Your favorite platformers

[Tei]

Turrican 2 (and 1)
Carmagedoom (sorry...)

[Casimir Effect]

Prince of Persia 2008 because I mostly like minimal loading times, relaxing mechanics, and just the entire look/feel of the game. Sands of Time was good fun as well but had too many dull puzzles and often shitty checkpointing.

VVVVVV because I sometimes want a real challenge, but also want minimal loading times.

Not really a platforming person to be honest.

[ado]

Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are my favorites simply because there's so much game to them and exploration and atmosphere and it does not depend too much on your platforming skills and tolerance for repeating the same level over and over until you get it right. That has it's own merits mind you, but that's a young man's game I feel and I'm getting too old for that s*it.

But with that said, I want more games of this type, Metroidvanias or however you want to call them. Pretty please.

[alms]

Trine is a game I despise

Care to elaborate?

[mrki]

On the Amiga:
P. P. Hammer And His Pneumatic Weapon

<3, so much <3. I also liked Titus the Fox and Soccer Kid. And Blues Brothers for some reason. Now I like 1000 Amps, Mark of the Ninja and should buy Rayman: Oranges as I liked the demo.

[trjp]

Care to elaborate?

It's a so-so- platformer with slightly loose controls and a system of swapping 'characters' which is lazy and uninspired.

There's almost always a way to solve every puzzle with every char so all it's really doing is giving you '3 lives' with a slightly diff. approach required for each.

It's main problem is the controls tho - they are the difficulty setting, in effect.

If you take away the pretties there's nothing left I reckon...

[fiddlesticks]

Here's a list of platformers I can personally recommend:

Aladdin
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Earthworm Jim
The Lion King
Megaman 9
Megaman X2
Metroid Fusion
Metroid: Zero Mission
Psychonauts (though less so for the actual platforming)
Rayman 2
Rayman Origins
Sonic the Hedghehog 3
Super Castlevania 4
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Meat Boy
Super Metroid
VVVVVV
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

(bolded titles are the cream of the crop)

That said, I'd like to disagree with Dreamlord's notion that platformers are on the rise again. There have been some good offerings in the past few years, but for the most part it's a dying genre and has been ever since the Nintendo 64 era. Indeed, the recent surge of indie platformers is partially an attempt to cover this niche since major studios have all but abandoned it.

It's less noticeable on the PC since we never had a lot of platformers to begin with, but it becomes quite apparent when you consider the various consoles. Outside of Nintendo no major developer focuses on platformers anymore, and even if they do release one it's usually on a smaller budget. Konami for instance still makes Castlevania games, but to them they're of minor importance and the only recent one that can be considered a big success is simultaneously the one that forgoes most platforming aspects.

There's a few reasons for this decline I can think of, but the most important is simply the rise of 3D gaming. There have been some succesful platformers in the third dimension, but for the most part it's a genre that greatly benefits from a fixed camera perspective and a certain distance to the hero on-screen. Not to mention the 3D-era also enabled the rise of the First- and Third-Person-Shooter, who these days seem to be what plafortmers were twenty years ago.

It's a shame in a way, but at the same time I definitely don't miss the NES days where every other release was a platformer and the majority of them were terrible copies Super Mario Bros. We tend to get fewer platforming games today, but at least most of these are actually worth talking about.

[alms]

Not to mention the 3D-era also enabled the rise of the First- and Third-Person-Shooter, who these days seem to be what plafortmers were twenty years ago.

If you only go back 20 years, you hit exactly 1993 and the beginning of the shooter craze, and on the PC, I don't remember platforming being that big of a thing in the first place. In my head platformers are associated with the home computer era and coin ops.

[TheDreamlord]

If you only go back 20 years, you hit exactly 1993 and the beginning of the shooter craze, and on the PC, I don't remember platforming being that big of a thing in the first place. In my head platformers are associated with the home computer era and coin ops.

Spot on. Platformers were mainly Amiga, Atari ST, Spectrum, Commodore 64.
I grew up with a ZX Spectrum 64+ and it was mostly platformers that were prevalent (though sidescroller shooters and of course other interesting stuff were abound, too).

I must admit I am enjoying the current crop of platformers. Maybe they take me back a few years!

[Moraven]

Super Mario Galaxy is 3D platforming done right. Well all Mario since Mario 64 really.

[Mbaya]

I probably wouldn't be the gamer I am today if not for Mario Bros. on the NES, so I have a special fondness for that game (and Miyamoto...I want to give him a cuddle).

All the Mario Platformers but especially Mario 64.

Donkey Kong Country titles (still not got around to the Wii release).

Little Big Planet for the user created content, some great stuff there.

Trine, more for the setting and art than the gameplay, beautiful game.

'Splosion man was very enjoyable.

Aladdin on the Mega Drive was pretty great too.

N+ and Super Meat Boy I really enjoy...but I wouldn't concider them typical platformers, for me, platformers are more about the enjoyment of playing, rather than the enjoyment of conquering a part which has had you stuck for ages.

