I've recently been watching videos by a dude named Kim Justice, who does a lot of documentaries about gaming companies (usually British ones who were big on the microcomputer scene), and there is one recurring theme: a lot of formerly promising devs couldn't adapt to the coming of 3D.

I'll admit it... back in the day, I actually got to a point where I loathed 3D and polygons. A big honk-me-off was when I saw a picture of the Playstation Ranma 1/2 game. Characters who looked so good in 2D anime suddenly looked horribly ugly (this must've been a prototype or something though because I saw the game recently and it didn't look that bad). Which I remember actually being a problem for a long time, a lot of 3D versions of characters just looked stupid.

But a bigger issue was gameplay. As much as the industry was all about 3D, the truth is that it was a lot like motion controls: for every one game that was better in 3D, there were ten that were made worse by it.

It got me to thinking about what genres are better in 3D, and which ones are better in 2D.

Here's my thoughts:

Better in 3D

Racing Games. While there are a lot of classics, I never was a huge fan of top-view racers like RC Pro-Am (I do like Micro Machines a little tho). For me racing needs either first person or that behind-the-car view, and then 3D allowed things like dynamic tracks where you can go off-road and find shortcuts and stuff, which is a definite plus. Ironically tho my favorite racing game, Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast, plays just like the oldschool Outruns and thus doesn't really take advantage of the 3D.

Certain RPGs, particularly any with a focus on exploration. My reasons are similar to my next point:

GTA type games. One of the few appeals this series has for me is just being able to fly/climb to great heights. I love high places, but the feeling of being at the top of a mountain or flying through the sky where the world below you is like a speck is something very hard to do in 2D, so I can't imagine Markiplier's "Helicopter Jousting" video ever happening in a world where GTA had remained top-view.

First Person Shooters are kinda obvious here.

Better in good ol' 2d

This is gonna be controversial, but... fighting games. One thing that gives fighters their impact is the sense of immediacy that some moves can have, especially things like cancelling one move into another and such. This is possible in 2D because not every movement needs to be meticulously rendered. But in 3D it does if you don't want it to look jank, and the little extra movements can cause things to feel sluggish and lack that impact. On top of this, I don't care for how all the 3d fighting games I've played employ a dial-a-combo system and try to have more "realistic" fighting styles. Just watch an Evo match of Street Fighter II or Marvel vs Capcom compared to an Evo match of Virtua Fighter or Tekken to see what I mean.

Side-scrolling platformers. 3D platformers just were not a good replacement. Again it comes down to that sense of immediacy 2D allows that 3D really doesn't. That and I don't really like running around collecting stuff, I like interesting challenges.

Story-focused games like JRPGs. Again, that sense of "immediacy." If you don't know what I mean... its kinda similar to what Egoraptor talked about in his Sequelitis video for Legend of Zelda. Like, what may have been a five-second walk from one town to another is now ten minutes, and that extra time just makes the thing feel slower than it actually is. Even for things like cutscenes I tend to find short animations like the sprite suddenly being in a kneeling position is more impactful than having to see the full range of motions like some 3D games do. 2D allows you to get to the freaking point.

Really most of what I've mentioned goes in general for a lot of games. Kim Justice's video on Sensible Software for example mentions that when their Soccer games went 3D, they somehow felt slower even though they played pretty much the same as the 2D installments.

Stuff I'm on the Fence About

Pinball games. I honestly can't tell if 3D had any noticable impact or effect.

Survival Horror. I've seen effective horror in both 2D and 3D, so it seems this comes down to the creator, not the nature of the game.

So, what are your thoughts?