Incline Your favourite "hardcore" platformers?

[ghostdog]

Even with savestates SOTB is a fucking nightmare, believe me. You still have to manage to reach the Castle's boss at full health if you want to have any chance at surviving the insane jetpack level.

 

[slackerwizrd]

Cat Mario.

Spoiler

 

[Kylearan]

N is pretty good too.

 

[ghostdog]

While I was looking among various snes games I discovered this awesome gem: NOSFERATU.



It's a cross between prince of persia and castlevania, with fantastic graphics spooky music and non-linear levels. The controls could be more responsive, but you get to perform some really cool fighting moves apart from the acrobatics. The game is HARD. I would advise to start playing on easy. The good thing is you have unlimited continues that start you from your last level, so it's not that unforgiving. The fighting consists of various punches and kicks. There's something immensely satisfying about kicking the shit out of a werewolf.

Useful Stuff to know:

 

[funkadelik]

No Vectorman?

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

I must add Mr. Gimmick, obscure NES platform game released only in Japan and Scandinavia. For me, it dethroned even mighty Big Nose: Freaks Out in category 'doing crazy shit thanks to avesum physics'. Well balanced, hard as hell and rewarding as fuck. I discovered it about year ago and still didn't beat, damn I were younger and had more patience and time :/

 

[CyberP]

Rondo of Blood is pretty much the best Castlevania out there. Then there is Shadow of the Beast 2 & 3. 1 is good too but has less platforming.

Bullshit. Symphony of the Night all the way. Yes it is not as challenging, but it is an interesting RPG/Hack&Slash/platformer hybrid.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Bullshit. Symphony of the Night all the way. Yes it is not as challenging, but it is an interesting RPG/Hack&Slash/platformer hybrid.

I'm reluctant to call SotN a platformer because there aren't any real platformer hazards. Your mileage may vary, but that's where I draw the line: when platforming is a part of the challenge or isn't.

 

[CyberP]

I'm reluctant to call SotN a platformer because there aren't any real platformer hazards. Your mileage may vary, but that's where I draw the line: when platforming is a part of the challenge or isn't.

Indeed, very few pits to jump over and such, but there is still plenty platforming action in conjunction with combat.
I was dismissing the thread and was responding to your "RoB is the best Castlevania" comment.

 

[TheGreatOne]

I must add Mr. Gimmick, obscure NES platform game released only in Japan and Scandinavia. For me, it dethroned even mighty Big Nose: Freaks Out in category 'doing crazy shit thanks to avesum physics'. Well balanced, hard as hell and rewarding as fuck. I discovered it about year ago and still didn't beat, damn I were younger and had more patience and time :/

Here's a good review of it, minus the acting stuff in the intro

TL;DR: Great music and design, very challenging and top it all off it was technically impressive as well due to the use of physics

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I loved Megaman 9 so much I got into Top 3 in its speedrunning leaderboard.

One NES platformer I always wanted to get into was Journey To Silius. But I swear there's this small little delay after you hit the jump button before your character actually jumps, and the timing to dodge most things is very unforgiving. The game is completely unbreachable to me, though I've tried many times.

 

[Damned Registrations]

"Yes, I beat this game!" is vastly different from "Yes, I beat this game with save states!", unless it's actually meant to be played like this (Kaizo?).

The funny thing is, no, not even Kaizo. IIRC it was originally an actual cart someone had made and sent to his friend (presumably a speedrunner) as a challenge. It's actually not as impossible as it sounds, since you still have multiple lives and save points to continue from when you lose them all.

Never underestimate the hand-eye coordination of human beings. It's what we evolved for primarily. Swinging around in trees doesn't work if you're clumsy.

 

[Ivan]

Meat Boy
Rayman Origins (treasure chest levels; final level)
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

oh oh oh the newest donkey kong TROPICAL FREEZE is fucking hard as balls too

 

[toro]

 

[Jasede]

I don't enjoy platformers much... I do like speedrunning Super Metroid once in a while, though!

And yes, Kaizo Mario was meant to be played without savestates. If you dig really hard you can find the Youtubes of the guy the game was made for beating it the old-fashioned way, using an infinite lives cheat. (This was allowed, it said so in the note the creator wrote to his friend.)

