Best Platform Game

[Game Freak]

2600: Pitfall II
NES: Super Mario Bros. 3
Genesis: Sonic 3 & Knuckles
SNES: Donkey Kong Country 2/Yoshi's Island
PS1: Ape Escape
N64: Super Mario 64
PS2: Ape Escape 2
GameCube: Super Mario Sunshine

overall? I'm going to have to say.....APE ESCAPE 2

the game took everything that was awesome about the first and made it twice as good. Not to mention they used voice actors from Pokemon, and the Gotcha Box made the game so much better!

[Xander]

Super Mario Bros. World

Without any kind of hesitation.

Altho SMB3 is a strong contender.

[deltoidsteep]

Aside from every sidescrolling Sonic game, I think Drill Dozer takes the cake. that game is fantastic.

[garagesaleking!!]

sonic and mario for me as well, super mario sunshine was pretty fun

[BetaWolf47]

Not enough love for Ristar.

[kupomogli]

SOTN is very poor as a platforming game. It's the exploring and items and upgrading and positioning with regard to the monsters that make the game.

I agree with this. While I'll consider Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow being much more with the platforming elements, the only exploration CV that is truly a platformer as well is Circle of the Moon, and a damn good one at that.

Anyways. The Castlevania series is my favorite series in this regard as nearly all the level based titles are perfect. I'll be listing a few games each system.

Atari2600: Jungle Hunt, Pitfall
NES: Castlevania series, Mega Man series, Mario series, Ninja Gaiden series, Yo Noid, Batman, the list of amazing platform games on this system is long.
Master System: Master of Darkness
Genesis: Castlevania Bloodlines, Mega Man the Wily Wars
Gameboy: Castlevania 2 Belmont's Revenge, Castlevania Legend(for some reason people don't like this game,) Castlevania Adventure(or this one, but I can understand why.)
SNES: Super Castlevania 4, Mega Man X, Magical Pop'n
TG16: Rondo of Blood(CD) and Legendary Axe
PSX: Castlevania Chronicles, Brave Fencer Musashi, Threads of Fate, Jumping Flash, Nightmare Creatures(sortof,)
N64: Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, Nightmare Creatures
GBA: Castlevania Circle of the Moon, Mega Man Zero
PS2: Shadow of the Colossus
GC: Metroid Prime
PSP: Dracula X Chronicles, Gurumin, Prinny
PS3: Mirror's Edge, Uncharted

[BiggerBoo]

Well, I can't seem to find another thread that's touched specifically on this subject, but platformers have always been, probably always will be my absolute favorite style of game. There's just something about the action you experience when you play one of the greats - and I love not having to put 20 hours into them whenever I want to see them credits roll!

Anyway, I'm gushing. What I want to know is pretty obvious, I assume. What are your guys' favorite classic sidescrollers? And why? They can be great, near and dear, or just plain kitschy (I'm looking at you, Chaos In the Windy City).

Personally I've always been an enormous fan of SMW2: Yoshi's Island. I've heard some folks complain about its difficulty - which kind of baffles me - do I suck? It's not the hardest platformer, but it's got some great challenge to it. It's also unanimous that Baby Mario's incessant wailing can get on people's nerves - but I think it's a necessary feature to the game, and just unpleasant enough to keep that feeling alive, like you are in a world which is not there to cater to you, and you must survive! The art style is at the top of the list for me, for any game ever, and the overall sense that the developers really took their time and filled the game with love is overwhelming. Plus, I mean...who didn't want to play as Yoshi, as a kid?

[DigitalSpace]

Nice post, but this thread has been done before. Check out the "Best Platform Game" thread in Classic Discussions:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35746

[Haoie]

2D or 3D? Boy oh boy, that debate will never get old.

I'll just pitch 1 of my favs: Spyro Year of the Dragon. Best Spyro ever! And Insomniac's finest work until Ratchet & Clank.

[atrionfo]

Here's a quickie List of My Favorites (not in any order, really):

1) Super Mario 3 for NES - It's been said a million times... but... hey, it's good.

2) Soccer Kid - To get a little away from the tried and true, I've always loved Soccer Kid for the Amiga 1200. This version is better than the Amiga 500 version, and WAY better than the can't-see-enough-of-the-game-screen Gameboy Advance port. I have not tried the 3DO version. Has anyone?

3) Jumpman / Jumpman Jr. - Depending on your point of view on what a platformer is, I think that the Atari 8-bit version of Jumpman (and its sequel) also are great platformers. For some people, this may be a tad too simple, or at least, it may SEEM that way.

4) Miner 2049'er / Bounty Bob Strikes Back - Both of these are GREAT on the Atari 8-bit. The sequel, Bounty Bob, is a bit too hard for me though because some of the jumps have to be SO perfect (which ALMOST spoils the fun).

5) Aladdin - Sega Genesis. At the time when this came out I could not belive how cool the fire cave (that's what I called it, anyway) looked. I never could quite reach the end of this one.

