Platformers are the best genre of games out there!

[LG[Infinite]]

Platforming has been going through the doldrums lately. The push towards increasingly "mature" content (read: games where people shoot each other) has led to many developers moving resources away from platformer development. Just look at the staggering decline in the quality of the Sonic franchise, for instance. It doesn't help either that Mario has systematically buried anyone who has had the gumption to try and wrestle the platforming crown away from him. It's not that I don't love Mario, and it's not that I don't think Mario has consistently redefined what platforming is, but his dominance has made it so difficult for other platformers to survive without looking like rip-offs. That said, Mario's quality and intimidating sales power should not be used by other developers as an execuse to pull back on platformer development - rather it should be seen as an example to aspire to. Hopefully Mario Galaxy encourages a few other platformers to pop up. I love the genre and I miss the old days back on the SNES when were absolutely spoiled for choice.