Puzzleformers

[o2william]

T'other day, I finally fired up Klonoa: Empire of Dreams on my GBA (following a friend's hearty recommendation of the PS1 game), and I quite enjoyed it. Looks like I may have to hunt down a copy of the PS1 title now.

It occurs to me that the mix of 2D platformer play mechanics plus puzzle-solving is a good one. The Lost Vikings stands out as another series that successfully combined the two. But beyond that and Klonoa, I can't think of many more examples offhand. I guess Wrecking Crew for the NES would count, although it seems a little less "platformer-ish" than what I'm thinking of since the levels aren't very expansive.

What "puzzleformers" do you recommend?

[Raccoon Lad]

I guess these qualify:
Mr. Driller
Kickle Cubical
BeBall/Chew Man Fu
Krusty's fun house

[klausien]

The PSX Klonoa, while still incredibly cool, is different than the GBA game. It is more a straight platformer. The graphics aer gorgeous though. Worth it if you can find it. Took me 3 years to find one in the wild!

As for your question, I suggest Mario Vs. Donkey Kong on GBA.

[Lady Jaye]

Donkey Kong 94 / Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Yeah, it took me a long time to find Klonoa PS1 in the wild. Well, I had rented it at a local mom n pop video store, and I basically waited like, 6 years until they started selling off their stock of PS1 games. I got that plus a few other games for damn cheap.

[Promophile]

I remeber playing one that I liked. It was called... Tomba I think? There were evil pigs. If I'm wrong someone correct me.

[Dr. Morbis]

You could try Castlequest for NES, but you'll end up bludgeoning the cartridge with a hammer long before you ever get to the princess's room. The game even comes with a map that has a complete walkthrough on it, but I still ended up pulling my hair out and giving up.

[Daria]

You could try Castlequest for NES, but you'll end up bludgeoning the cartridge with a hammer long before you ever get to the princess's room. The game even comes with a map that has a complete walkthrough on it, but I still ended up pulling my hair out and giving up.

Heh. That map's NOT a walkthrough. It's needed to beat the game. Mainly because part of the strategy to CastleQuest is knowing what order to do the rooms in, if you don't use the map you'll never have enough keys to reach the end.

As for "Lost Viking-esque" platformers? I'd reccomend Black Thorne's Revenge (snes) or the early Odd World games (psx). And of course Munch's odysessy is the same premise constructed in 3D. Really great game if you happen to own an XboX.

And as for Dungeon puzzlers like CastleQuest I've always loved Solstice (nes), Equinox (snes), and of course ICO (ps2).

[NESaholic]

For me Immortal is a great one, for nes and megadrive, shame that nes pulled the gore out, but still a nice platform game to play, i love it!:D

[Keir]

I've always thought of Lode Runner and Jumpman as the first "puzzleformers" (I honestly don't remember which came first).

For a game more in the vein of Lost Vikings, I highly recommend Fury of the Furries (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,593/). I have it for the CD32 but there are also versions for DOS and Amiga computers.

[Raccoon Lad]

Fury of the Furries was also ported to the Gamegear (unreleased) as Pac in Time (http://www.smspower.org/db/pac_in_time-proto-gg.shtml)

I guess I missed the exact type of game you were looking for from your initial post. I suppose you might also like:

Impossible Mission (multi platform)
Prince of Persia (multi platform)
Spell Caster (SMS)
Lord of the Sword (SMS)
The Castle (SG-1000)
And possibly: Pit Pot (SMS)

[bargora]

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysey (Playstation) and its sequel Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus (Playstation) are excellent 2-D puzzle platformers. Highly recommended and dirt cheap, with good puzzles, some innovative platforming twists, and beautiful graphics. Klonoa (Playstation, PS2, GBA) and Oddworld are about the only platformer series that I really enjoy.

I'm not so hot on Munch's Oddysey (Xbox), however.

[lendelin]

I second Daria and bargora.

The two PS1 Oddworld games (Abe's Exoddus and Oddysee) are for me THE highpoint of the combination of platform and puzzle-solving gameplay.

But don't lets forget a little known game that made this genre popular and started it all: Prince of Persia, and also Out of this World, Flashback, and Blackthorne. I enjoyed The Lost Vikings a lot, too.

The two Oddworld games are a great example how well the story matched gameplay, and how how 3D threw the basically same quirky and great story out of balance in Munch's Oddysee.

Munch is a great puzzler too, but 3D gave you the feeling of exploring a world paradoxically in a smaller gameworld; whereas the screen-by-screen, repetitive try-and-die approach was a perfect match for the underdog Abe.

The two Oddworld games are also a great example of the extreme opposite approach to Miyamoto in order to achieve the convergence between story and gameplay. For Miyamoto game mechanics comes first, and then a general story is designed around gameplay. Lorne Lanning with all his background in the movie industry designed a well crafted story and character development first, and then came gameplay.

Oddworld was announced by Lanning and McKenna as a Quintology in 1997, but now it seems the story is dead with the upcoming Oddworld stranger. While Lucas can do an entire series without bigger problems over the years, the impact of speedy technological progress is far bigger for games and basically killed the planned series.

[EnemyZero]

Amen Promophile, Tomba and Tomba 2 are 2 of the best platformer-ish games on any system. Also hard to find in the while, or at least in buffalo