6) Cool Spot - Sega Genesis. I first saw this on the Genesis, but the Amiga 500 version is really good too. Who would have thought that the little spot on a 7-Up can could do so much?

7) Bonk's Adventure - TG16. I've always liked the first one best. It starts off a little slow, and the levels are a little long and tedious in some areas, but it's good. The second one ALMOST made this list, but for some reason I never was quite as attached to it.

8) Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Sega Genesis. I played this game OVER and OVER and I could never get past the Devil-guy at the end. Sometimes, if you end up picking up the wrong weapon it can cause total disaster and it's better to just start over rather than hoping and waiting for another weapon. I was talking about this game back when it first came out (on the Genesis) and my friend's brother told me that you had to go threw the game TWICE to really win-- I just couldn't believe it. It seems weird that there was a time I didn't know that. I never DID beat this game!

The Amiga used to be one of my favorite game platforms... so here are just a random selection of platformers that I can remember off the top of my head as quite fun to play:

1) Addams Family, The - This has been compared to Super Mario 3. Maybe at the time it may have seemed like it, but it doesn't have the staying power of that game. Still, it's fun if you liked the TV show. I just played it recently and it's still pretty good. BTW, this is NOT like the TG16 game, which is a completely different game.

2) Rick Dangerous - This game's downfall is that you have to memorize the layout of it BEFORE you get to certain areas otherwise you will die. That's not fair, of course, and it ruins the gameplay a BIT. Still, it's fun to play.

3) Chuck Rock - A caveman using his "beer gut" to hit his enemies is pretty funny.

4) Doodlebug - I first played this as a cover disk and I always liked it. I played it again recently and I was shocked at the slowdown in certain areas, but I didn't notice it at the time. This one is aimed at kids, for sure, but I like it anyway.

5) Lemmings - This is probably really a puzzle game, but I'm cheating and putting it in this list anyway. How could I NOT mention this game? I never understood how just tweaking the formula a little made the sequel SO much more difficult. The sequel seemed too much like WORK to me.

6) Shadow of the Beast 3 - Fans of the Amiga almost always remember Shadow of the Best 1 as a great game. In reflection though, that game is quite shallow (but it STILL looks great!). This later release, which perhaps many people didn't get to play (?), took more thinking and looked even better than the original. This game, perhaps, more than any other Amiga game REALLY shows off the power of that computer (okay, admit it, GAME SYSTEM!).

7) Trolls - Fun and simple game based on those stupid toys with the crazy hair. There was a more colorful version of this game for the later Amigas but I prefer the original.

8) Zool 1 and 2 - This was / is compared to Sonic, but I don't see it. Sure, they look kinda similar, but that's about it. This game cries out for a jump button (most Amiga platformers require that you have to press up to jump). If it were not for the built-in cheat to skip levels I never would have seen the ending to this game.

If I answered this question in a couple of months, I'd probably have a similar, but different, answer. These are just what sorta popped into my head right now.

[Damaramu]

Alisia Dragoon, Gunstar Heroes, and El Viento for the Genesis spring to mind.

I'm gonna go ahead and throw in the Metal Slug series as well. Run and gunners with platforming elements, right?

[poloplayr]

Super Mario World > Everything else

[bartre]

Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy
i wanted this game so freakin bad when it came out, but i was just starting high school, so i didn't have much money, when it finally came to GH, i picked it up on day 1. it's a little on the short side, but there's so much variety to it that i never got tired. plus, the difficulty was just right, not so hard i quit, but not so easy i got bored, every time something beat me, that just made me want to come back at it twice as hard.

too bad the sequels were nothing like it...

[BiggerBoo]

Not enough love for Ristar.

I'll second that - that game is magnificent! I remember my mom coaxed me with promises of "The Star Game" if I would go to the dentist (I was like 5) without raising a fuss. Hahahah. Worth every mcg of novocaine they shot into me.

With Ristar, I think I'll list some of my faves, in no real order:

Yoshi's Island
Super Castlevania IV
Sunset Riders
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
TMNT: Turtles in Time
TMNT 2&3
Earthworm Jim 1&2
Sonic 1-3 (How'd they get that Sega sounding so spectacular on 3, especially?)
Kid Icarus
Vectorman 2
Duck Tales 1 & 2
Mega Man 2
DKC2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Bonk's Adventure
The Legend of Mystical Ninja (And GOD the one on 64 is great)
Adventure Island
Tiny Toons: Buster Busts Loose!
Cool Spot (Genesis)
Aladdin (Genesis)

All the rest of the Mario's, of course, in this order (though they're all precious to me, i've thought it over long and hard):
1
World
3
2

I'm pretty green as far as some of the more obscure platformers go, but this thread's really opening my eyes to some cool looking games!

[Jisho23]

Not enough love for Ristar.

Its not that there isn't a lot of love for Ristar. I like the game a lot. But do I think it's one of the best of all time? Not really. On the Genesis its one of the best, but outside of that I'd have difficulty even finding room for it in a top 50.

Klonoa was mentioned, but the GBA one is also really darn good (maybe its just a good series...?)

