I don’t have quite the experience with 16 but era but you still found this in 3D games. I was quite surprised and also quite enjoyed when Spyro 3 had top down shoot em up sections with sparx. And the first person shooter section too along with all the weird and wacky things they tried to spice up the gameplay from 2 (skateboarding dragons? more likely then you would think).

If I remember correctly, didn’t Contra also have first person views for some boss fights? I kind of remember that making an impression on me.

Space Rangers 2! Had loads. Top down turn based space rpg shooter, 3rd person mario kart style arcade shooter, RTS/3rd person shooter, text based adventure, I’m probably forgetting some.

The Nier games are really good for this, I love when it goes from over the shoulder character action game to isometric dungeon crawler and then to bullet hell shooter. I love the Nier games so much. ❤️

In one of the latest Mario game for Switch (Odyssey?) Mario switches from 3D world to 2D platformer puzzles quite often.

Battle Toads had that one fight that was in 2nd person. I can’t think of many games at all that used 2nd person.

Does the switch between side-scrolling run-and-jump platformer and side-scrolling shmup shooter in Super Mario Land for the Game Boy?

The Adventures of Bayou Billy went from beat-em-up, to shooter with the zapper, and then to driving. Wild game.

I remember the first time i saw the Contra switch from side-scrolling to “first person” and being totally blown away by it.

Sonic 2 had the half-pipe which was really cool at the time. Games journalist groupthink tells me all Sonic games are bad though, so, I must be wrong about that.

The DOS Dune game by Cryo. Part first-person point-and-click adventure, part top-down real-time-strategy game. Still one of my favourite games of all time.

www.mobygames.com/game/380/dune/screenshots/dos/

ActRaiser blew my mind the first time I played it. Having the chance to descend into your creation for some sidescrolling action was absolutely a surprise.

My favorite example of "weird camera" is Journey to the Planets. It's an Atari 800 game with graphics that are more 2600-esque. It's mostly side view, but the proportions are abstract, like a child's drawing: the spaceship is about 1/3rd the size of the player sprite, but then as you lift off it shows zoomed out terrain and the sprite is the same size. The game is based around solving adventure game puzzles with objects that are mostly just glowing rectangles, but your way of interacting with the puzzles involves a lot of shooting. Even though there's so little detail, every room feels "hand-crafted".

I'm pretty sure the game permanently altered my sense of aesthetics.

I always liked the switch that went on in Terminal Velocity. Half of the fame was free space flying while other parts were tunnel flying. It was a nice way to transition between surroundings.

I think Captain Skyhawk had two perspectives: top-down for the shooter parts and then a behind-the-plane view for flying into the gates at the end of each level. Can’t recall if that view was used for anything else.

Two more

• Life Force (horizontal to vertical shooter)
• Legend Wings (horizontal shmup to horizontal dude with gun shooter)

The original three Ultima games had a tile-based overworld but switched into a 3D first-person (extremely primitive) view when you went into dungeons.

i really enjoyed adventures in the magic kingdom for this very reason. main map was top down, but there was also a first person flight simulation level, an overhead minecaet racing puzzle, a car racing game, a sides rolling level, and plenty of quizzes throughout

Access software made several games for the C64 that had multiple perspectives.

Beach head and Raid Over Moscow both had multiple stages that were each really separate mini games.

And does crash bandicoot count with the switch from trailing camera to side camera for the ? Levels and the reverse direction leading camera for the crash bash levels?

Lords of the Realm 2 was cool. It was a turn based strategy game, but when a battle occurred the game switched to RTS

Has no one mentioned Vice Project Doom yet? Side scrolling action game that makes me think of Ninja Gaiden with guns mixed with Operation Wolf style shooting sections and Spy Hunter like driving sections. One of the best games on the NES.

The Guardian Legend

Also had an amazing soundtrack!