TRUE PERSPECTIVE HOW 2D GAMES TRIED TO SHINE IN A 3D WORLD

Take a dive through the videogame media in the mid-Nineties and a theme quickly emerges: the future is 3D, and that future is now. The history of 3D technology can be traced back to 1974, first appearing in games like Maze War and Spasim, followed by the tank simulator Battlezone, rear cameras in racing games like Pole Position, and taking shape in first-person shooter games like Wolfenstein 3D. But a substantial wave of 3D games arrived with the fifth-generation consoles in the mid-Nineties, as the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 set out to change the market. Why would anyone want to take a step back from the cutting edge?

An opinion piece on TechRadar in 2010 said, “Going back to an early Nineties 3D game now is almost painful. Flat faces, non-moving lips during conversations, stick-figure character models, smeary textures, and appalling animation… the list of problems goes on.” But not every title fell victim to forced polygons and age. The visuals and controls in the legendary haven’t aged well, and , one of the first successful 3D platformers, puts more work on players to control a flawed camera system so Mario and the environmental perils can remain visible. That didn’t take away from the sensory intimacy of the game. Ed Annunziata, creator of and told us, “The world changed when I played . Specifically, the moment where I wondered, ‘Can I jump in the