(By the way, beating it without savestates is an amazing feat. Try it for a little bit and you'll quickly appreciate just how damn good the guy is.)

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

PC/Amiga/C64/Atari ST etc. platformers are generally inferior to thier console competitors but THIS was a glorious exception to the rule.

 

[warpig]

Prehistoric 2 was one of my favorite games when I was a kid. I'm not a big fan of platformers and I haven't even played most of the console classics. I like "realistic" platformers - Flashback, Prince of Persia, Abe's etc. idk if these are hardcore enough. Heart of Darkness was p. cool too, I remember it being difficult to beat.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Got myself Eryi's Action the other day, it's one of those -die every step from stuff you cannot foresee- games, but fun for some in between gaming and practice in how not to ragequit.

 

[ed2d2]

Gods

 

[Ivan]

So, with the new Crash Bandicoot I've been reading about Naughty Dog and had forgotten about the Jack and Daxter series and how much I enjoyed them. That being said, I never got around to the Ratchet and Clank games. Can anyone speak to their merit? Am I missing anything spectacular?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Oh man, such an awesome thread.

My absolute favorite hardcore platformers are probably the Mega Man/Rockman Zero series. The art style is much more palatable than the rest of the MM series and the difficulty is wow, it's thru the roof. Yet... it's fair, you can git gud. I've never felt so much tension doing those wall jumps and charging my saber attack at the same time, all knowing that a single mistake is gonna fuck me. The game requires a very good reaction response and also precision with your strikes. And it also heavily discourages the use of power-ups/upgrades, you can reach the best rating and unlock the best ending only if you forego all the health boosts etc.

And you know what, the story in the Zero games is p good too. Zero is completely deranged, after he wakes up from his eons long stasis he sees absolutely no meaning in his existence, so he gives it all to fight as hard as possible and kill as many people/reploids as he can. He goes so hard that he dies in the end. Such a truly Japanese story!

There was an attempt to resurrect the series with the two ZX games, but they were kinda meh. Still finished both on Maniac though.

Apart from these, I've also enjoyed many SNES and Megadrive games, such as Demon's Crest for example. What a beautiful fuckin' game, hard as balls too.

 

[Ivan]

I never dove into the Zero games. Lots of titles to check out. Thanks Drog

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

IMO, the Zero series are way more interesting gameplay wise than the usually recommended Mega Man 1-6, since it relies on very precise strong melee attacks (charging your saber and unleashing it at just the right time) and the game is much faster because you can dash. The original MM games are mostly just dodging and pew-pew which is fine too, if you want to go back to the basics, but Zero really improves on the formula.

 

[Siveon]

So, with the new Crash Bandicoot I've been reading about Naughty Dog and had forgotten about the Jack and Daxter series and how much I enjoyed them. That being said, I never got around to the Ratchet and Clank games. Can anyone speak to their merit? Am I missing anything spectacular?

Well, the Ratchet and Clank games are hardly platformers. They have platforming portions, but the majority of the game is fighting with your wrench and shooting at things. Very rarely do you actually have to maneuver with various platforms.

Same argument goes to the Jak & Daxter games, actually. Considering they play more like an early version of open world games than a 3D platformer (aside from Jak 1, and Daxter for the PSP). Though I do like the Ratchet and Clank games a lot more than Jak 2 & 3, since the gameplay is much more fun.

Spoiler

Although Ratchet and Clank was not made by Naughty Dog but Insomniac Games, the people behind Spyro.

 

[Falksi]

Super Mario World is still just a stunning example of how to design a game both simple enough to pick up and play instantly, but also deep enough and with constantly new elements being introduced that it keeps you hooked for ages. Genius game Imo.

Here's a few others which are IMO brilliant, and which some of you younger gamers may have missed out on so far (includes platform beat em ups & shoot em ups)......


MEGADRIVE
Batman
Ghouls & Ghosts
Magical Flying Hat
Atomic Runner
Kid Chameleon
Revenge of Shinobi
Ranger X
Strider

SNES
Alien 3
Actraiser 2
Joe & Mac 1&2
Magic Sword
Run Saber
Super Castlevania
Super Ghouls & Ghosts