Platformers

[gunswordfist]

The demo was pretty good. That's all I got.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Here's some completely underrated platformers that I feel like plugging:


ESWAT: City Under Siege



It's a hard action platformer with a neat gimmick. It's fairly overlooked.


Mega Turrican



There are better Turrican games, but this is the best to just pick up and play.


Pulseman



If you can play GameFreak's Pokemon games, why not play their platformers? Pulseman is highly underrated, yet surprisingly original. It's a shame this doesn't get more attention.


Congo's Caper



The Joe & Mac guys did this game, and it's surprisingly good. Few have played it, though.


DoReMi Fantasy: Milon no DokiDoki Daibouken



Virtual Console/Import Only. This really should have been localized. The game's practically unknown, but is top notch.


Sure I could have mentioned Ristar, Gimmick!, Sparkster, Metal Storm, Little Samson, Ninja Five-O, or Rockin' Kats, but I've already mentioned those plenty of times. Anybody have thoughts on these?

[Grave]

Don't know if this is new to anybody, but I figured I'd showed this anyway to get a good laugh. This is the main reason why I don't play platformers. I know all platformers aren't nearly as tedious as that look, but for someone like me, who play games to relieve stress/anger, platformers are the last type of games I'd play considering I've had quite a few rage inducing moments.

[Foggle]

I'm surprised you can play hack 'n slash and fighting games but not (normal, non-cheap) platformers. You must be pretty good at learning combat mechanics then!

Have you ever tried the Ratchet & Clank series? The first two games can get pretty hard near the end, but the rest of them have a low-moderate difficulty level and are soopah fun.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm surprised you can play hack 'n slash and fighting games but not (normal, non-cheap) platformers. You must be pretty good at learning combat mechanics then!

Actually, for what its worth, I also find hack n' slash games to be easier for me than platformers. While I suck at fighting games, hack n' slash games aren't nearly as complex, and for some reason these types of games just make sense to me, and I'm able to understand and pick up their advanced mechanics fairly quickly, not to the point that I'd even be close to being as good as the pros are at those games, but just enough to be able to conquer any non-cheap hack n' slash game on its highest available difficulty setting (with the exception of DMC4's Hell and Hell mode, which I never plan to do because I don't enjoy the OHK type of difficulty). To be fair I haven't done that for Bayonetta since I don't own the game yet, but I guarantee you that I could do it just fine if I had just enough time to sink into learning the advanced mechanics of the game.

That said, unlike Grave I do really love platformers. I'll admit that I'm far from the best at them, but I love a good challenge and I get a good sense of accomplishment from beating well-balanced platformers. For the record, I kind of suck at platformers (not as much as I do at fighting games, though), but I'm decent enough at them to get through them with enough practice. For a point of reference, I actually died quite a few times on Rocket Knight Adventure before beating the game. Whereas someone good at platformers would consider that to be a relatively easy one, I saw the Game Over screen a total of 7 times before I finally beat the game....on Easy mode.

[Foggle]

I'm not really good at any type of video game, but I like all kinds!

[Grave]

I'm surprised you can play hack 'n slash and fighting games but not (normal, non-cheap) platformers. You must be pretty good at learning combat mechanics then!

Have you ever tried the Ratchet & Clank series? The first two games can get pretty hard near the end, but the rest of them have a low-moderate difficulty level and are soopah fun.

Oddly enough, I do find hack n slashers to be a lot easier than platformers (I am terrible at that stuff). For the most part I'm fairly a patient guy, but when it comes to platformers my patience runs out pretty quick, especially if I'm dying constantly. As far as learning mechanics, if and whenever I could actually find the time to learn the mechanics I'm all for that stuff, especially in fighting games. Not so much in hack n slashers, although, unlike Ensatsu-Ken, I lost that thrill for a challenge a long time ago. I get my kick outta DMC, NG, GoW, and now the Musou series just by being able to cut up folks and feel good doing so. If I learn the mechanics in the process that's just extra pudding on top.

[Spark Of Spirit]

And I'm terrible at hack n slash games, but pretty good at platformers. I think the Mega Man Zero games are the only ones (other than 4 which has cheapness to its difficulty) in the genre I'm any good at.

That said, there are a lot of relaxing platformers out there. The Kirby games, Super Mario World, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Legendary Starfy, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Jak & Daxter, the Sly series, and Super Mario Galaxy are not all that hard for casual play.

Heck, some games like Yoshi's Island, Banjo Kazooie, or Wario Land Shake It are only hard if you specifically go for 100%. If you just play them to normal completion, they're not all that difficult.

[Foggle]

That said, there are a lot of relaxing platformers out there. The Kirby games, Super Mario World, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Legendary Starfy, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Jak & Daxter

Just don't expect a relaxing time with Sonic 1, R&C: Going Commando, or Jak 2.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That said, there are a lot of relaxing platformers out there. The Kirby games, Super Mario World, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Legendary Starfy, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Jak & Daxter

Just don't expect a relaxing time with Sonic 1, R&C: Going Commando, or Jak 2.

Exactly why I didn't mention 'em! 

I won't forget that as a rule, the genre tends to skew harder due to it basically being an obstacle course in virtual form (meaning difficulty is expected), but some manage to shake it up despite not being all too hard and remain fun for replayability and casual play.

[Grave]

Ah yes, Super Mario World, Sonic 2, and Super Mario Bros 1 & 3... To tell you how much I suck at these games I've never beaten any of these games (yet I grew up on this stuff). I think I gave up on platformers completely after Crash Bandicoot on the ps1. To answer your question, Foggle, no I've never played Rachet & Clank.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Crash Bandicoot is an absurdly hard game! I just played through it again a few months ago, it has not gotten any easier with age. 

If you want to play something for casual fun and low difficulty, I would say Kirby Superstar would be the best. The post-Going Commando Ratchet & Clank games tend to even have difficulty levels, so they also might be good for casual play.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I'm hardly a hardcore platformer fan, there are some easy ones out there that are still great (and wouldn't you know that one of this is one of my favorite games of all time). I'd recommend trying out Yoshi's Island at some point. Its a pretty damn easy game, to be honest, and even going for 100% completion in the game isn't THAT hard, but more of a moderate challenge (compared to other platformers, at least). The reason that its my favorite platformer, though, is because I love the art-style, the level design is so damn creative and brilliant, and it always manages to keep itself feeling fresh, very rarely ever going down the path of blatant repetition, as each new area you get to will often give you multiple ways to traverse the level and multiple tools to do so. The enemies are also fun to fight given Yoshi's unique abilities, and the interesting ways in which he can combat enemies. It may not be up your ally, but suffice it to say its one of the best games that I have ever played, so I at least think that it deserves a chance.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Animated short for the new Sly game is out

Not bad! 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Junction Point has been closed

Not surprising since Epic Mickey 2 tanked.