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00:00I know a place on the edge of the red light district where we can lay low, but my hands
00:04are all messed up, so you better drive, brother.
00:06Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're looking at the transition from 2D to 3D and how beautifully
00:11it can go.
00:12Whether they nailed it and stayed 3D or just had a hidden gem, these are the 20 best transitions
00:18into 3D from 2D series.
00:20Let's go.
00:21Before we continue, we publish content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:26the bell to get notified of our latest videos.
00:29Fallout 3
00:30Fallout 3 would rank in the top 5, but I'm putting it at 20 because there's one technicality
00:40here.
00:41Fallout 3 was not actually the series' first fully 3D game.
00:44That honour, if you want to call it that, belongs to Fallout Brotherhood of Steel.
00:48Still, this was the game that truly proved Fallout could thrive in a massive 3D open world.
00:53Walking through ruined Washington, discovering vaults and meeting mutants face to face, completely
00:58changed the scale of the series.
01:00That's kept some connections to the older RPG combat, while exploration became the real
01:05star.
01:05The animations were stiff, the glitches were endless, but good lord, did it rule.
01:17Rayman 2 The Great Escape
01:18The original Rayman already looked like it belonged inside a colourful fever dream, so giving that
01:28world actual depth could have gone really, really badly.
01:30Instead, Rayman 2 The Great Escape expanded everything beautifully.
01:34Forests, swamps, temples and floating structures became proper places to explore, while Rayman's
01:40helicopter hair and ranged attacks translated naturally into 3D.
01:43The controls were approachable, the camera behaved reasonably well for the era, and the game
01:48resisted stuffing every corner with pointless collectibles.
01:51It was my first Rayman game, and it actually made me judge the first game really harshly,
01:56because to me, it wasn't Rayman.
01:58To everyone else, it was 100% Rayman.
02:05F-Zero X
02:11The SNES F-Zero actually felt fast thanks to some clever Mode 7 trickery.
02:17F-Zero X decided that illusion was no longer enough, and threw the series into real 3D
02:22at absurd speed.
02:23Polygonal tracks meant giant loops, twisting tunnels and ridiculous courses that simply could
02:29not exist in the original.
02:30Even better, 30 races could compete at once, while the game prioritized a smooth framerate
02:35over flashy detail.
02:37Visually, it can look a little plain today.
02:39At the time, it may as well have been the future.
02:46Kid Icarus Uprising
02:57Pit spent decades doing absolutely nothing, then returned as if he'd been saving up ideas
03:02the entire time.
03:03And I think he had.
03:04Kid Icarus Uprising completely reinvented the old 2D platforming series as a fast 3D action
03:09game switching between spectacular flying sections and ground-based combat.
03:13The weapon variety was excellent, the difficulty system let players choose how much pain they
03:18wanted, and the constant character banter gave the game far more personality than anyone
03:22ever expected.
03:24The one major downside was the stylus-heavy control scheme.
03:27But whatever, I'm ranking it high.
03:29It was still dope.
03:29The big skull guarding the door is a ganiman.
03:32They'll attack when fired at you, but they don't hit the skull if you don't shoot them.
03:36Sonic Adventure
03:41Sonic had flirted with 3D before, but Sonic Adventure was the first time Sega really tried
03:46to build an entire mainline adventure around it.
03:49At its best, the transition felt incredible.
03:51Racing across Emerald Coast, feeling an enormous killer whale, and exploring hub areas gave Sonic
03:56a freedom the Mega Drive games could only suggest.
03:59Six playable characters also added variety, although one of those varieties was fishing
04:04with Big the Cat, so results may vary.
04:07The camera and glitches have aged badly, but compared to the Sonic 06 game that would drop
04:118 years later, this was pretty unreal.
04:19Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos
04:22What kind of nightmare was that?
04:26Blizzard could have made another sprite-based strategy game.
04:30Instead, Warcraft 3 moved the series into full polygonal 3D, and used the transition to
04:35expand beyond the graphics.
04:36Hero units added RPG-style progression, letting major characters gain levels, abilities, and
04:41items while leading armies.
04:42The four factions felt meaningfully different, and the campaign delivered one of Blizzard's
04:47most memorable stories to Arthas and his spectacularly bad decisions.
04:51Better still, the 3D engine became a playground for custom maps.
04:55This was not just prettier Warcraft, it was a much bigger idea of what Warcraft could be.
05:00Two years later, we got World of Warcraft, and thanks to Classic Mode, I'm still playing
05:04it.
05:04...multiple spellcasters at the same time.
05:07It often becomes necessary to quickly switch between them to cast their individual spells.
05:11Bomberman 64
05:19Turning Bomberman into 3D should have been simple.
05:23Add depth, keep bombs, go home.
05:25Hudson went much further with Bomberman 64, transforming the familiar grid-based formula
05:30into a full adventure filled with enemies, puzzles, platforming, and exploration.
05:34How did we get so lucky?
05:36Bombs could now be picked up, thrown, and kicked, making them useful for far more than blowing
05:41up your friends.
