Mario 64 and TR are entirely different styles of game. For instance in Mario you never get the same feelings of danger or vertigo as you do in TR. I'm not saying either is a better game because I can't compare them.
Mario 64 is just about the only I can think of that was better in the third dimension than it's 2D original.
Tomb Raider was a bit like climbing a mountainside; you had to look for hand and footholds and use your skill and judgement (and some luck) to progress. Whereas Mario was more of a straightforward platformer, but brilliantly put together.
Manic Miner
Jet Set Willy ( and two )
Pyramania (so many seems to have forgot about that great platformer)
Wanted Monty Mole
Monty on the Run
Auf Wiedersehen Monty
Jasper
Farenheit 3000
Henrys Hoard
and so on..
Tomb Raider can be my favourite game of all time
To me TR was interesting, immersive, atmospheric, fun and mysterious.
Anyways, TR wasn't a pure platformer. It's an action adventure game with tons of platforming. I think that the real appeal of TR is that it mixes a lot of genres,
+1
TR is possibly my fav game of all time (along with Doom),I still remember first loading it up on Playstation on release day and as soon as the game started and she stood there in the snow cave waiting to be moved my jaw dropped,no more 10ft x 10ft corridors in adventure games (Dungeon Master Style) but real looking surroundings with texture than can be manipulated. I was soon drawn into the love-hate relationship with Lara, the puzzle elements and exploration,the game was simply revolutionary. In Order I prefer TR1,Last Revelation,Legend,TR2
I played a demo of TR and wasn't that impressed to start with.
There was a lot of just wandering round trying to find something to interact with to move on. That said, the actual game got better and better and more interesting the more you played.
The only nagging feeling was the quandary over whether to rush through or whether to try and find all the hidden pickups, which was a task doomed to failure. In that way I really appreciated the design of SM64, where you were encouraged to re-visit a level to take it on with a completely different objective. You couldn't clear it all in one go, even if you wanted to. Similarly Spyro the Dragon, whilst great fun, also let you clear each level in one go, which if you actually set out to do, took a bit of the fun out of it.
Trick is, SM64 and particularly Mario Galaxy are nothing like a platform game. They're mostly running around over a suface - more like Sabre Wulf than Manic Miner. They took more from the pseudo-3D bits of the Zelda series than from Mario. The only time they do platforming well is in the segments that force you into 2D gameplay in a side-on view.
Tomb Raider featured more of the precise platform jumping style of old. If you really want a 3D platform game, try Jumping Flash on the Playstation - though again that's more along the lines of BombJack.
Comments
Mario 64 is just about the only I can think of that was better in the third dimension than it's 2D original.
Tomb Raider was a bit like climbing a mountainside; you had to look for hand and footholds and use your skill and judgement (and some luck) to progress. Whereas Mario was more of a straightforward platformer, but brilliantly put together.
Destroy him my robots!:-P
Jet Set Willy ( and two )
Pyramania (so many seems to have forgot about that great platformer)
Wanted Monty Mole
Monty on the Run
Auf Wiedersehen Monty
Jasper
Farenheit 3000
Henrys Hoard
and so on..
+1
TR is possibly my fav game of all time (along with Doom),I still remember first loading it up on Playstation on release day and as soon as the game started and she stood there in the snow cave waiting to be moved my jaw dropped,no more 10ft x 10ft corridors in adventure games (Dungeon Master Style) but real looking surroundings with texture than can be manipulated. I was soon drawn into the love-hate relationship with Lara, the puzzle elements and exploration,the game was simply revolutionary. In Order I prefer TR1,Last Revelation,Legend,TR2
There was a lot of just wandering round trying to find something to interact with to move on. That said, the actual game got better and better and more interesting the more you played.
The only nagging feeling was the quandary over whether to rush through or whether to try and find all the hidden pickups, which was a task doomed to failure. In that way I really appreciated the design of SM64, where you were encouraged to re-visit a level to take it on with a completely different objective. You couldn't clear it all in one go, even if you wanted to. Similarly Spyro the Dragon, whilst great fun, also let you clear each level in one go, which if you actually set out to do, took a bit of the fun out of it.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
That's why SM64 added an energy bar, as it's impossible to be as accurate as you could in 2D.
Tomb Raider featured more of the precise platform jumping style of old. If you really want a 3D platform game, try Jumping Flash on the Playstation - though again that's more along the lines of BombJack.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Bloody difficult, by the way.