Game genre we are seriously lacking in.....

Platformers.

I can't remember the last time I even played a platformer until Sunset Overdrive came out,which I was really surprised by how good it was after have literally zero anticipation for it. But it's been a long time since I've seen anything with the charm of Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter. Maybe there's a lack of appeal for those kinds of games these days but they used to be a big deal 10-15 years ago.Unfortunately it seems like every big AAA game these days has to be dark or be a generic shooter to catch peoples attention. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Surely you mean 3D platformers, specifically.

There are tons of indie 2D platformers coming out. Too many, if you ask me.

They've been making new Ratchet games steadily for the last 10 years. The last couple haven't been great but Crack in Time was fantastic.

The 2008 Prince of Persia was also a really really good platformer with a lot of heart. Disappointing that Ubisoft cut all ties with it pretty much immediately.

WW2 shooters

Here's the thing with platformers: the fail state (falling) is infuriating like nothing else in gaming.

PoP '08 is excellent, and in no small part because it just accepts that falling is bullshit and gets rid of it. Then the one time it does let you fall is one of the most goddamn beautiful, heartbreaking and masterful moments in gaming. Seriously, the end of that game was designed by a genius.

Sorry, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, platformers. They don't make them anymore because they suck.

When I got bought a 'next gen' console for my birthday excitement was pretty high for a while. Then as time drew on I realised these pretty things weren't always fun things. The co-op added massively, but the sheer super-saturated jumping and leaping that made me love electric-picture games was not to be found. And this carried on. And so I went back to older consoles. One of the older consoles was actually newer.

Stepping back is stepping forward.

I don't see how Sunset Overdrive is much of a platformer.

Have I got the game for you then.

I would have said "point and click adventures" but The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 just came out and Toonstruck was recently re-released on GOG.com, so I've got some solid pointing and clicking ahead of me for now.

I'll tell you one thing Giant Bomb isn't lacking in -- clickbait forum post titles.

@pandabear: It's not like he said, "Gamers haven't played THIS kind of game in years?" or "BigBoss1911 wants to play WHAT?" or "5 secret game genres THEY don't want YOU to know about in 2015" Though... it's pretty close!

And to add something to the conversation, a game genre that's seriously lacking? A for real mech simulator ALA Mechwarrior on the PC. Heck, when was the last time we saw an Armored Core game?

Arcade racers that don't involve cars! What do I have to do to get a new JET MOTO!?

I would also agree on 3D platformers. Ratchet and Clank have been great, but I'd love a return to something akin to the original Crash Bandicoot games. Tactical shooters are missing as well. I'd love a new Socom. I'll gladly settle for the upcoming Rainbow Six.

I would also like more 3D platformers. I want another Banjo-Tooie pretty badly.

Outside of that, I'd also like to see some more old school Survival Horror games. Remakes of RE games can only go so far.

How about first person vehicular combat games? We got a decent amount of them in the 90's, with Necrodome (by Raven software!), Redline, Quarantine and Zone Raiders, but to my knowledge, it's been a good 16 years since the last one of these. For a while we at least got a few Twisted Metal clones, but even they're gone these days.

@mortuss_zero: Check out Alien Isolation

Racing games. I'm so fucking sick of the photo realistic bullshit. Give me goofy, magic cars racing through an alien spaceship.

Whatever genre Crimson Skies is in. COME ON MICROSOFT.

WESTERN GAMES.

Man I played Jak2 to DEATH and I will take whatever chance I can to mention it. I always think about how the PS2 was full of great platformers and that's the exact reason I won't get rid of it!

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West looks like it takes A LOT from old school platformers, so check that out. It's still on my backlog, and probably the next game I'll pick up.

I keep waiting for the revival of platformers, it's bound to happen, right? ....right? I think this course has been taken because with all of the photo-realistic possibilities of todays tech, developers want to make absolutely realistic stuff which really doesn't involve platformers. They were always goofy, probably because the devs had tech to make good looking cartoony games and the two just sort of fit (platformers/cartoony).

But yes, at least there's always 2d and indie games! FEZ was fan-freaking-tastic. The most fun I've had with a platformer since Jak2.

@fisk0: Didn't an actual Twisted Metal come out relatively recently, and no one cared at all?

@turambar: Yeah, I think that one sold something like 750k units.

Where my plastic instrument games at?!

@zelyre: The studio behind Mechwarrior Online got their shit together (their publisher may have been holding them back) and announced that they're likely to make a single-player game, depending on how well things go for them this year.

OT: Isometric RPGs that aren't in either the Fallout/Wasteland setting or zombie apocalypse setting. Hell, I'd settle for the plain old global warming apocalypse that Caravaneer 2 is offering, as long as it gets use away from nuclear bombs and zombies.

The platforming in Enslaved is much more akin to Uncharted and Tomb Raider than to something like Jak and Daxter. It's mostly about holding in the direction you want to get to, and occasionally hitting the jump button when your character reaches out for the next pipe/ledge/whatever. It's still beautifully animated and kind of engaging and satisfying, but if you expect it to scratch that Jak itch, you'll be disappointed.

Eww, Jak itch.

@straightgrizzly: Westerado is getting released(re-released?) on Steam in April and I'm willing to bet it's going to have some extra content or something along those lines added to it.

The space combat games are seriously lacking.

I'm surprised someone hasn't tried to do a 3D Beat Em' Up like God Hand. In fact, wasn't the last game to do that God Hand itself?

@doctordonkey: God Hand is perfect. Also it sold terribly, got terrible reviews and Clover was closed within a month of God Hand's launch, which are all perfectly good reasons to not try and make another one.

