Taken from wikipedia: 

Platform game, or platformer, is a video game genre characterized by jumping to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles. It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps. The most common unifying element to these games is a jump button;...

My question, are platformers still a real genre? We easily consider a Mario and Sonic game a platformer, based off of history, but will in many case not consider Assassin's Creed, ICO and Crackdown just as viable as platformers. When things were 2D, almost everything was a platformer. Now as genres seperated themselves and games became more distinctive, it's harder to see what qualifies as a platformer. Is it really just the ability to jump from platform to platform with consequences waiting if you miss? So many games have these features and most would be considered action or action/adventure games.

There's also the question of the mascot. Most games categorized as platformers as opposed to action games typically get their title because a deformed man-thing or animal is your character. Does this hold any weight? A lot of people consider NiGHTS a platformer, but from where I stand, it's a flight game.

So for the sake of argument and/or discussion, what makes a platformer a platformer, or is this a false genre? 

Look at Mario. The jumping around and overall movement controls are pretty much the main experience in the game. Most games may have platforming elements to them but that doesn't make them platformers. Just like a lot of FPSs now have levels and xp but that doesn't make them RPGs.

Well Mario himself isn't quite a platformer anymore. Mario's main attack has changed from jumping on enemies, to punching enemies, to spinning into enemies. It get's less platform-like as time goes on. I'm not saying Mario's not a platformer, but I'm asking a few questions you're not really answering. Isn't Assassin's Creed about jumping? Prince of Persia? Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction? Crackdown? Why is it nothing that can viably be a platformer actually considered one unless it features some animal or semi-humanoid in the main role? Ratchet & Clank is very shooter happy, and is considered a platformer.

Platforming involves jumping from platform to platform. Ask every game from Donkey Kong to Super Mario Galaxy that involves jumping as the primary action.

Because in those games you mention, combat is the primary feature. Platformers generally have goals that don't always involve killing enemies, but rather reaching a certain point. Whether or not Mario jumps on the enemies he encounters doesn't matter.

The Ghost of RubangB said: Platforming involves jumping from platform to platform. Ask every game from Donkey Kong to Super Mario Galaxy that involves jumping as the primary action.

Thank you for rewriting the definition I had put up in the beginning. Also jumping is in many games, but it's not always easy to define whether it's the primary action in a console world with 8 buttons, two analog sticks, a d-pad and an endless amount of motions that can give you many different "primary" actions. What was once an easily definable genre back in the 2D days has become very hard to determine nowadays with 3D taking games into so many genres at once you can't label the damn game.

 

Onyxmeth said: Mario's main attack has changed from jumping on enemies, to punching enemies, to spinning into enemies. It get's less platform-like as time goes on.

 What does that do with Mario Galaxy not being a platformer?  How you change the fact doesn't change the fact that the point of the game is jumping puzzles.

DKII said: Because in those games you mention, combat is the primary feature. Platformers generally have goals that don't always involve killing enemies, but rather reaching a certain point. Whether or not Mario jumps on the enemies he encounters doesn't matter.

Ok so how is Sonic the Hedgehog a platformer? It involves jumping on enemies to kill them, but very little in the way of actual platform jumping. Most of the game is usually on a flat plane. There are also many games out there that don't require killing enemies but rather reaching a certain point and wouldn't be considered platformers. There's plenty of platforming in God of War where your only challenge is to successfully jump and manuever around platforms and beams, but I'm sure no one would consider it a platformer. However, if the game were to be in 2D, I bet it would be easily considered a platformer.

 

What DKII said.. Jumping puzzles and obstacle avoidance are the core atoms of a platformer.

Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. were both pure platformers.
Later Mario games weren't quite as pure, though they retained the FOCUS on jumping puzzles and that tends to be what decides the genre of the game.

I don't consider Ratchet & Clank Future a platformer, for instance. It's actually a run-n-gun, with pretty much equal focus on the shooting and platforming elements.

deleted, people beat me to it