Why we still love platform games

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Super Mario screen grabImage source, Nintendo

It's the genre that helped propel gaming into the mainstream: the platform game.

Characters like Mario and Sonic jumped from one little ledge to another, picking up bonus points and building profits for the firms behind them.

But in recent years, first-person shooter games and action adventure titles have taken over as top sellers.

So is the platform a fading force? Newsbeat's been finding out.

Image caption,
Rex Crowle is the creative lead on Tearaway

Rex Crowle from Guilford-based games company Media Molecule is the man behind upcoming platform game Tearaway Unfolded.

It's based on a world made out of paper and his office is full to bursting with real-life models of some of its characters.

So who better to talk to about gaming's most iconic genre?

"We created Little Big Planet so platforming is something that is in our blood.

"It allows us to give players lots of little moments of challenge but combine it with a story and an adventure."

Image caption,
Tearaway Unfolded is a platform game based on a world made from paper

Back in the day "platformers" were the most popular type of game.

Dan Maher, presenter of gaming TV show Video Game Nation, told us: "In the same way that first person shooters and third person action games are the standard now, platformers were where everything was at in the early 1990s."

And despite all the developments in gaming since then, like more powerful consoles, online games and a wider variety of genres to play, platform games haven't changed much.

Image caption,
The first platform game Dan played was Jet Set Willy on the ZX Spectrum

Dan explains: "Fundamentally the concept has remained largely the same.

"Jump from platform to platform, get the end of the level collecting trinkets along the way.

"Nintendo evolved the format as they moved Mario into the 3D space with Mario 64."

So now in 3D but essentially the same, platform games may not be the dominant force they used to be sales wise, but they still do pretty well.

The top selling game in the UK this week is Lego: Jurassic World, not strictly a platform but one that borrows many of the genre's concepts.

Newsbeat listener Tess from Poole told us she "spends most of her time gaming" and she still buys platform games because she likes the colours in them.

"Everything else is just so dark now, so they're really exciting to play."

Tomas Deane from Bournemouth told us he likes the innocence of the genre.

"Not everything is about driving around shooting everything.

"Sometimes it is about jumping about on a flower until you move onto the next section."

Image source, Media Molecule
Image caption,
Media Molecule have a history of making platform games like Little Big Planet

So why does Rex, a man who helped make one of the most acclaimed platform games of recent years, think people still love these type of games?

"I think it's because every footstep is like a little victory," he tells us.

"If you jump onto a box, you're like, 'I got onto the box!' Then you jump onto the next one and you're like yeah I did it!

"So you're getting that little bit of adrenaline each time."

And despite the competition from more modern genres Rex thinks that platformers are here to stay.

Image source, ACTIVISION
Image caption,
First person shooter Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was one of the top selling games of 2014.

"Platformers will carry on living, they're just in different forms.

"The most popular 3D exploration games at the moment you're still often jumping around on buildings.

"It's just the platforming is a little more hidden within the overall set of game play features."

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