prfsnl_gmr wrote:Raging Justice wrote:I don't think MM X is the greatest action platformer ever...far from it, but it is a classic.
Out of curiosity…what do you consider to be the best action platformers of all time? I very much respect your tastes, and I am always looking for new games to play!
Well, it's a subjective thing of course. No one will completely agree on "best of all time". So I'll respect anyone's opinion on this.
I would say Mega Man X 4 is one since the thread is focusing on that series a bit. X4 is my personal favorite of the series. It's such a well designed game that you can play however you want. You can use X or you can use Zero. You can tackle stages in any order, and with enough skill, still beat the bosses. You can play it through it without taking a hit if you're good, which means you can go through the whole game without E tanks or heart upgrades. If you want an easier time though, than you can totally exploit boss weaknesses, grab E tanks/hearts, and get armor for X. There's even a boss that you can optionally fight with a ride armor if you want an easier time or fight him legit. There's even a technique speed runners have figured out with Zero where you can get a LOT of slashes off in a short amount of time for insane DPS on bosses (never really used it myself though).
I like the design of the bosses too, particularly if you play as Zero. He brought a melee style to a series that was more projectile based (going all the way back to Mega Man classic) and some of the bosses reflect that. One boss literally fights like Ken or Ryu from Street Fighter II, and another is a light sabre duelist which makes fighting him as the light saber wielding Zero feel epic.
Surrounding all this was a pretty epic story with some big revelations for the series, a revamped art style and music for the series' Playstation/Saturn debut, and some great anime cutscenes. It's a shame the English version had some bad voice acting leading to some embarrassingly memorable moments in line with other games like Symphony of the Night and Resident Evil, all games with iconic, bad voice acting moments that everyone still remembers to this day.
Ninja Gaiden II on the NES comes to mind too, just because I played through that game so many times when I was younger. It was better balanced and designed than the first game, which is infamous for how frustrating it is, particularly towards the end of the game. NG II just has a certain rhythm to it once you know the stage layouts and enemy placement. I love the fast pace of it. The old NG games on the NES are very much go, GO,
GO!!! Keep moving forward, don't stop, and don't look back. Then of course you have the story and cut scenes, which really made an impact back then, and a really great soundtrack too
Then you have Castlevania, boy so many great games to choose from there, it terms of "classic" Castlevania I think Super Castlevania IV is a perfectly designed game. I think the Angry Video Game nerd did a great video describing his adoration of this game. Honestly though, I think it's Sega Genesis counterpart is absolutely excellent as well - Castlevania: Bloodlines. It's a bit harder and more traditional in its design than Super Castlevania for people who may feel that Super Castlevania made the movement and whip mechanics too fluid. Nice visual effects too, both games really showed off some great graphical tricks for their respective systems. I hold both games in extremely high regard. Konami blessed gamers on both sides of the console war with something excellent to..."sink their teeth into"
The Earthworm Jim games. They were brutally hard, and in terms of gameplay, fall a bit short of some other great action platformers. The gameplay could feel a bit sloppy at times. But man they were so rewarding. It felt good to complete a stage simply because you wanted to see what crazy, wacky, hilarious things the games would throw at you next. The levels were so inventive and creative too. The levels that had you maneuvering through tight spaces were great as they required patience and skill. Plus, the animation and the music was sooooo good. Tommy Tallarico was making some great tunes back then. So many games come and go, but you could never forget the EWJ games after playing them. I believe a new one is in the works for that Intellivision Amico
The Adventures of Batman and Robin on the SNES also, it was just a PERFECT Batman game. The standard IMO until Rocksteady came along many years later
The Shinobi series was so good too, I think Shinobi III is the standout entry. God I loved that game, so epic.
I also love Donkey Kong Country 2 and Sonic 3 and Knuckles, but I guess those aren't "action platformers". They are masterpieces though. I feel like a lot of modern DKC clones haven't managed to capture the magic of the SNES games including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze. Kaze and the Wild Masks makes a very respectable attempt though. I played a little bit of Sonic Mania and was impressed by it, but I still love Sonic 3 and Knuckles the most.
I could probably think of some other games too with a bit more time. Treasure comes to mind. Mischief Makers is criminally underrated, it was such a delight to play. N64 often gets ignored despite some amazing games. I'm trying to think of more modern examples, as this question immediately sent my mind back to the 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit eras. By the time the 32-bit era rolled around I feel like the 2d platformer genre had been perfected. Ironically, that's right around the time Sony wanted to kill it, at least on their platform.
On the subject of upcoming action platformers, I am holding high hope for the new version of Bloodrayne Betrayal. That was an amazing game, but I think the difficulty was a bit much. It could have been a classic if it was balanced a bit better I think.