Side Scrollers that scroll from Right to Left.

[Cmosfm]

I was thinking today after playing Hello Kitty World for Famicom, there's not many side scrollers that scroll from right to left.

So anyways, list all the side scrollers (preferable platformers that are majority right to left) that you know of.

Hello Kitty World - Famicom.

That's all I can think of now.

[Sothy]

I just assumed it was a by product of how we read from left to right but that doesnt explain it in Japanese games.......... perhaps something to do with the dominance of right handed people.. or maybe just habit after so many were made that way. This is a weird topic...... How many shooters are right to left also?

[Raccoon Lad]

Sky Kid.

[unbroken]

Some of the old ninja turtles games would sometimes scroll to the left.

[Gamereviewgod]

Kung Fu Master switched directions each stage.

[Jasoco]

I just assumed it was a by product of how we read from left to right but that doesnt explain it in Japanese games.......... Exactly my thought.

Balloon Kid for the Game Boy also did this. So does the adventure mode in Balloon Fight.

I wonder. If the original SMB had scrolled to the left, would we still have gotten as used to it as we are for rightward scrolling. I don't know about you, but I'm so used to scrolling right that it feels weird whenever I have to go to the left.

Also, a couple levels in SMB3 had parts of their levels that scrolled left. SMB2 as well. They usually required going right first though.

[Kilik Kurosawa]

Kung Fu NES

Zelda 2 Adventure of Link NES

Of course both games only had some scenes right to left

[Haoie]

My theory for most being left-right is that that's how most languages are read, the direction. People's eyes naturally scan from left to right whether reading the paper or playing a platformer.

It's not a bad theory, I think.

Oh and by the way, there's a level in Super Turrican 2 when you go right-left, for the SNES.

[Sph1nx]

Sky Kid.

Is that the nes game where you can do the backflips w/ your plane?

[dreamcaster]

Pac-Land for Atari Lynx.

Once you finish all the levels, you have to go back and do them all in reverse.

[rayearthknight]

Sky Kid.

Is that the nes game where you can do the backflips w/ your plane?

yes, it is--the cartoony one with The Red Baron and Blue Max.

[qbertandernie]

dont some of the final fight games go right to left on some stages?

[Anthony1]

I'm not sure if this counts, but in Alien 3 for the SNES, you have to go both ways, left to right, and right to left.

[TeddyRuxpin]

[quote=Sothy]I wonder. If the original SMB had scrolled to the left, would we still have gotten as used to it as we are for rightward scrolling. I don't know about you, but I'm so used to scrolling right that it feels weird whenever I have to go to the left.

Also, a couple levels in SMB3 had parts of their levels that scrolled left. SMB2 as well. They usually required going right first though.

Side scrolling adventure games prior to SMB (Pitfall as an obvious example) had left to right scrolling already carved into stone. Other side scrollers followed that platform. (ie: Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle)

A "Mission Impossible" game on C64 has you going both left and right some in the hallway section where the elevators are. Once you enter a room you have a still view of the entire room though so it's only half a side scroller.

[culltyler]

legend of kage

[ig88vsbobafett]

Kung Fu Master switched directions each stage.

I guess just the NES Version did becase i have the Arcade Cab. and all the levels go left to right

[Rogmeister]

I know some of the Metroid games had you going both ways as you explore here and there...

[anagrama]

Hmm, I swear there was a Mega Drive shooter I played recently that had some right-to-left levels - Empire of Steel, maybe?

[lendelin]

I just assumed it was a by product of how we read from left to right but that doesnt explain it in Japanese games.......... Exactly my thought.

I wonder. If the original SMB had scrolled to the left, would we still have gotten as used to it as we are for rightward scrolling. I don't know about you, but I'm so used to scrolling right that it feels weird whenever I have to go to the left.


That it "feels weird" to scroll from right to left is exactly right. It has nothing to do that we are just used to it, or our eyes scan this way. However, it is not a coincidence that we play left to right-sidescrollers. It is something psychological. If this weird feeling has something to do with the operation of our brains, I don't know. Maybe left handers feel more comfortable with it.

We know that in the composition of a picture the left and right sides play an important psychological role. Left is strange, uncomfortable, cold, and uncertainty. Right is home, warm, and certainty. As a rule, painters put strange objects on the left side of a picture, the positive objects on the right side.

In religious pictures, when the Holy Family flees to Egypt, as a rule with very few exceptions they are going to the left; when they return home, they are coming from the left going to the right.

Just flip pics on your computer horizontally, and you immediately notice that it just doesn't feel right. (the thought isn't from me, it was developed by a well known Swiss art historian in the 1950s)

In track and field and horse racing we reach the goal coming from the left going "home" to the right. In Germany there is only one horse track which does it the other way around.

Something similar is the case when we scroll as a rule up and not down.

Besides this lecture, I can't think of right to left-sidescrollers.

[The_EniGma]

I was thinking today after playing Hello Kitty World for Famicom, there's not many side scrollers that scroll from right to left.

So anyways, list all the side scrollers (preferable platformers that are majority right to left) that you know of.

Hello Kitty World - Famicom.

That's all I can think of now.

Arabic languages? LOL

Hey u said right to left sidescrollers!

[stargate]

don't most of the Castlevania games include many right to left levels or at least in parts of levels?

[Gapporin]

In Fantasy Zone, you can change directions on-the-fly in a 360 degree playing field.

Come to think of it, has there been any other games that have a 360 degree playing field?

[Kat604]

don't most of the Castlevania games include many right to left levels or at least in parts of levels?



I seem to recall the first castlevania for the Gameboy having some right to left scrolling. Probably in the first level, since I think that was the furthest i ever got in that game

[GizmoGC]

SMB3 is the only game I can thinkof thats right-left. However, M.C. Kids is somewhat similar to this when you are able to walk on the ceiling.

[maxlords]

Getsu Fuu Ma Den for Famicom scrolls entirely right to left. It's very disconcerting, but it's a damned good game!

[Lord Contaminous]

Barunba, a shooter for Japanese PC Engine, the stages have their share of up, down, left and right scrolling. First 2 minutes you're scroliing right, then you're scrolling down, then you're scrolling left, it's random. Playing Barunba feels like a joyride cause of the random directional scrolling shifts.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

When I was a kid I *ALWAYS* played Pitfall right-to-left. I have no idea why, but one day I realized that you could and from then on I never played it left-to-right anymore until I came back to the 2600 in college. Now I always play it left-to-right like you're "supposed to." I guess I done got enculturated in the intervening years, which is what *I* would say explains the stuff lendelin is talking about, nurture not nature. Society not psychology.


...word is bondage...

[19k]

Bee 52 for the NES scrolls right to left... I think.

I haven't played it in awhile, but I think I remember when I first played it feeling really uncomfortable going right to left.

[CosmicMonkey]

A fair few of the levels in Metal Slug: 2nd Mission for the NGPC are right-left scrolling, and there's a few that are a mix of left/right scrolling. This includes levels where you're on foot, in the Metal Slug or the Slug Flyer.

Someone should do a 'Mirror Mode' hack of SMB. It'd be interesting to see how people's skills change just by altering the direction the game scrolls, even though everything else is the same.

[GuilewasNK]

Didn't one of the old NES Ninja Gaiden games have some right to left stages?

Although it isn't a side-scroller, I think Choplifter went right to left too.

[Rejinx]

I got one you most likely never played, Bee 52 for NES.