During the jump to 3D gaming, platformers were all the rage as the go-to genre for developers. Leading the charge was Super Mario 64 in 1996, pioneering many of the mechanics and features that would lay the foundation for later games in the same style. In the coming years, many other franchises such as Ratchet and Clank garnered a great deal of success as well. Kao the Kangaroo, while not one of the bigger names on the block, still carved out a small piece of the pie for itself in this regard.