Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Is Gods the best platform game? DISCUSS!

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
Yeah, apart from the awesome graphics, I wouldn't say GODS was exceptional at anything. But it's good.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2,430
I had this on my old 386 PC and really hated it. Pretty graphics, mediocre gameplay = european platform games in a nutshell.

Wanna best platform game ever, try Mr. Gimmick.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
The best platform game is Private Investigator.

private_investigator_2.jpg
 

TheGreatOne

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
1,214
If you made a similar comment about RPGs, you'd be tarred and feathered. Imagine claiming that Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is "one of the best RPGs of all time". Just because you played some game as a kid and it looks kinda neat does not mean it's a good game, let alone one of the best of it's kind. It's an insult to those who appreciate the art of game design and slap in the face of any one who cares about "incline" to say stuff like that. Granted rpgcodex is a CRPG forum and I might have personal bias towards the subject as I probably care about platformers more than the average poster here, but I still feel that uneducated comments like that have no place on a forum like this. RPGCodex is, or atleast should be, a forum based upon meritocracy. That's why a game like KOTC that most people have never even heard is so popular here.

If you don't understand the history and design of a genre, what ever comments you spout are meaningless when you have no frame of reference regarding what makes a good game. Granted it's very hard and time consuming (and pointless) to play all the games belonging to a genre so you can make blanket statements about the "best RPG ever", but when you do so first of all you should understand the genre to certain extent (which games in particular were innovative and influental for the development of the genre) and have read enough about it to know about the major games (both mainstream hits and cult classics/well regarded hidden gems) you haven't played, meaning you understand their content&influence and what the consensus amongst genre enthusiasts on them is. And you should always acknowledge the limitations of your knowledge and if possible, specify on why a game is good or deserving of being called one of the best of it's kind. Wizardry 7, Planescape: Torment, Fallout, Arcanum and Temple of Elemental Evil are good RPGs but succeed in different areas. For example Deus Ex has a good combat system, but it's combat is bad (bad enemy AI, too easy enemies). It has a good story but the actual main storyline isn't that good, where as the world-building (and through that, commentary on trans-humanism) is where it's writing excels, yet actual dialogue is for the most part weak. Where as in VTMB the story isn't that good but dialogue and radio commercials are very well written. It's important to understand those distinctions
 

Pantalones

Prospernaut
Joined
May 25, 2014
Messages
286
A key of crap games is that they rely too much on secrets and pattern recognition and lolrandom nonsense. Gods has too much of that to be even close to the best platformer ever. So I don't think it's anywhere near best, but most of the most lauded platformers by people who play them a lot are mediocre or even terrible, too.

Altered Beast, Elevator Action, Contra, Double Dragon. If you would count them, add in defender and joust and time pilot. Those games don't "cheat" and don't have illogical nonsense like giant hands crushing you out of nowhere, and don't force you to memorize at which points various offscreen stuff rushes out to smash you. Yet they are still relatively challenging, and very interesting.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,090
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
I was gonna say pretty much what TheGreatOne has already said about Gods... maybe not as thoroughly, but yeah. Gods looked awesome back then, but while it is a solid game it's not outstanding except for the nostalgic "wow" factor it retains today.

A lot of reviews from gaming magazines back then clearly show that the reviewers were all hyped up the graphics of the game and didn't focus too much on the content. This goes double for games by the Bitmap Brothers, where their games would get 9+ ratings in some mags, only to get less than 5- in other mags. Cadaver was the most extreme example of this that I recall, getting a 9.5 rating in one mag and a 3.5 in another.
 

made

Arcane
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
5,130
Location
Germany
A lot of reviews from gaming magazines back then clearly show that the reviewers were all hyped up the graphics of the game and didn't focus too much on the content. This goes double for games by the Bitmap Brothers, where their games would get 9+ ratings in some mags, only to get less than 5- in other mags. Cadaver was the most extreme example of this that I recall, getting a 9.5 rating in one mag and a 3.5 in another.
UK mags routinely gave top scores to UK games, Germans did the same for German games - guess where the preview copies came from. Same shit was going on back then that happens now, it was just less obvious to the public.