05:42The single-player campaign felt genuinely different from what came before, which was both its biggest
05:46strength and biggest risk.
05:48Movement could be awkward, and multiplayer lost some classic simplicity, but for a testing
05:52ground of an established series?
05:54Nice.
05:55Thumbs up.
06:02Excitebike 64
06:03The original Excitebike was about racing left to right, hitting ramps, and trying not to
06:15land directly on your face.
06:17I don't know why people love it so much.
06:19As a kid and as an adult, I think it's really underwhelming.
06:22Excitebike 64 took that wonderfully simple idea and turned it into a 3D motocross game,
06:27and now I think it's very, very overwhelming.
06:30Riders could lean into corners, control their bikes in mid-air, and tackle tracks full of
06:34hills, mud, and obstacles.
06:36Landing correctly suddenly mattered just as much as raw speed, giving the controls a surprisingly
06:41satisfying learning curve.
06:43The track editor was another great addition, keeping alive the fun of the original NES entry.
06:48Fun that I didn't have, but if you guys say it's fun, I'll trust you.
06:52Ricky Dernsey's out there a hill.
06:55Donkey Kong 64
06:56Here we go!
06:58So the family here!
07:00Performance for you!
07:01If you know the words you enjoy, it's too!
07:05Rare had already rebuilt Donkey Kong's reputation with Donkey Kong Country, so a 3D adventure
07:11feels like the next logical step.
07:13I don't say this lightly, this was probably my favourite N64 game growing up.
07:18Donkey Kong 64 delivered with huge worlds, 5 playable Kongs, unique abilities, and enough
07:24collectibles to frighten a museum curator.
07:26Swapping characters encouraged players to revisit areas and uncover new secrets, while
07:31the environments were imaginative and packed with activities.
07:35Yes, the collecting can become exhausting, and constantly changing Kongs did slow everything
07:39down, but wow, was it fun 90% of the time.
07:47Mega Man Legends
07:53Mega Man spent years running sideways, jumping over spikes, and turning robots into scrap.
07:58Mega Man Legends suddenly handed him an entire 3D world to explore.
08:03Instead of traditional stages, players wandered through towns, ruins, and connected dungeons,
08:08while upgrading Mega Man's Volnuts equipment and meeting new characters.
08:12The colourful art style gave the game plenty of charm, and the world felt surprisingly alive
08:15compared with earlier entries.
08:17Combat and controls could be awkward at first glance, sure, but once it clicked, it was pretty
08:22damn solid.
08:30Mario Kart 64
08:35Sure, the original Mario Kart, Super Mario Kart, used visual tricks to create the illusion
08:40of depth, but Mario Kart 64 finally put the series into genuine 3D.
08:46Suddenly, the tracks could twist, climb, and open up in ways the SNES game simply couldn't
08:50imagine.
08:51More races, items, and four-player split-screen made it an instant multiplayer favourite and
08:56an instant classic.
08:58It was simple enough for anyone to understand, yet chaotic enough to destroy friendships in
09:03a single race.
09:04Or relationships.
09:05Or family dynamics.
09:07Eat sh**, older brother.
09:08I'm the captain now.
09:15Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time.
09:17Do you think I felt regret as I gazed upon the destruction we had wrought?
09:21Or at least humility at the speed with which a world can be transformed from a good world
09:26into a hell?
09:27Okay, sure, technically, again, this wasn't Prince of Persia's first trip into 3D, but
09:32it was the one everyone remembers, and that earns its spot.
09:36Accuracy is whatever, content is priority.
09:38The Sands of Time transformed the old series' careful platforming into fluid wall runs, climbing,
09:44swinging, and acrobatics that felt incredible in three dimensions.
09:48The rewind mechanic was even smarter, letting players undo a mistimed jump instead of immediately
09:53restarting.
09:54Combat was weaker than the traversal, but exploring the palace was so much fun that it barely mattered.
10:00The man who had tricked me into opening the hourglass now had his prize, and for some unknown
10:06purpose coveted the dagger as well, would stop at nothing to possess it.
10:10Ninja Gaiden.
10:19Ryu was already famous for brutally difficult 2D adventures, and his Xbox return made one
10:25thing really clear, the move to 3D was not going to make life easier.
10:29Ninja Gaiden reinvented the series as a lightning-fast third-person action game, with responsive combat,
10:35precise dodging, vicious enemies, and wonderfully aggressive movement.
10:39Wall running and acrobatics made Ryu feel incredibly mobile, while the larger environments
10:44gave players more room to explore.
10:45Most importantly, and the thing that distinguishes it from Prince of Persia, is the combat never
10:50felt like an awkward first experiment in 3D.
10:53It felt confident immediately.
10:55The difficulty remained savage, of course, but that's a good thing.
11:03Fire Emblem Path of Radiance.
11:12Moving Fire Emblem into 3D did not require reinventing its strategy, and that was probably the smartest
11:18choice.
11:18Path of Radiance kept the familiar grid-based battles, permanent character deaths, and support
11:23relationships, but presented everything with polygonal characters, 3D environments, and
11:27larger battle scenes.
