The platformer returns

For a while the sidescrolling platform genre seemed to be a thing of the past, a casualty of the introduction of 3D graphics with the PSX and N64. Having gone from being the most popular form of video gaming to being a niche thing. Now the genre seems to be back big time, especially on the Wii U. Some of the biggest titles for the system are traditional sidescrollers such as New Super Mario Bros. U, Rayman Legends and more recently Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. A lineup of games more reminiscent of the SNES days than the 3D consoles of the past 20 years. The new indie scene on the consoles has also contributed to the genres resurgence, supplying lots of creative platformers. So if you share my passion for the gameplay of the NES and SNES generations, this is a new golden age. Thanks to the increased power of modern consoles and a generally better understanding of level design, these modern platformers are in many ways superior to the classics that inspired them. 

Looking at the recent E3 announcements it looks like this trend will continue, with Mario Maker and Yoshi's Woolly World being two of the top games of Nintendo's E3 press conference. And let's not forget all the console indie games being shown off, we have two new Shantae games to start with and I'm personally very excited about Chariot and Teslagrad.