1. The Linear Platformer
I dread to think how many hours I spent endlessly replaying Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon games on my Playstation as a child. There will undoubtedly be many the same age who clocked up a similar amount of time, whilst those a few years older will have fond memories of weekends spent blitzing through levels on Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog titles on the NES/SNES and Master System/Mega Drive respectively. The premise of such games was simple they were split into a finite number of colourful levels which players were challenge to navigate, jumping and spinning their way past enemies and obstacles. It was all good, harmless fun. With the release of Super Mario 64, however, most platform games opted to become non-linear, giving players multiple options to get from a to b and complete any objectives set to them, often foregoing the concept of levels completely. Such games are just as enjoyable as the type that preceded them, and have evolved significantly to the point where they now incorporate things such as weapons and vehicles and are more similar to the adventure genre than the traditional platformer, though the volume of releases for these has also dropped in recent years there hasn't been a well-received and high-selling Ratchet And Clank game for five years, for instance. Nintendo are doing their best to prolong the lifespan of the traditional genre from time to time with Mario releases on their handhelds, but on consoles, the moustached plumber has long since exclusively moved on to open-world endeavours, whilst the likes of Sonic, Crash and Spyro have faded into obscurity following a string of unsuccessful releases.