The Blue Bomber goes to work.
Also known as Front View, this is a video game perspective in which all objects are viewed strictly from the side, with little or no amount of their tops or bottoms visible. This is the classic perspective for 2D Platform Games, Metroidvania games, Fighting Games and Horizontal Scrolling Shooters. This perspective has fallen out of favor with modern 3D games.
Depth Perplexion almost always comes with this view; for example note that in the picture to the right Mega Man and the turret enemies can shoot bullets "through" the walls. Cheated Angles are also very likely to be encountered.
See also Isometric Projection, Top-Down View and Three-Quarters View.
Examples
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Platform / Metroidvania
- Android Hunter A
- Aspire: Ina's Tale
- Ayo the Clown
- Balthazar's Dream is viewed this way.
- Bot Gaiden
- Bubble and Squeak
- Castle in the Darkness
- Castle Of Pixel Skulls
- Caveman Warriors
- Claws of Furry
- Clunky Hero
- Crash Bandicoot has side-scrolling sections (including Bonus Stages, since the 3D gameplay was already side-scrolling gameplay viewed from behind the character.
- Crossbow Crusade
- Similarly, Crush was based around transitioning between 3D, 2D side-view, and 2D top-down-view.
- Double Pug Switch is viewed in this manner.
- Eskimo Bob Starring Alfonzo
- Feathery Ears has sections played in 2D.
- Fez involves a 3D environment that gets flattened into a 2D plane for side-view platforming; the player can alter the level by switching the positions of the X- and Z-axis at will.
- F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch
- Flippin Kaktus
- Flynn: Son of Crimson
- Fox N Forests
- Furwind
- Ghoulboy
- Goblin Sword
- Inexistence Rebirth
- Keep Out
- Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot are side scrolling, but the player is able to leap between the foreground and background using a Warp Star.
- Klonoa is played from Side View, but the actual paths would wind about in full 3D. In the PlayStation original, the characters and collectibles were still 2D sprites.
- Landflix Odyssey
- Lep's World
- LittleBigPlanet, though you could "jump" forward and backwards in depth in certain spots.
- Lizard
- The Mega Man (Classic) series— with the notable exception of Mega Man 8, where the tops of platforms were visible.
- Metaloid Origin
- Mighty Aphid
- Moon Raider
- Mountain Troll
- Nomolos: Storming the Catsle
- Nosferatu Lilinor
- Orphan (2018) has this view.
- Pankapu
- Pizza Vs. Skeletons
- Primal Light
- Punky Skunk is this and it was released on the original Playstation, although it was originally meant to be an SNES game.
- Samurai Revenge
- Skeleton Boomerang
- Smashroom
- So Many Me
- Some parts of the daytime levels in Sonic Unleashed, as well as the levels in Sonic Colors and Classic Sonic's levels in Sonic Generations.
- The Sun at Night
- Super Panda Adventures
- Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel had certain sections in 2D.
- Super Mario Odyssey has some sections where Mario is changed into his 8-bit self and has to navigate the area as a 2D platformer.
- Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found
- Trash Quest
- Treasures Of The Aegean
- Trophy 2021
- Venture Kid
Shoot Em Up
- Salamander and its sequel alternates between this and a top-down view.
Eastern RPG
- Interestingly, despite being 3D, Wild ARMs 4 had areas that would switch to this perspective for platforming elements.
- The Mario & Luigi games are usually Three-Quarters View, but have a bunch of side-scrolling segments. Superstar Saga and Partners in Time use Three-Quarters View all the way through, but some areas have paths that are so narrow that traversing them is functionally indistinguishable from side-scrolling.note Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team feature Side View for half of the sum overworld exploration, though only during clearly delineated sections of the game world (inside Bowser's body for the former, the Dream World in the latter).
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario played with this with sections in the former where you went from the 3D foreground to the 2D background, and in the latter with 2D to 3D flips. Paper Mario: Color Splash also plays with this in its Super Mario Bros. 3 section, with a 2D to isometric 3D flip.
- Sorcerian
- Valkyrie Profile
- Ys III Wanderers From Ys
Action Adventure
- Grand Theft Pizza Delivery: Some of the missions/minigames adopt this P.O.V., but the game itself is mostly seen from a Top-Down View.
- Kuri Kinton
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link being the only game in the series to be side view in the action scenes (top down in the overworld), while the The Legend Of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games have side view areas.
- The Splatterhouse reboot shifts into 2D sidescrolling mode during certain segments.
- BUCK: Saturday Morning Cartoon Apocalypse
- Fin and the Ancient Mystery
- All four Sydney Hunter games.
Shooter
- Bio Lab Wars
- The Contra series infamously uses alternative viewpoints (such as top-down and pseudo-3D) in some of its levels.
- Rad Rodgers
Adventure
- Ghost Trick has a constant side view of the world. As a ghost, you can go through walls, ceilings and floors in addition to the usual lateral movement.
Other / unsorted
- Buddy 2016 is viewed from this perspective.
- Clea (2019) is generally viewed from this perspective.
- Hamsterdam: The seed-collecting bonus levels are viewed this way.
- Joumee The Hedgehog is an Endless Running Platform Game that's viewed from the side.
- Live Stream Escape From Hotel Izanami
- Nidhogg is a 2D fencing game, with a hint of "tug-o-war".
- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal had the Captain Qwark stages as side scrollers.
- Spate is played in this perspective.
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon had side scrolling areas with secondary characters.
- Target Acquired 2016 is an Endless Running Platform Game with a side view.
- Vambrace: Cold Soul: A Dungeon Crawler game in the style of Darkest Dungeon.
Other Media
- Fantastic Mr. Fox has a few action scenes like this.
- This is generally how the Wacky Races are shown, although other views are also used.
- Yogi's Space Race (essentially Wacky Races in space) is also usually shown this way.