Cadaver, however, is an excellent game without equal. To this day I couldn't find an isometric action-adventure - regardless of platform - that combines atmosphere and puzzle-focused gameplay in the same manner. The Jap stuff I know of is more action/platforming oriented. Let me know if you know any. Much obliged.
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
4,456
Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Cadash was a great platformer.

I'm not a big platform game player, though.
 

Lady_Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
1,879,250
What does it matter whether a game is designed for kids or not? The quality of level design, depth of mechanics and challenge is what matters most. Kids games in the 80s and 90s were just as challenging if not more challenging than adults games, so it boils down to graphics whoredom. "Ok, I can understand that Grimoire is superior to Fallout 3 in every way. But it's colorful and not grimdark (or grimgray to be more exact) like Fallout 3 so it's for kids, I'm a mawnn"
If the gameplay is poorly designed, uninspired and unchallenging, what good will the graphics do for you? Klonoa is one of the most cutsey, kiddy looking games I can think of and it has some of the best, most memorable design in platformers to date.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSDFwxTxPTw&t=6m55s

Mega Man 7 and 8 definitely look more cartoony, but Mega Man 2/X/9 aren't significantly more kiddy looking than Gods. And as a game Gods isn't even in the same universe as Mega Man 9 when we talk about challenge, depth and excellent level design in platformers. Even in the original 8-bit Mega Man games it's quite impressive how the boss AI will adapt their patterns to your fighting style/weapon use. And the first Donkey Kong Country game actually has the most realistic graphics out of the bunch thanks to it's silicone graphics style pre-rendered backgrounds

It's the same reason I and many others here cannot into JRPG's. The 'cutsey, kiddy looking' graphics are just too much.

Somebody mentioned Contra (or Probotector as it was known in parts of Europe) and I definitely second that one.
 

TheGreatOne

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
1,214
Contra isn't even a platformer. Title well deserved
21et5ab.jpg

Thread over (shouldn't become a thread in the first place because the answer is so obvious)
 

Pantalones

Prospernaut
Joined
May 25, 2014
Messages
286
Contra isn't even a platformer. Title well deserved
21et5ab.jpg

Thread over (shouldn't become a thread in the first place because the answer is so obvious)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_game

It is not a pure genre; it is frequently coupled with elements of other genres, such as the shooter elements in Contra, the adventure elements of Flashback, or the role-playing game elements of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Contra is referenced right in the wikipedia page for platform games. There's no way you can argue contra is not a platform game. If anything I posted doesn't belong it's double dragon but it still has platform elements.

Most platformer games are total crap anyway. Aimed at kids, and full of gimmicks and secrets and requiring no skill at all. Gods is not bad platformer, it's just not the best one compared to others that are even better.
 

TheGreatOne

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
1,214
Run n guns like Contra and Metal Slug aren't generally considered to be platformers as they consist mostly of shooting things. And in what fucking universe is double dragon (or Altered Beast for that matter) a platformer? It's a beat em up. Just because a game is a sidescoller and you can jump in it does not turn it into a platformer. You're even more oblivious than Lady Error
Most video games are total crap anyway. Aimed at kids, and full of gimmicks and secrets and requiring no skill at all.
Fixed that for you
 

Pantalones

Prospernaut
Joined
May 25, 2014
Messages
286
Run n guns like Contra and Metal Slug aren't generally considered to be platformers as they consist mostly of shooting things. And in what fucking universe is double dragon (or Altered Beast for that matter) a platformer? It's a beat em up. Just because a game is a sidescoller and you can jump in it does not turn it into a platformer. You're even more oblivious than Lady Error
Most video games are total crap anyway. Aimed at kids, and full of gimmicks and secrets and requiring no skill at all.
Fixed that for you

I said calling double dragon a platformer was shaky, it's still an amazing game though. Same with joust, but like double dragon it still has some elements. You know, because of the platforms they both have and all. Looks like you need to get lady error's tag.