Another personal fav: "Jackie Chan Action Kung Fu" for TG-16. I don't know if its just that I had no expectation for this game, but it came across as really well polished, has some of the more vibrant and creative sprite work I've seen, and its a fairly long game. Even if it is not in the "best of all time" category it does deserve recognition of some kind.

[BiggerBoo]

Another personal fav: "Jackie Chan Action Kung Fu" for TG-16. I don't know if its just that I had no expectation for this game, but it came across as really well polished, has some of the more vibrant and creative sprite work I've seen, and its a fairly long game. Even if it is not in the "best of all time" category it does deserve recognition of some kind.

I'll have to second that motion. I can't say I've ever played the TurboGrafx version, but I have the NES edition and have always thought it was exceptional. I love the world in the game, and how instead of doing the obvious kind of stock, Karate Kid/Ninja Gaiden-style settings you'd expect of a game with a real person's name in the title, they instead kind of build onto the fantasy-world aspects of, perhaps, the character Jackie always plays, then twist it, and make it appealing-looking to the kiddies. It creates quite a caricature of the man and the kick-ass kung fu he was doing in his hayday - also, there's a huge range of movement, and solid controls for the occasion.

[AllP0werToSlaves]

-Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
-Toe Jam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron (Genesis)
-Mega Man II (NES)
-Mega Man X (SNES)
-Super Metroid (SNES)
-Castlevania/Castlevania 3 (NES)
-Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
-Super Ghouls n' Ghosts (SNES)
-Act Raiser (SNES)
-Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)

And many more that I can't think of right now. Needless to say, I <3 classic platformers.

[tom]

classic:
http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=193713&g2_serialNumber=1

and another:
http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=193737&g2_serialNumber=1

[mobiusclimber]

Let me preface this by saying I've never been a big fan of platformers. Without having any sort of storyline, most just don't hold my interest for long. Many of them are too difficult for me (I was the kid in remedial PE due to lack of hand-eye coordination... yeah I had to use the pole with a baseball sitting on top just to hit the damn ball). So while certain games were definitely interesting, I just never could get very far and really only appreciated them when I watched other people play (Castlevania, Super Mario, etc). This list is strict platformers I've enjoyed playing:

1) Sonic the Hedgehog - the first platformer that I could actually get anywhere in, and that I actually cared about trying to. I think it has to do w/ the speed of the game, and finding all the secrets of a level (while Super Mario has its fair share of secrets, most of those secrets aren't obvious, ie, you can't just look and tell there's a place you can drop down to). I never could get past the second area (ruins, whatever it's called) and always just cheat-coded my way to the next one (level select only, anything else really IS cheating). I also really loved the second Sonic game, but after that I just stopped playing them.

2) Kirby's Adventure - This one seems to be perfect for me b/c the difficult ramps up very slowly. It's also got a great gameplay mechanic and enough bonus mini-games to keep me interested.

3) Puss-N-Boots - Again, the game isn't so difficult that I can't get close to finishing it. I love how they threw in several different genres here, with platforming, side scrolling brawling and shmuping (is that a word?) sometimes all in the same level.

4) Actraiser - Probably the most difficult platformer I've ever beaten. If it wasn't for the sim/rpg levels, I doubt I would have bothered w/ the platforming stuff tho. Not that the platforming levels aren't fun, but the other stuff gave me a reason to put up w/ the difficulty.

[tom]

H.E.R.O. (classic on VCS)

[AllP0werToSlaves]

How the hell did I forget to mention the Sonic series?! Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles please.

[Johnny_Boy]

Donkey Kong '94 does many interesting things with the classic formula. I believe it has yet to be bested in its specific genre - platforming puzzles.

The Wario Land series offer a different pace. I think the second one is usually preferred.

Mr. Gimmick by Sunsoft is another title that's too often ignored. It could be associated with its spiritual cousin, Trip World for the original Game Boy.

More recently, N+, I Wanna Be the Guy and Meat Boy (with the soon to be released Super Meat Boy) offer a purer sense of platforming, focusing almost exclusively on reflexes and skill.

Trine for PC is one of the best recent examples I can think of. It really maximizes the formula.

There are some gameplay mechanisms here and there I really like - the 360 whip in Super Castlevania and Ninja Five-O/Ninja Cop, for example. Haven't yet tried Bionic Commando Rearmed but will soon get to it.

[DreadIsReal]

Klonoa. Love the game for the PS1, but the Wii version is better.

[mobiusclimber]

Ugh, I forgot Ristar! *smacks forehead*

[BioHazardx3]

I find it hard to pick a single favourite platform game so I'll just list the ones I enjoyed thoroughly.

NES: Super Mario Bros. 3, Megaman 4, Bucky O'Hare & Kid Icarus.
SNES: Super Mario World, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose % Donkey Kong Country 2.
Sega Megadrive: Sonic the Hedgehog, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure.

[jesse41993]

Im surprised not many people picked Flashback for the amiga. My all time favorite platformer would have to be Bionic Commando for the nes. That game had everything, awesome music, unique gameplay, and of course exploding Hitlers head.