10 Game Franchises That Should’ve Stayed 2D
We've seen countless classics known for side-scrolling and 2D gaming fail to make the jump to 3D over the years. The success of Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time left numerous studios and publishers experimenting and trying to shoehorn their famous franchises into some kind of 3D game to try and recreate the success that those games had. Unfortunately, not every major video game series was able to properly make the transition to 3D and abandon its top-down or side-scrolling roots. For every Super Mario Sunshine or Banjo-Kazooie, there are a bunch of failed 3D projects out there. Many games during the late 1990s were simply too ambitious in trying to break free of their 2D roots. Let's get one thing straight: when we saw "3D gaming" we're not referring to the kind you need those stupid glasses for. We're simply referring to games that offer a sense of depth atop of the 2D attributes of height and length.
The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era was plagued by failed attempts at trying to bring old franchises to the third dimension. We saw many of our favorite franchises butchered and warped just to mimic the format of Mario 64. Oftentimes, these games had ugly, polygonal graphics, horrendous camera systems and were severely limited by the technology of the time. They were also plagued by poor design due to the format being relatively new, whereas side-scrolling platformers had over 100 games that you could look to for inspiration. Even in the modern era, some of our favorite video game series still fail when it comes to their latest 3D entries, often leaving us lamenting for the days of their two-dimensional prime. So it's time we look back at some 10 Game Franchises That Should've Stayed 2D.