#platformers

[melded-galaxy]

Favourite Platformer mascot?

[sleuth-hounds]

We need these three IPs back more than ever now.

[retrogamingloft]

No, Pac-Kong isn't a clever mix of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong; it stands as one of the worst rip-offs of the latter that I've ever played, by a considerable margin. Even after all these years, the meaning behind the "pac" in the title remains a mystery to me. While forgiving the simplistic graphics — expected for an Atari 2600 game, the console's charm lays in its titles' gameplay, not in their visual appeal - the evident deficiencies in this game are inexcusable..

At the apex of the tower lurks an Octopus (though it resembles more a giant yellow bat) hurling bananas (or bat-like creatures) at our hero. Dodging these bats or airborne bananas presents a challenge; they never cease movement and sway in a manner that makes you struggle to discern when you've been hit until you lose a life - The feeling of "it wasn't even close" prevails often.

The most infuriating aspect emerges when jumping between platforms separated by gaping chasms. Precise timing is imperative; pressing the button when our hero's last foot grazes the platform's edge is the only way forward. It's an exasperating exercise, leading to countless instances where apparent success is swiftly followed by a plummet to failure.

Somehow, I managed to clear the first loop (just two stages) without any deaths, but the sheer frustration led me to opt-out. Continuing seemed pointless unless I was seeking a nervous breakdown.

[frogs-ina-pond]

Sly Cooper halloween art (+ two bonuses for my discord mutuals I wanted to post)

[tcm464]

Why the FUCK are so many people crossing Pizza Tower and Celeste?

Like, I love it, they're both games that I love, but... why?

One is an advanced platformer about climbing a huge mountain to overcome a problem as an anxiety-riddled character, and the other is an advanced platformer about... climbing a huge tower to overcome a problem... as an anxiety-riddled character...

...ohhhhh...

[funkyalienz]

sybil!!!

[bb-blueyellow]

I cant get enough from this super creative concept art from creative/ambitious platformers!

[posthumanwanderings]

Sonic Adventure 2 (Sonic Team / Sega - Dreamcast - 2001)

[arconinternet]

Nightmare in the Toyfactory (Windows, Black Sheep Design, 1997)

The bizarre experimental Christmas-themed 3D platformer, where collecting toys doesn't just earn you checkpoints - they're actual toys and minigames you can play with, created to experiment with the game's engine. You can download it here, or download it pre-configured to work with modern versions of Windows here.

[smbhax]

Hylics 2 (PC)

RPG / platformer with funky graphics, by the author of the free play-in-browser platformer Muldulamulom. I liked how it looked much more than how it played.

Game play session: https://youtu.be/kXYHHZ9dr1M

[stormywinter42]

HOLY SHIT I FINALLY BEAT FAREWELL AFTER 10 HOURS AND ALMOST 9000 DEATHS I FUCKING DID IT (I know I’m bad just let me be happy)

Im literally crying right now I love this game so much that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a video game my heart is pounding out if my chest

After nearly 150 hours tot’s playtime it’s done

[swordquest]

CONCEPT ART FOR MIGHTY JILL OFF (2008)

[sleuth-hounds]

This will age badly someday but I'll be fine with it.

I just wanted to get this out of my system cause it's just how I feel about the IP's situation...

[devileaterjaek]

Wario Land 3, via Nintendo Switch Online

[compostboy]

someone please recommend game

Criteria:

• runs on shit garbage laptop

• gameplay suitable for someone who dies in the first level of a non-evil mario 2D platformer

• cheap or free

• story or multiplayer or both

[krissiefox]

My Favorite Unreal Engine Games!

Unreal engine has a special place in my own history with game design, as it was one of the first game engines I learned to make custom maps with during my college classes. The game we used was Unreal Tournament 2004, which was also the game that got me more into PC gaming in general. It's an engine I've long enjoyed working with, so I wanted to have a showcase of some of my favorite games using this engine from over the years!

UNREAL GOLD

The one that started it all. A great single player FPS adventure across an alien world where you play as escaped prisoner who befriends the planets friendly Nali folk and help protect them from an army of not-so-nice Skaarj. This one runs on the OG unreal Engine 1, which is quite pretty and for a game engine from the 90s, probably blew plenty of folks' socks off!

