Platformers may not be the king of gaming as they once were, but the genre is still a notable force within the industry. Every time a Super Mario game comes out we are reminded of just how effective the style of gaming can be.
In addition to the big names, smaller titles still wow and impress every now and then. With a genre this old, one can be sure it has changed and evolved. Older gamers recall when platformers were a different kind of beast. The tropes listed below are all mostly gone from the genre, and mostly for the better. A few of these might pop up in a title today, but they are far from the norm.
8 Lives
This one was not exclusive to the platforming genre. Up until the 90s and even into the next millennium most games still gave players a limited number of lives to beat a level, stage, or world. This could be particularly frustrating for platformers where one particular moment late in a level is causing problems. One "game over" and the player has to trek all the way back to the spot just to try again. Most games had tricks to easily gain a lot of extra lives quickly to make this a non-issue. These days, games just get rid of lives entirely.
7 Time Limits
Remember casually strolling through a Super Mario Bros. level just to hear the dreaded music cue saying there are only 100 seconds left to complete the level? Time limits often factored into high scores. Beat the level faster for a better score.
These days, both scores and time limits are absent from some platformers. The game wants players to focus on the platforming challenge rather than obtaining a high score. Most people don't pay attention to scores when playing Super Mario.
6 Password Saves
It might be difficult for younger gamers to believe, but memory cards and save states were not always standard. It was not always possible, either. Older platformers simply had players starting at the beginning every time they booted up the game. Other games also had passwords players typed in to return to where they previously stopped playing. Even when memory cards were already introduced, some PS1 games still kept passwords for people who did not have one. With cloud saves and all consoles having their own internal storage, there is no need for passwords to save progress.
5 Taking Turns In Multiplayer
Older platformers had a competitive element of sorts where two players took turns going through levels to see who could beat the game first and survive the longest. The older Super Mario Bros. games had this as a prominent feature. Modern platformers often lack this feature in favor of a cooperative mode. Games like Rayman Legends, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Super Mario 3D World let players tackle the story with three other friends. Some games handle it better than others, however. Worst case scenario, friends end up compromising each other's jumps.
4 "Your Princess Is In Another Castle"
Platformers used to pay little attention to a story mode. The best example of this is Super Mario Bros. Every world ended in the same way; Mario thought he saved the princess until it is revealed to be Toad telling him Peach is elsewhere. While many platformers still have a definitive structure, many try to add variety to the bosses and the story. There are few platformers that will make players tear up like The Last of Us or question society like Metal Gear Solid 2, but most of them have cutscenes between worlds and levels to make things more interesting.
3 Skipping The Game With Warps
Some older platformers can be beaten with lightning speed if the player knows what they are doing. Just head to the right warp room or find the right secret to zip to the last world and beat the game quickly.
The most famous of these is perhaps the warp pipes from the second level of the original Super Mario Bros. These days the warps are replaced by secret levels needed to achieve 100% completion.
2 Console Wars
This is less to do with the games themselves and more their place in the industry. Every console manufacturer used to have a mascot and these were typically the protagonists of a platforming franchise. Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, and PlayStation had Crash Bandicoot. Kids would argue night and day over who was the better mascot. The console wars still exist in the heads of many, but now it is about who offers better service or whose games are better rather than who has the best character.
1 Collectathons
This became a bigger problem in early 3D platformers. To get 100% in games like Donkey Kong 64 and Spyro the Dragon, players had to collect every last special item in the games. Those wanting to go the extra mile would often get stuck finding the last two or three items in a level. Modern games remedy this by focusing more on the platforming challenge or not forcing the player to find everything in order to see all there is to see in the game.