Best tier 2 platforming franchises of the PSX/N64/SAT/3DO era?

[EdsonBubsy]

The mid 1990's consoles had some top tier 1 platformers in terms of impact (at the time) and sales bringing out Crash, Mario64, banjo games etc but what about the tier two which were still good sellers just not as well, and had made an impact?

Here is the list of tier 2 platforming franchises (tier 2 are good selling impactful games of the time, niche games not included) during this period in the 90's:

1. Gex (franchise)

2. Spyro (1-3)

3. Bomberman (64-642, hero)

4. Rayman (1&2)

5. Frogger (remake, 2)

6. Croc (1-2)

These are the series of platformers that were also great sellers and well known but not as popular as the tier 1 games. Of the 6 which did you find to be the best?

-my opinion below-

Personally, it's hard for me to pick between Rayman and Gex, both had first-time 3D entries that got almost everything right the first time and both had excellent 2D games.

However I think I'll go with Gex. Gex 1 beats Rayman 1 in my opinion due to the hitbox/bug issues in Rayman and the worse stage design as you go on while Gex is consistent and anything hard is designed to be challenging instead of cheap.  

I also believe GEX2 to be slightly better than Rayman2 to with slightly better control in 3D space, the level themes, the better and more interesting boss battles. I will however say Spyro 2 is quite a bit better than GEX2. 

However the 3rd get game really brings it home in comparison to Spyro 3 for me. Spyro 3 kind if drags with the increased collecting and new badly controlled new characters that removes what made 2 so great, while Gex 3 was a slightly changed Gex 2.

Replaying GEX2 and Rayman 2 amazing how good these games are for first attempts at 3D platformers.

[PC the Hedgehog]

I was a total platform junkie during this period (still am, actually). Out of all the franchises listed, I'd probably give #1 to Bomberman, though out of his 3 N64 games, I'd only call Hero a real "platformer". Wish more people enjoyed that one. Allowing Bomberman to jump opened up a slew of gameplay possibilities that 64 and Second Attack didn't have. All 3 are are great, though. Wish we could finally get Second Attack on a Virtual Console service.

Loved Gex, too. The idea of a platforming mascot verbally busting out one-liners and pop culture references was a fun one, one I'd love to see resurrected. Gave Gex an interesting edge that no other platforming mascot has ever really had. Even ignoring that aspect, the platforming was surprisingly solid. Went back and replayed the series about a year ago. It's dated, but still fun.

Croc was a pretty basic platformer. I remember having both games, but can't recall anything that stood out in particular. The main villain had a decent design, I guess.

Oh, and I remember the Frogger games! Bought the first one for my mom to play, and I ended up playing it more than she did. A pretty good attempt at taking an arcade game and expanding on the concept. It actually lended itself really well to platforming.

I know the Rayman games are regarded as some of the greatest platformers  of all time, but I could never get into the series much. Never understood why. Just found it "eh".

I honestly don't really consider Spyro tier 2 when Crash isn't.

[Tornado]

Spyro isn't in the time zone of being lumped in with those other games when Sony was still involved with them.