Sometimes journalism tries to pit gamers against each other in a debate of which is better 3D gaming or 2D gaming. Perhaps this extends out of generational gaps as gaming now expands into abundant richness where we have a generation that only play 2D games, a generation like myself that grew up in the transition between mediums and a generation that has mostly known 3D games as the industry standard. One game franchise that often gets caught up in the middle of this debate is the Legend of Zelda series. You will hear nearly every gamer who has played their game voice their opinion passionately about which one is their favourite. Some love the traditional 2D Zelda style of gameplay expressed best in Link to the Past, which focuses heavily on world exploration and simple combat. Whilst other praise Zelda's successful jump into the 3D realm with Ocarina of Time being the flagship of the series, many Zelda fans sail by. A perfect example of this debate is captured quite humorously by Animator/Voice Actor/Entertainer Arin Hanson in his seqelitis series:
So that's why this question is sometimes a big deal. Which style of gameplay is actually better? 2D or 3D?
Honestly my personal answer, is both. I am a big believer that the style of gameplay you choose at the initial stage of design should be chosen in order to best reflect the gameplay mechanics. One isn't necessarily better then other, you have to assess what works best for the gameplay experimentation. I can give you a list of tonnes of games that in the late '90s failed to make the jump between 2D and 3D. (Bubsy 3D I am looking at you.) Adding the Z-axis radically altered and broke a lot of classic SNES era games. Even games that were considered commercial success like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 failed to necessarily contain the same polish their 2D predecessors used to have. To swing our sword back to Zelda for a second, Link to the Past works great because they used the best spiriting power on the SNES to tell a story set in two very open worlds told from a traditional RPG top down view. Ocarina of Time works great because Nintendo knew they had to radically alter the game to make use of new depth. We got a lot more personal control of Link as we guided him through new terrain, hit switches and solved camera related puzzles more realistically and this all helped to immerse us and create a cinematic feel more so then top-down sprites ever could. Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages great Gameboy Colour Zelda games because they push the gameboy's limited graphics to allow us to explore a really big 2D world involving time travel, colours changing and the continuing of an epic story via the Gameboy link cables. And as my final example, I want to talk about Link Between Worlds, the psuedo-spiritual sequel to Link to the Past. This game is 2D Zelda gameplay in terms that it is top down and emulates a lot of Link to the Past's mechanics. But it makes total use of the 3D camera to enhance gameplay. Not only do enemies use 3D depth to attack and to increase the difficulty of puzzles and locations, the game also introduces a seamless mechanic that allows Link to turn into a 2D image embedded on a wall and explore linear walls radically changing how you move through the world. This kind of genius demonstrates that Nintendo aren't concerned which Zelda style is better. As game developers and Zelda's creators, they love them both and will pick the style that best enhances the mechanics they want the gamer to experience. I think this is ultimately the best approach. There are so many different styles and genres of games and gamers, it seems petty to lock video games into a non-existant war on 2D vs 3D. Instead I think you can enjoy all sorts of games. As long as game developers continue to be creative with genres like Super Paper Mario, Rayman: Origins or Terraway there are infinite possibilities for hybrid combinations of visual perception and gameplay mechanics. Reference: 1.https://youtu.be/XOC3vixnj_0 2.http://www.screwattack.com/news/2d-vs-3d-which-better​
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AuthorBen Spanos is currently playing Undertale, Uncharted: Among Thieves and Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes. Archives
March 2018
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