9 Video Game Innovations That Happened Earlier Than You Think

9. 3D Platformers - NOT Super Mario 64

Actually: Jumping Flash

Nintendo gets a ton of praise - and rightfully so - for shaping entire genres; providing the necessary building blocks for the modern gaming industry as it exists today, and for taking video games out of the arcade and prioritising characters, world-building and fun gameplay mechanics that didn't charge money for every run.

However, for as influential and seismic Super Mario 64 is, it wasn't the first 3D platformer.

Yes, Nintendo's effort showed developers how to "do" a proper 3D camera and set of explorable character animations in an open space, but 1995's Jumping Flash on PlayStation owns the title of "first 3D platformer" in gaming.

Played in first-person and developed as a tech demo of sorts to showcase what the PlayStation could do, had this dropped after the mighty Crash Bandicoot and Mario 64 just one year later, it might have been a whole other story.