reappears in

11025-540: Was used in Steve Bloom's 1982 book Video Invaders and 1983 magazines Electronic Games (US)—which ran a cover feature called "The Player's Guide to Climbing Games"—and TV Gamer (UK). Bloom defined "climbing games" as titles where the player "must climb from the bottom of the screen to the top while avoiding and/or destroying the obstacles and foes you invariably meet along the way." Under this definition, he listed Space Panic (1980), Donkey Kong , and despite

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