UNREAL TOURNAMENT SERIES (UT1, UT2004, UT3, UT4)

Using the same universe as Unreal 1's story adventure, unreal Tournament centers around a blood sport tournament hosted by the Liandri Mining Corporation as a means of entertainment for bored miners. This simply backstory sets the stage for the Epic's long-lasting multiplayer-based Unreal games, with the usual classic game modes such as Deathmatch and Capture the flag. Lots of replay value is added thanks to the robust modding community for the franchise, and for folks who don't want to deal with the risk of meeting toxic assholes in online matches, the series thankfully provides bots enemies you can play against as well! The engines of the games range all the way from the original up to Unreal Engine 4, after which Epic sadly killed off the series.

Sadly, a few years ago Epic decided to be douche bags and pull these games from all digital storefronts, along with the single player ones as well. If you can't find a physical copy, don't feel bad about yo-ho-ho-ing that shit (especially UT4 as it never got a physical release at all)!

UNREAL 2 THE AWAKENING

While I prefer the original, the sequel the Unreal 1/Gold is still another solid single player FPS adventure. There's a lot more complex story-line and character interaction going on in this one, as you get to relax between missions on your own ship and talk with your crew mates. Only big flaws I found in this one is that it did rear an uncomfortable habit that Epic had for a while with the Unreal games - dressing their female characters in ridiculously sexist attire. This one runs on the Unreal 2.0 Engine, a nice looking upgrade to the original engine that still ran smoothly on every computer I've ever tried it on.

BORDERLANDS SERIES

Okay, some of these feel like a bit of cheating - I've never actually beaten a Borderlands game. However, I have briefly played Borderlands 1 and 2, and watched my family play the crap out of all the games. They're great games, from all I've seen, So I'm still going to give them my approval. Colorful, funny, violent, queer-positive, They've have it all!

Most of the games are first-person shooters, but there's also a couple adventure games in the form of the Tales from the Borderlands titles. The first is using a different engine, but New Tales from the Borderlands uses Unreal Engine. All of the FPS titles use either Unreal 3.0 or 4.0.

There's no DRM free versions on PC, sadly, but all of the games have received physical releases on consoles, at-least.

KILLING FLOOR SERIES

Killing Floor started as mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, and later evolved into several standalone games! Most of the games are arena-based, you pick a map to play in and get to see how long you can survive fighting off waves of freaky monster people until the big boss arrives. You can play solo or online to team up with other players to fight the monsters. A couple of the games also have a story mode, namely the original mod version and the VR game Killing Floor incursion. These games are great fun and long-time favorite of mine, the only downer being that after the initial mod all other games are developed by tripwire, a gross company I stopped giving money to years ago. Thankfully, Killing Floor 2 is available as physical console games, so you can pick those up without giving tripwire money. The Killing Floor games have also show up in humble bundles several times, so keep an eye on those for a chance to get the games while giving all the money to charity instead of tripwire. Killing Floor 3 is currently in development, and hopefully these workarounds will exist for that game as well so I can try it out one day.

The original mod uses Unreal 2.0, while Killing Floor uses a special "midpoint" 2.5, which adds some nice features to the original 2.0 engine such as light bloom effects. KF2 uses Unreal engine 3, and KF3 is planned to run on Unreal 5.0.

HOLLOW MOON (UT2004 MOD)

Hollow Moon is a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. It's basically the Backrooms in space! A great and creepy experience where you wander and explore an abandoned moon base, presented in an artsy black and white silent film style, accompanied by a haunting soundtrack.

NAISANCEE

Continuing with the theme of Unreal Engine liminal space games, NaissanceE has you exploring a massive, strange world trying to find your way out. It's a little spooky, and very mysterious. The art and sound design are fantastic. It's also both free AND DRM free, so you can back up your own copy of the game! My only complaints are that there a couple sections of the game where the lighting and platforming gets hard to understand through poor lighting or awkward physics.

The game runs on Unreal Engine 3, and it's almost always a visual treat.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 isn't actually out yet, but it's a very rare example of an upcoming AAA game I'm actually excited for, so I wanted to mention it here. It will be the first title in the series to use Unreal engine, as all of the previous titles were made in GSC Gameworld's own X-Ray Engine. Hopefully the game will be just as fun, cool and spooky as the original trilogy when it comes out! And I hope the dev team is all keeping safe from putin's little homophobic warmongering clown show.

UNLUCKY (shameless self-plug!)

Yup, our very own project "Unlucky" is also an Unreal Engine game! We're using Unreal Engine 5, which I haven't had as much experience with as 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, but I'm learning my way around it as I test out my 3d models in-engine. :)