Without using mods, someone has managed to turn Minecraft into a 2D platformer by making it look like they've removed one of the game's dimensions. Known for its vast and immersive open world, Mojang's sandbox title continues to dominate the gaming industry by offering fans an almost unlimited amount of creativity. The fact that players can go wherever they like in the procedurally generated and, above all, 3D world is just part of the appeal. But evidently, one person had other plans.

It's not just the sprawling landscape that makes the game so appealing. Over the years, and there's been quite a few of them, Minecraft has inspired giant builds and structures, complicated redstone contraptions, not to mention fan art and even an official Simpsons opening that features the game's trademark blocky visuals. From its humble beginnings, Minecraft has not only grown into a force to be reckoned with in the industry, but has become a huge part of pop culture in general. But it begs the question of what things would be like if it was a simple platformer instead.

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That's what YouTuber Mysticat was wondering, and so they went ahead and actualized that idea. In their recent video, the Minecraft content creator set about making the game look two-dimensional, with impressive results. The first thing they needed to do was work out how to lock the camera to the reduced perspective, which involved writing a custom plugin. Then they made the player invisible and attached a flat item to their head that was textured with Steve's vanilla skin. This created the illusion that they were truly moving along a 2D plane. After some additional tweaking and adding a custom background to the scene, the finished project really does play like something from a bygone era.

In fact, many watching will probably get classic Mario vibes. Although, upon reflection and given that this flat version of Minecraft still has crafting and the ability to chop down trees, it looks almost like the 2D adventure sandbox title Terraria. The latter was released sometime after the former, and many consider it to be an alternative to Minecraft.

This is also not the first time Mysticat has engaged in some interesting and unique projects. They've also made a custom grappling hook for Minecraft, as well as a driveable tank, a sword that functions as a helicopter, and they've even changed some of the game's assets for ones designed by AI. Basically, the YouTuber shows that, despite how nearly infinite the vanilla experience is, there are so many other ways to extend gameplay in the Mojang IP.

Minecraft is available now for Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

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Source: PCGamesN