There are probably many more SNES Platformers I'm forgetting about too, I seem to have fond memories for a Loony Toons/Animaniacs game, a game with an Unicycle and another game where you're a blue blob that morphs into stuff.

I really should say Sonic too since he made peace with Mario... :)

[gwathdring]

VVVVVV is probably my favorite platformer from a mechanical standpoint and one of my favorite games.

Yoshi's Island is ridiculously easy, replaying it now, but it's a lot of fun and has some nice design. Yoshi's Island is the closest thing I've ever had to a nostalgia trip--so maybe it isn't all that good. But I love it. :)

Metanet's N games. N has my favorite movement and flow this side of Mirror's Edge. Slick and wonderful.

[sabrage]

Konami for instance still makes Castlevania games, but to them they're of minor importance and the only recent one that can be considered a big success is simultaneously the one that forgoes most platforming aspects.

It is my belief that Konami has fired most of its non-MGS teams, leaving only a single team of anime-obsessed programmers who have never actually spoken to a woman to pump out Loveplus and a basement full of drunken interns to handle its HD rehashes.

Yoshi's Island is ridiculously easy, replaying it now, but it's a lot of fun and has some nice design. Yoshi's Island is the closest thing I've ever had to a nostalgia trip--so maybe it isn't all that good. But I love it. :).

The beauty of Yoshi's Island is that while just about anyone can get through the levels, finding all the secrets and getting 100% is requires much more dedication and skill. It's one of the best examples of scalar difficulty design I can think of. Unfortunately, Baby Mario was voiced by a tortured rabbit.

[mashakos]

forgot about the 8-bit era:
Mega Man
Super Mario Bros.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2
Ninja Turtles

also, Mario 64. About the only N64 title I really enjoyed.

[db1331]

Super Mario Galaxy is 3D platforming done right. Well all Mario since Mario 64 really.

This. I'd also add Psychonauts if that's admissible.

[mashakos]

This. I'd also add Psychonauts if that's admissible.

Psychonauts was a great experience, but a terrible platformer (sorry).

[mashakos]

<3, so much <3. I also liked Titus the Fox and Soccer Kid. And Blues Brothers for some reason. Now I like 1000 Amps, Mark of the Ninja and should buy Rayman: Oranges as I liked the demo.

can't forget Chuck Rock! Probably the 1st platformer I've played. Title screen was epic :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr9025arc9o

[gwathdring]

It is my belief that Konami has fired most of its non-MGS teams, leaving only a single team of anime-obsessed programmers who have never actually spoken to a woman to pump out Loveplus and a basement full of drunken interns to handle its HD rehashes.


The beauty of Yoshi's Island is that while just about anyone can get through the levels, finding all the secrets and getting 100% is requires much more dedication and skill. It's one of the best examples of scalar difficulty design I can think of. Unfortunately, Baby Mario was voiced by a tortured rabbit.

Indeed. I've been having some trouble 100ing every level. Some of the star collection gets mighty tricky. Especially in the side-scrolling levels. I like that it isn't difficult by virtue of sheer obscurity and quantity though. - glares at Arkham City-.

Also yes, Baby Mario would be welcome to his doom if it didn't mean I had to stop playing the lovely game.

[Heliocentric]

It's a so-so- platformer with slightly loose controls and a system of swapping 'characters' which is lazy and uninspired.

There's almost always a way to solve every puzzle with every char so all it's really doing is giving you '3 lives' with a slightly diff. approach required for each.

It's main problem is the controls tho - they are the difficulty setting, in effect.

If you take away the pretties there's nothing left I reckon...

Its great how you can be so elaborate and wrong at the same time :)

It is true that every puzzle peaks are 3 player coop no switching.

[LTK]

Reading this thread made me realise that I like a lot of different platformers for a lot of different reasons:

I like:
Limbo because of its aesthetic
Mark of the Ninja because you can be a ninja (i.e. mechanics)
Thomas Was Alone because of the story
Cave Story+ because of its combat
Fly'N because of its aesthetic
Trine because of its presentation
Closure because of its mechanics
Psychonauts because of its humour
Waking Mars because it lets you wield alien life
Everything about Zineth

Some relevant dislikes: Super Meat Boy, Snapshot, Escape Goat, Braid. Anything else on this list I'd probably haven't played and might enjoy it if I do, because I tend to be overly critical when it comes to purchasing platformers.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the quality of the actual platforming has little to do with whether I think a game is good. It's the overall package that sells it to me, which is probably why I burnt out on SMB. It became overly dependent on reflexive actions; routines I'd have to learn in persistently drab and colourless worlds, with only more and more difficult levels to look forward to. I have a feeling I'd get the same thing with VVVVVV.

Trine has its looks going for it, but if you'd take those away you'd still be left with somewhat open-ended puzzles (hey!), a delightful world right out of a children's fairy tale, the impact of which is reinforced by the narrator and voice actors, all of whom make it a very entertaining experience overall. See? Whole package.

You've all convinced me, though. I'm going to buy Rayman: Tangerines as soon as it drops below €10 again. Might go for Gateways on Steam right now, has nobody got that one on their favourites?