Platform games are a video game genre and subgenre of action games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in a rendered environment. Platformers are characterized by their level of use in jumping and climbing to navigate the player's environment and reach their goal. Levels and environments feature uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying height that requires use of the player character's abilities in order to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers factor into the gameplay as well, such as climbing, swinging from objects such as vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, air dashing, gliding through the air, being shot from cannons or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, fall outside of the genre.
