Platformers, oh how I
adore you. From the 2D side-scrolling of the past, to full
revolutionary 3D that came about in the 1990s there are so many
classics that came about because of this genre, and I'm going to
take this time to honor the ones I had the pleasure of playing
growing up.
Let's get the obvious out of the way: Mario. Mario heavily influenced both 2D and 3D platforming with Super Mario Brothers on the NES, and again with Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. Three decades and the little Italian plumber is still going strong. This brings us to our other platforming heroes.
Gotta go
fast!
Sonic the
Hedgehog competed head to head with Mario in the 1990s during the
first console wars between Sega and the Nintendo. The game's main
selling point was its speed that brought the blast processing of the
Genesis to its limits. While it never had quite the same success in
3D gaming like Mario has, the 2D platformers in the Sega's heyday
was considered one of the best games of the era. Especially Sonic
the Hedgehog 2.
Ironically,
while I played a lot of Genesis in my time, I played very little
Sonic. The only Sonic game I played on the Genesis was Sonic 3. I
wouldn't play the other games until years later. I finally got to
play the first two Sonic games through the Genesis collection that
came out and fell in love with 2. The game had just the right amount
of speed and platforming and wasn't as hard to get down as the first
game.
DIE YOU
ROBOTIC BASTARD!
Who could
forget Mega Man? The Nintendo turned multi-platform that took the
world by storm. I had a rather unique introduction to the series. By
the time I played them our NES was sold to our cousins and I never
had the Genesis remake of the first three games. I had the obscure
DOS version of the first and third Mega Man which was like a poor
man's version of the games. Despite that, I still greatly enjoyed
the third Mega Man game and came across Mega Man X, X4, and Legends
in the future. I also really loved the old cartoon series.
Only
recently have I managed to get my hands on the old NES games 1 – 6
with the Genesis remake to boot. Eventually, I'll sit down and give
them a proper review in the future. I think I owe it to myself to
play the superior versions of 1 and 3, though if I had a dime for
every old retro game I still want to play I wouldn't need this blog.
I could retire in harmony and live in a mansion on the edge of town
away from human society. Mega Man has gone through two re-imaginings
and the way they've done it kept the original games afloat even after
their technical reboots. Something you don't see in a lot of
reboots. Shame that the franchise have been dead for years, but at
least we'll always have the older games to keep us company.
Then there's
the lovable Crash Bandicoot. God, I haven't talked about this guy in
years! Crash came onto the scene the same year as Super Mario 64 and
has a trilogy of games on the PS1 that are still considered the best
in the franchise to this day. Like a lot of other games in my past, I
was introduced to this series through the second game which remains
my favorite in the series.
Crash
managed to make waves in a genre where Mario and Sonic mostly
dominated with fun level designs, memorable characters, various
facial expressions of our title character, and hilarious death
scenes when you took a hit. He more or less became the Mario/Sonic of
the Sony PlayStation before he started being ported to every system
known to man.
Banjo-Kazooie was one of
the best platformers to come out for the Nintendo 64. Fun characters,
voices who spoke nothing but gibberish, and plenty to explore in
each new level. Even the game over screen was worth a watch whenever
you came across it. Banjo-Kazooie was mainly about finding musical
notes and puzzle pieces to advance to the next stage. You could walk
on land, fight enemies, swim underwater, and hover for a limited
time thanks to Kazooie on your back.
There was a second game
that came out called Banjo Tooie, but I never got around to playing
that. Unfortunately, I've been made aware of the horrible Xbox game
that came out years later. I'm going to do myself a favor and skip
that one. It's just too depressing. If you like platformers and
don't mind old games than I recommend giving Banjo Kazooie a
playthrough.
I remember
this stage. I hated this stage!
This may be
a little on the obscure side, Croc is about a little crocodile who
sets off to save his friends known as the gobbos from the evil Baron
Dante. Croc was released for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Microsoft
PC, and Game Boy Color with one sequel title. On the graphics scale
the game looks amazing even today and is one of the few PS1 titles
to still hold up. With the decision not to have voice acting the
first game possesses amazing atmosphere letting gamers get sucked
into the environment.
I touched on the game
briefly in one of my first reviews back in 2011, so you can read more
about it in the links below. Like a lot of platforming games, Croc
becomes pretty frustrating later on, but it's satisfying when you
finally get past a difficult part. I haven't played the second game
in this series either, but I do have it so who knows? You may see
more Croc crop up around here sooner than you think.
FIRE!
Spyro is
another platformer that had an amazing trilogy of games for the
PlayStation only to be handed off to new developers and create
sequels that never lived up to the first three titles. I was lucky
enough to be able to play all three games for the PlayStation and I
enjoyed them immensely. Spyro 2 being my favorite of the bunch. I
couldn't get enough of the cavemen stages in that game.
You can
breathe fire, charge head first, and glide to avoid various
obstacles. The first game focused on freeing the other dragons who
have been turned to stone by Gnasty Gnorc, the second game is
more focused on collecting talisman to confront Ripto, and the third
on saving dragon eggs. That little side thing you did on the first
game becomes the focus point of the third game's plot. Kind of cool,
actually. Only new Spyro game I played after these was Enter the
Dragonfly and I didn't care to play it much. The whole beginning
tutorial was just ripped from Year of the Dragon.
Platformers may be a bit
of a niche genre these days, but with projects like Yooka-Laylee
being funded, the genre may very well make a return some day. In the
meantime there are still plenty of classics platformers in the past
to look up if you haven't already. This is ToriJ signing off.
No comments:
Post a Comment