11:29Ike's story also gave the GameCube entry a strong cast and plenty of memorable encounters.
11:33Sure, some animations were slow, and visually it was hardly the system's biggest showpiece,
11:38but the important part worked.
11:40The extra dimension never got in the way of the tactics.
11:48Metroid Prime.
11:56Turning Metroid into a first-person game sounded like the kind of idea fans normally panic
12:01about, and for good reason.
12:02Somehow, Metroid Prime became one of the best reinventions imaginable.
12:07Exploration, backtracking, environmental puzzles, and hidden upgrades all survived the move into
12:113D, while viewing Talon IV through Samus' visor made the whole thing feel so good.
12:18Scanning added worldbuilding and lock-on targeting stopped combat from becoming an awkward shooter
12:22experiment.
12:23Most importantly, areas felt interconnected, rather than like unrelated stages.
12:28Retro Studios did not abandon what made Metroid special, it simply moved the entire experience
12:33inside Samus' helmet.
12:43Final Fantasy VII.
12:52Final Fantasy was already a massive RPG series before Final Fantasy VII, but the jump into 3D
12:57made it feel enormous.
13:00Polygonal characters, 3D battlefields, cinematic sequences, and detailed pre-rendered backgrounds
13:05gave Square far more ways to sell dramatic moments.
13:09Midgar immediately showed how much larger this new presentation could make the world feel.
13:14Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth also became instantly recognisable faces for the franchise.
13:19The character models have aged into charming little collections of elbows and blocks, but that
13:24hardly matters.
13:25The leap from sprites to this cinematic style completely changed how people imagined console
13:30RPGs looking, and it's probably why this game has stuck in people's minds for almost
13:3430 years.
13:45Metal Gear Solid.
13:55Metal Gear had always been about sneaking around rather than charging through front doors, and 3D gave that idea more
14:02room to breathe.
14:03Metal Gear Solid let Snake crawl under objects, hide around corners, knock on walls, and study
14:08guards from different angles.
14:10Suddenly, every room felt like a stealth puzzle, and Metal Gear stopped looking like a fun retro
14:14experiment, and a title that could, and would, hang around for decades.
14:19The bigger leap was presentation.
14:21Voice acting, elaborate cutscenes, and bizarre boss encounters made the game feel unusually cinematic,
14:26particularly for 1998.
14:28This was not merely Metal Gear in 3D, this was a redefinition of stealth games.
14:34No heroes in war.
14:35All the heroes I know are either dead or imprisoned, one or the other.
14:39But Snake, you're a hero, aren't you?
14:42I'm just a man who's good at what he does.
14:44Killing.
14:45There's no winning or losing for a mercenary.
14:47The only winners in war are the people.
14:50Grand Theft Auto 3.
14:52I know a place on the edge of the red light district where we can lay low, but my hands
14:56are all messed up, so you better drive, brother.
14:58Before GTA 3, Rockstar's crime series was mostly viewed from above.
15:02Then Liberty City arrived, and the entire concept suddenly felt enormous.
15:06I first saw this game being played on a family friend's TV by his brother, and my thought
15:10was literally, whoa, what the hell is this?
15:13This is like nothing I've ever seen.
15:15Players could walk streets, steal cars, take missions, escape police, and ignore the story
15:20while creating chaos.
15:21That freedom was the real breakthrough.
15:23The shooting was clumsy, and several missions remain deeply committed to ruining your afternoon,
15:28but none of that erases GTA 3's ambition.
15:32The move into 3D did more than improve Grand Theft Auto.
15:35It improved gaming in general.
15:45The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time.
15:55Moving The Legend of Zelda into 3D could have broken everything that made the series work.
16:00Instead, Ocarina of Time solved problems other developers were still discovering.
16:04Z-targeting made fighting enemies in 3D manageable, while dungeons used height, perspective, and
16:10space in really clever ways.
16:11Riding Epona across Hyrule Field felt enormous at the time, and switching between young and
16:16adult Link gave the world another layer of mystery.
16:18The camera and a few sections show their age, but the important ideas remain remarkably strong.
16:24Nintendo didn't just adapt Zelda to 3D as a test, it adapted it and nailed it on its
16:29first go.
16:31Still one of the best games ever made.
16:38Super Mario 64.
16:40Dear Mario, he's come to the castle.
16:42I have baked a cake for you.
16:44Yours truly, Princess Toadstool.
16:46Just like Ocarina of Time, Nintendo didn't simply move Mario into 3D with Super Mario 64.
16:52It practically explained to the rest of the industry how 3D platforming was supposed to
16:56work.
16:58Mario could run freely through open spaces, triple jump, backflip, wall kick, and long jump
17:04with an amount of control that made movement itself entertaining.
17:07Stars could often be approached in different ways, turning levels into places to explore,
17:11rather than simple obstacle courses.
17:13The analog stick was crucial to that freedom.
17:16Yes, the camera occasionally behaves like Lakitu has joined Bowser's side, but it was still
17:21so good.
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