Like I said contra is right in the freaking wiki article. Have you played Contra and Gods? If Contra isn't a platformer, Gods isn't a platformer.

Like I also said here's why it's fruitless to talk to people who are way into platformers. Most of them have a lot of crappy elements, and the fans are mostly guys like you, and like the most crap games from the genre for terrible reasons.
 

TheGreatOne

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
1,214
Like I said contra is right in the freaking wiki article.
How about reading the freaking wiki article you link?
The run and gun platformer genre was popularized by Konami's classic Contra. Gunstar Heroes and Metal Slug are also among the most popular examples of this style. Side-scrolling run and gun games are an attempt to marry platform games with shoot 'em ups, characterized by a minimal focus on precise platform jumping and a major emphasis on multi-directional shooting. These games are sometimes called platform shooters. This genre has strong arcade roots, and as such, these games are generally known for being very difficult, and having very linear, one-way game progression.

There are games which feature a heavy degree of shooting but do not fall into this subgenre. Mega Man, Metroid, Vectorman, Jazz Jackrabbit, Earthworm Jim and Turrican are all platformers with a heavy focus on action and shooting, but unlike Contra or Metal Slug, platform jumping elements, as well as exploration and back-tracking, still figure prominently. Run and guns are generally very pure, and while they may have vehicular sequences or other changes in style, they stay focused on shooting throughout.
If the game's challenge isn't centered around traversing obstacles and precision platforming, it's not a platformer.
Have you played Contra and Gods?
Yes. Have you played Mega Man 9 or Super Meat Boy?
Like I also said here's why it's fruitless to talk to people who are way into platformers. Most of them have a lot of crappy elements, and the fans are mostly guys like you.
It's fruitless to talk people who use a picture of female as their avatar because most of them are trannies. Or even worse, women who lack fine motor skills and just suck at video games, as the case seems to be with you.
 

Cleveland Mark Blakemore

Golden Era Games
Übermensch Developer
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
11,557
Location
LAND OF THE FREE & HOME OF THE BRAVE
Another one of those things I got running and then thought, I should really be working on Grimoire right now.

Just do whatever you feel like, Steve. Nobody, except for a handful of fairly retarded people, seems to take you seriously anymore anyways. :)

HAR! Funny stuff, 88 posts.

The next generation is secure with rocket scientists like yourself leading the charge forward.
 

Pantalones

Prospernaut
Joined
May 25, 2014
Messages
286
Backpedal backpedal, make up crap, fling dumb insults

Sure, you are totally right
at least on the platformer part he actually is. neither contra, nor altered beast, nor double dragon are platformers/jump'n runs.

No.

It is not a pure genre; it is frequently coupled with elements of other genres, such as the shooter elements in Contra,


It is not a pure genre; it is frequently coupled with elements of other genres

It is not a pure genre

It is not a pure genre

It's not a pure genre and there's few if any games that can be called pure platformers.

Double Dragon

I've said three times it is not really a platformer. Contra is. Gods is, but not any more than Contra. You spend your whole time jumping around on platforms with the trigger held down. It's a platformer, and there is virtually no such thing as 'pure' platformer which would be completely boring and lame. Even mario games do not qualify as pure.
 

SuicideBunny

(ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
8,943
Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Torment: Tides of Numenera
It's not a pure genre and there's few if any games that can be called pure platformers.
when you mix two genres, the primary focus determines the genre (hence the distinction between jump'n run and run'n gun), or you just call it after the most known game that is kinda like it (metroidvania, roguelike).
altered beast and double dragon are pure brawlers/beat'em ups. there is exactly zero platforming in them.

contra is a run'n gun, which is essentially what you get when you mix a shoot'em up/scroll shooter with some elements of a jump'n run, but the shooter gameplay is dominant. it's kinda like mixing rpg and shooter. when the gameplay is character-stat driven, you have an rpg with shooter elements or a hybrid, when the gameplay is player-skill driven, you have a shooter with rpg elements.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom