platformer games

Okami is awesome, you should really get it if you have never played it before.

Zack and Wiki isn't a platformer. It's a point and click puzzle/adventure game. Though still pretty damn good.

the new warioland is ok, but for the real deal you might have to get the warioland 2 through 4 for the gameboy advance. damn best platformers i ever played.

Assuming you have a PS2/PS3, go for Jak and Daxter (made by the original creators of Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog) and Ratchet and Clank. There's a trilogy of each on the PS2 plus a sort of "spin-off" game (Jak X: Combat Racing and Ratchet: Deadlocked, which is more closely related to the normal Ratchet games than Jak X to the Jak series). There's also a new Ratchet on the PS3 plus a downloadable expansion/mini-episode.

Sly Cooper was the third of Sony's "Big 3" platformers on the PS2, it's a little more kid-friendly than Jak and Ratchet, but still a solid series from what I've played.

Beyond Good and Evil remains one of my favorite games of all time, and is worth it on any platform (though PS2 is the weakest, Xbox looks the best and I'd give GC the nod for best controls) - it's a little more action/adventure than straight platforming, but still has those elements plus a really great art style.

hessi i have to get angry here for a second ... go borrow a ps2 form a friend and get/buy/borrow god of war 1 and 2 ! believe me it will be worth your while.

from your list i can only recommend okami but its not really a platformer also its a 30 hours+ game to beat

beat both games anyway ! and they will proof you wrong.

Oh yeah, Beyond Good and Evil is one of those must-play games regardless of platform preference — a classic that goes in the same boat as all the LucasArts classics, Psychonauts, etc. Also agree that Ratchet and Clank on the PS3 is definitely a superb platformer, and I'd assume its predecessors were good too although I never played them.

If you have a 360 then Rare's Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is well worth playing, being the second sequel to one of the finest 3D platformers ever (Nintendo 64's Banjo-Kazooie). It has a more vehicular slant than its predecessors, but is nonetheless great fun; it also does a good job of taking the piss out of itself and the platform genre in general. Excellent production values, too.

Quote from Thrik

it also does a good job of taking the piss out of itself and the platform genre in general.

The opening alone takes the cake.

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Overweight Banjo is awesome.

Quote from Warby

beat both games anyway ! and they will proof you wrong.

Well, all games with masses of branching attack chains kind of expect you to play them in a mashy fashion, playing them "properly" means you learn one decent damage sequence to spam (and sometimes a block breaking sequence), whereas pressing random buttons not giving a damn makes you bounce around the screen like a fiend killing everyone with amazing animation budgets. But the games still look really nice even today, few levels are just hitting things anyway, and Kratos is cool. I am in no way discrediting its awesomeness.

Okay, so I popped in Wario Land: Shake it not knowing quite what to expect and turns out it's pretty awesome. It feels like an old 16bit platformer. Lots of fucking up areas and having to exit-then go back to refresh enemies needed to complete sections. It's not as fast as a Mario, it actually kinda reminds me of Adventure Island 2 or Donkey Kong Country, where you're not just simply plowing through the right side of the screen, but it's by no means slow. There's lots of little secrets and you'll be replaying levels numerous times to get all the extras (if you're a completionist).

Also, the music is especially good and visually one of the best 2D games I've seen. I'd say it's worth it just to check out the art, it's just great to look at. I can't understand why this isn't getting more attention, it's really good...

Braid for xbla! One of the best games that i have played this year. It's more of a puzzle game tho.

Bionic Commando Rearmed and Megaman 9 are for the 360 (and PS3). I think there are some platformers in XBLCG but unfortunately that seems to be populated 99% by people unloading My First Game (which is fine until you charge 800 space dollars for it), so get the trail first.

I’ve heard Sonic the Hedgehog Unleashed is pretty good, as it merges the extremes of what people think Sonic was like (just hold right and do loop the loops) and what Sonic was actually like (stopping for slow-paced platforming sections) using the weird werewolf shtick. I, personally, haven’t played it though...

There’s also Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? and Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins for the PSP, if you’ve got one of those.

i am playing mega max x5 right now the mega man games all around are AWSOME

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=3420.0

This is awesome, especially when you get physics puzzles in the later levels with diving in and out of the dead world to rocket yourself around.

Quote from Taylor

I’ve heard Sonic the Hedgehog Unleashed is pretty good, as it merges the extremes of what people think Sonic was like (just hold right and do loop the loops) and what Sonic was actually like (stopping for slow-paced platforming sections) using the weird werewolf shtick. I, personally, haven’t played it though...

I played it/watched my friend play through it, I think it is one of the worst games I've ever seen. Its button mashy, awkward to control, play every level 100 times just to memorize every way to not die. Just in general frustrating. The camera sucks. Several times they actually intentionally used bad camera angles to make it difficult, which was the point at which I said "fuck this game" and let my friend finish it(which took forever since you have to play each level a zillion times just to pass it). There is a point where you have to walk along a beam, balancing so you don't plummet to your death, with the camera fixed straight behind you.. which is great, thats where you want it to be. Until they put a 90* turn in the beam for 4 feet and then turn it back the way it was. You have near non-existant depth perception from the camera angle they give you, its even difficult to tell which direction he's leaning when you're close to falling. Combine that with the already fidgety controls and it is just plain annoying. Not to mention the hundreds of times in the game when sonic is whipping along rails half as wide at 400 miles an hour, doing flips from one rail to another.

Every time I watched him play, he was cursing and yelling and dying over and over again. He finished the game and said 'that was an alright game'. x1000.

I also would not call it a platformer. In the day sections you zip around uncontrollably at a thousand miles an hour, hoping that you won't die by some upcoming obstacle(of course your camera is fixed in side view so unless you're fucking Neo theres no way you could react fast enough). in the night sections you mash attack until everything is dead, then move on. All the puzzles I saw were 'put a box on the button to hold the door open' shit. Sure you run and jump a bit, but thankfully its kept to a bare minimum, its frustrating enough that I'm glad there isnt more. then throw in some quicktime events just to round out the package.