Platformers come in all sorts of varieties but can generally be boiled down to three main types: (1) The Platform Puzzler - where you move around various platforms solving puzzles. (2) The Platform Shooter - where you move around various platforms while wildly shooting things and (3) The Precision Platformer - where you move around various platforms and complete a goal in the quickest time. It is to the latter variety we now turn.
Precision Platformers are obviously very closely related to the Platform Puzzler and indeed, if you just want to go ahead and clear levels without concerning yourself with the time-factor, they are almost exactly the same (although a tad more basic)! But good Precision Platformers make you really want to complete levels in the best time. The main mechanic to make the player want to do this comes in the form of a carrot on a stick variety - whereby you are either awarded different medals according to your ability and/or shown a high-score chart that makes you want to constantly improve and to beat other players online. For this reason, Precision Platformers can be both the most addictive and most frustrating type of game, taking you to the brink of madness and having you pull your own hair out in big clumps.
Here's the Top 5 on Steam:
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Adventures of Shuggy is an extremely inventive precision platformer that is heavily weighted towards solving fantastic puzzles and certainly gives the "wow" factor when completing the first world of levels. (I'm on the second world now.) You control a vampire-cat like thing around screens of well designed levels that challenge your logical thinking skills. Each level has its own unique gameplay mechanic giving it huge variety and meaning that you really don't feel you have to go back and beat old times because you're more intrigued by what type of twist to the gameplay will occur next.
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Nimbus is one of those underrated platformer games that is beautifully crafted and a joy to play. You control a spaceship that's propelled by momentum given to you not only in the form of gravity but by various contraptions located around the landscape. These come in all sorts of varieties such as: cannons, springy trampolines, wind tunnels and arrows that jet propel you... etc etc. Completing levels in the best time is all about experimenting with trajectory, what angle you take corners at and lots of trial and error - all fun and absorbing stuff. Restarting a level is immediate and done in a blink of an eye so there's no annoying load screens to contend with. Times are recorded to one-thousandth of a second and to follow your progress and development times are recorded on leaderboards.
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Storm In A Teacup is a very cutesy, straightforward, side-scrolling platformer whose main strength is its simplicity, childlike but stylish artwork and basic gameplay design. You control a teacup, with a fuzzy head poking out, while floating around a landscape collecting sugar lumps and bonus stickers.You get awards for: (1) Collecting all the cubes; (2) Not dying and (3) Picking up the hard-to-get-at sticker. With a huge variety of obstacles consisting of swinging platforms, spikes, lava, evil clouds...etc etc, the game is dynamic enough to keep you coming back for more. The main thing to master in this game is the skill to float (while manipulating the energy bar effectively) which involves rapidly tapping the space bar. One word of warning: the sugary sweet music will drive you slowly insane - you have the option to turn it off.
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Super Meat Boy is the cult-classic of the group and the one with the subsequent runaway success. Graphically, it's blocky, pixelated and looks like it had the least amount of time spent on programming and developing it. However, once you start getting involved and completing its levels, it kind of sucks you in and grabs you so that you find it hard to let go. It does this by being super-quick and slick in all sorts of ways. Its menu screens guide you through the game seamlessly so that you're never left hanging about, levels can be restarted immediately with no load screens - and it makes you think that you can really beat this bleedin' level if only you could just... and that'll be its addictive hook, pulling you in. All this by just controlling a red hunk of meat around fairly plain landscapes!
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Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is the game that I wanted Gish to be. In that game, you have five lives but have to restart the entire game from the beginning when you lose those lives; meaning it's all repeat, repeat, repeat - a good enough game, made boring by a stupid, game-breaker mechanic. Enter the fresh, vibrant and colourful Mutant Blobs Attack! True, many elements have been stolen from Gish but it has so much more variety and twists and turns that it makes this little number so much more dynamic and so many times better! Once you have completed a level, it unlocks it so that you can go back to redo it for a better time or score (Why didn't Gish have this!!??). The leaderboard is done really well and really makes you want to go back to shave a few more seconds off your time. All good!
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Honourable Mentions:
Bit. Trip Runner - More of a "rhythm game" where a little 8-bit man runs along from left to right and must either jump, slide, kick or spring when arriving at certain obstacles. Fast, furious and difficult.
Dustforce - The next generation up from Super Meat Boy but with added gameplay mechanics that makes it far too difficult for this reviewer.
Hamilton's Great Adventure - With an Indiana Jones theme and blurring the boundary between "puzzler" and "precisioner", you control an adventurer who needs to exit to a portal while walking a path full of traps and crumbling surfaces. A very good game that just missed a Top 5 place on this AND the Platform Puzzler section.
Offspring Fling - The poor boy's Super Meat Boy programmed with an 8-bit configuration.
Pixeljunk Eden - One of those arty/ambient type games more for relaxation and for whiling away a few lazy minutes. Control a little worm-type creature by leaping around and flying through the air while watching flowers bloom and glow.
Rayman Origins - Not an Indie game but a kick-ass platformer, available on Steam, that just has to be given a mention here due to its fantastic gameplay. It's fast, furious and full of surprises.
Sonic Generation - Not an Indie game but a half-decent platformer available on Steam anyway. Not really my cup of tea but a popular classic so given a mention here.
Wik and the Fable of Souls - No longer available on Steam but a finely done platformer set to a fairy-story theme. Watch the little goblin type fella swing around on trees and platforms with his tongue! Collect bugs and spit them out to feed the monster before he reaches the end of the screen.
Kona's Crate - A lunar-lander type game where you power a crate through jet propulsion while guiding it carefully around obstacles and bringing it to the chief. Not on Steam but available through Gamer's Gate.
Pixeljunk Eden - One of those arty/ambient type games more for relaxation and for whiling away a few lazy minutes. Control a little worm-type creature by leaping around and flying through the air while watching flowers bloom and glow.
Rayman Origins - Not an Indie game but a kick-ass platformer, available on Steam, that just has to be given a mention here due to its fantastic gameplay. It's fast, furious and full of surprises.
Sonic Generation - Not an Indie game but a half-decent platformer available on Steam anyway. Not really my cup of tea but a popular classic so given a mention here.
Wik and the Fable of Souls - No longer available on Steam but a finely done platformer set to a fairy-story theme. Watch the little goblin type fella swing around on trees and platforms with his tongue! Collect bugs and spit them out to feed the monster before he reaches the end of the screen.
Kona's Crate - A lunar-lander type game where you power a crate through jet propulsion while guiding it carefully around obstacles and bringing it to the chief. Not on Steam but available through Gamer's Gate.
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