Why didn't 2d collectathons become as popular as 3d collectathons?

threadly reminder that the term "collectathon" didn't exist during actual retro era (pre-2000)

>>11862259
now it does, though

>>11862252 (OP)
It didn't become a thing until gen 5 when pandering to kiddies by going easy on them was more marketable. Whereas before they were like 'fuck you, don't care if you can't beat this game. get fucked lol'.

>>11862274
Videogames always pandered children

I've never played Yoshi's Island, don't you need to have an big open area to make a collectathon? Games were linear before.
That's why I can only think of Metroid as a 2d collectathon

Big 2D platformers basically died after 4th gen, you kind of had some late titles like Tomba and MMX4-6 but the golden age was over.
GBA era mostly had cheap licensed crap, or games that went more into Metroid route. I think pure collecting wasn't easy enough to make in 2D, and Yoshi was the only big example that comes to mind, you need pretty complex big level design to make it interesting.
I also have a hunch that maybe people thought Yoshi took it too far. Most later games stuck with 3-5 big collectibles per level, see Wario 4 or NSMB series.
Oh and if you just like walking around endlessly collecting coins, Wario 2 is your game.

>>11862281
Collectathons must have levels, metroidvanias have interconnected worlds instead and that's not something present in Collectathons

Yoshi island is closer to sm64 than any metroid or castlevania

>>11862280
but they weren't always coddled as much

it's not a collectathon with the collecting is 100% optional.

Threadly reminder that Castlevania 1 is a collectathon then.
Also you only played 25% of Sonic 3

>>11862259
>IN OUR TIME WE CALLED IT THE GREAT WAR

>>11862252 (OP)
How many 2D collectathons are there?

Because there weren't any, I don't think. At the very least, I've certainly never played or heard of one, anyway. For example, Yoshi's Island is not a collectathon. You don't have to collect anything to win. You just need to get to the end of each stage.
Post an example of a 2d collectathon.

>>11862525
0.

Collectathons existed to squeeze every drop of gameplay out of the limited number of levels that the game could allow. 2D games, however, could have dozens or even hundreds of levels.

>>11862534
Yoshi Story

>>11862534
metroidvanias are probably the closest thing to a "2d collectathon" that you can get, really

>>11862462
Point is almost all platformers are "collectathons" then.
>Nooo but the score screen!
Ignore it.

>>11862697
Collectathons require collecting items to progress, that's not the case for regular platformers with a goal post

>>11862252 (OP)
they were pretty popular on home computers

>>11862738
>Collectathons require collecting items to progress
Which Yoshi's island doesn't

>>11862252 (OP)
Exploring a 3D world is intrinsically more interesting. When 2D levels add complexity they tend to become frustrating.

>>11862252 (OP)
Back in the day the challenge was the substance, you didn't need anything else.

This design philosophy started disappearing during the 5th gen (except on Saturn because the Saturn is based), and instead now the substance was going back & fourth and round in round and making you re-do levels to coomlect a bunch of bullshit.

The answer is different design standards from different time periods, not the actual 2D/3D dichotomy.
The irony is that players now think the later is real gameplay and the former is "artificially done to pad out the length". Kids I tell you.

>>11862252 (OP)
Probably because it's much harder to hide stuff in 2D levels than in 3D levels so you get like 1-2 types of collectibles at best in 2D ones (see platformers like Rayman Legends and Pizza Tower). Meanwhile 3D collectathons tend to have like 3-4 types of collectibles on average because, you know, the levels are in 3D and have much more space than 2D ones.
Like others have said, Metroidvanias are the closest you have to 2D collectathon these days because otherwise you might as well just make a normal 2D platformer instead.

>>11862252 (OP)
Because you can't bullshit the players with (at the time) fancy 3D (3D collectathons died out for a reason). If OoT was made in 2D with the same game design, it would have been considered a terrible joke.