@corevi: They were closed because Capcom disliked new ideas and loved to keep the status quo, so making God Hand was just asking for it. I would hardly call God Hand perfect, I can see a lot of different areas that type of game could be improved, but I agree, it's not financially viable at this point to make this sort of game. Games like Bayonetta, DMC, God Hand, God of War will probably all fade away, I'd wager. They simply don't sell enough.

Real Time Strategy games are in rough shape as a genre right now, at least outside of StarCraft II. Which is a really sad revelation when you consider just how rich its history was in the '90s and early 2000s

Command and Conquer, Red Alert, Generals? That series is dead after its free-to-play iteration got canned

Total Annihilation, the followup TA:Kingdoms, Supreme Commander? Well, after the disaster of SupCom 2, Planetary Annihilation had to be crowdfunded

Homeworld 1 and 2? We've got the remasters to look forward to, but the series has been all but dead for over a decade. No news on Shipbreakers, either

Speaking of Relic, there's been no word about any further development of Dawn of War whatsoever after four years since DoW 2's Retribution expansion

I could go on about how there's seemingly no room for the fun but more obscure titles like Ground Control 1 or 2, and Massive's excellent followup World in Conflict

I mean, we've got Company of Heroes 2 still chugging along, Grey Goo is a fresh infusion into the genre, and stuff like Wargame has a small but solid community. But there's just no audience or room for unusual, ambitious stuff like Earth 2150, hell even the decent licensed stuff (though there was a lot of crap) like Star Trek: Armada or Star Wars: Empire at War

Valiant attempts to bring the RTS to consoles, and less-than stellar ones too, have pretty clearly failed. MOBAs aren't solely to blame for the decline but they take a heaping share

Motorcycle racers. Milestone now seem like the only company churning them out and Polyphony Digital haven't revisited the excellent Tourist Trophy. Cars are more popular so I get why driving games take over but, when you do it right, riding can feel like a unique challenge.

3D isometric action games or action adventure games

Combat racing games (think Combat Cars, Overlander or Micro Machines if it had weapons) < Overlander is more Combat driving game.

Gravity based vehicle action games? (Sub-Terrania, Descent)

2d Beat em ups that don't suck or feel slow (Scott Pilgrim and Charlie Murder I'm looking at you punks)

Came into the thread to say this. I really want a new third person platformer ala Jax and Daxter, Rachet and Clank or the Naughty Dog era Crash games.

What?

RTS and JRPGs are the biggest genres that have become non factors.

FPS games.

3D platformers are a genre I miss quite a bit. It was my favorite genre as a kid. I grew up in the PS2 era so I got to play tons of great 3D platformers as a kid but no one makes them anymore. With the exception of Ratchet & Clank, all the other franchises of the time all seem to dead. Franchises like Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro don't seem to be coming back anytime soon. Heck even Spongebob had a few platformers when I was a kid. Sure Nintendo still puts out 3D Mario games but nobody plays Mario anymore.

The consecutive closing of arcade racing studios like bizzare creations, black rock and liverpool have left a huge gap in my heart *snif* *snif*

@doctordonkey: As beat em up fan, i've never grew tired of buying Yakuza games. In fact the 4th iteration was like a wish come true when they introduced 4 different characters and each with their own play style. You will never grow tired of beating mobs in this game.

I've been pretty happy with the output of classical RPGs recently, but I could really use some more turn-based strategy/tactics games. Sure, Intelligent Systems is making another Fire Emblem and I am always happy for another one of those but it's been like what, 7-8 years since the last Advance Wars? And while I'm at it, Firaxis should make another XCOM. It hasn't actually been that long since the expansion for the last one, but Xenonauts really underwhelmed me and I'd like more turn-based alien murder thanks.

Serious Sam style over-the-top shooters that involve shooting hundreds and hundreds of enemies.

@arbitrarywater: Disgaea is a thing... There were also a bunch of weird ones on the PSP and DS like Knights in the Nightmare and Jeane D'Arc.

@corevi: Disgaea is almost its own thing, inasmuch as I don't really like those games and their love of grinding and overly complex systems. The PSP also had some great turn-based stuff but that stuff came out years ago. I'm very much speaking in terms of "What have you done for me LATELY?" And lately there hasn't been a ton that has caught my eye.

I know how you mean. That's why I'm excited for A Hat in Time and whatever Playtonic is working on. Both sound very Banjo-Kazooie, which was one of my favourites.

I also really wish there were more Japanese horror games.

I feel like 3D platformers aside from Nintendo's stuff and Ratchet are almost entirely dead, and that saddens me. I think there's plenty of fresh things you could do with a new platformer IP but I don't think anybody wants to take the chance developing one instead of a AAA M-rated action game.

Proper stealth games. It seems like no one has the patience for them anymore because everything is expected to be so instant gratification now. Even formerly great stealth series like Hitman, Splinter Cell, MGS, etc. have all turned more into shooters, which is fairly disappointing. I don't even feel like you could make a real stealth game these days without it getting roundly shit upon for being "slow", "boring", or "frustrating" because it seems like everyone needs flashy bullcrap to keep their interest and wants constant "you're winner" affirmation without having to really work for it.

Bioware doesn't really get much competition in the party-based RPG space.

Skateboarding games.

Sony tried a 3D platformer as a launch title with the PS4. Unfortunately Knack wasn't very good and it seems other devs, or maybe just publishers, are wanting to stay away from that soured pile for a bit.

What's wrong with Road Redemption?

Turn based strategic robot combat simulators where you design the CPU logic?

Gallery

If that is the genre you are talking about, I agree with you.