What is the best 2D Platform Side Scroller PC Windows game you played?

Jazz Jack Rabbit is one of the best games I played.

Sonic III, although Crash bandicoot for GBA is worth mentioning

Abuse by Crack.com (now defunct).

Castlevenai Symphony of the Night on the playstation is very nice as well. Super Metroid on the SNES is up there too.

Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (ID Software, very old game)! It was amazingly exciting!!! :D

And also need to mention Gunstar Heroes. Though it was released on Sega Genesis, not on PC, this game was very enjoyable!

None of the windows side scrollers hold a candle to those on proper console platforms. There really are genres that don't work on certain platforms and scrollers/windows PC is one of the best examples.

Ok, my favorite side scroller isn't on the PC - it's Metal Slug (1, 2, 3, X, 4... if they make it, I'll play the heck outta it ;-)

As for the PC not being good with side scrollers... HUH?! Care to back that up with a little more information? The PC has had some awsome side scrollers, and if that's your game, there's even a pretty advanced side-scroller development kit for the PC that allows ya' to do it in nothing flat, and still get silky smooth animation and scrolling. Controls aren't much of an issue... keyboard or joystick, with remapable keys to suit anyone's choices seems like a pretty good input scheme.

The Dark Tower on the c64 (not the dark castle)

Keith

Those Commander Keen games from Id (actually I think those are the ONLY platform games I've played on a PC.)

David

Originally posted by johnson
What is the best 2D Platform Side Scroller PC Windows game you played?

Jazz Jack Rabbit is one of the best games I played.

The original Prince of Persia because it of its well assembled mixture of a) gameplay (action{not just shooting} + well designed levels) b) controls (well playable with just keyboard) and c) atmosphere (grafx +anims follow a clean and simple sheme, the theme (Orient) was something different).

Never played one on the PC...

But my favorite platformer is VexX on the Xbox, it's sort of like Mario 64, Blood Omen, and MDK all mixed togther... awesome game. :)

On PC? Commander Keen and Duke 1 and 2.

I'm eagerly anticipating 'Gus The Grey' by Screaming Duck!!

On Console? You can't beat classics such as Super Mario 3, Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2. Snake Rattle n' Roll as well if I'm not restricted to mentioning just the games using a more traditional view. :)

I was always a fan of Ghosts n' Goblins or it's sequal Ghosts n' Ghouls.

Ghosts n Goblins was the first arcade game I ever played - If I remember correctly, I managed to get as far as the first ladder. Being shot by the plant at the top was one of the defining moments of my life.

Originally posted by svero
I was always a fan of Ghosts n' Goblins or it's sequal Ghosts n' Ghouls.

Hehe love/hate-ish.

http://www.classicgaming.com/rotw/ghosts/

Finally he reaches Satan's fortress stronghold, where he battles ever stronger forces on his way to a showdown with the Prince of Darkness himself. And then, he must do it ALL OVER AGAIN.

I really hated the fact that you have to beat it twice in order to beat it for real.

@topic

I liked Contra most :) [can't remember any good PC platformer]

I'd have to say Flashback for the PC.

Also on the top of my list are the Shadow of the Beast series (believe the third one only came out for Amiga?), and the wonder boy in mosterworld series (which I mostly played through turbo grafix couterparts).

In case this thread brings on an urge to scroll, I'd love to hear what people think of my freeware game Ethereal Peace (http://www.sugarpills.org/etherealpeace.htm). I made it mostly over winter break about two years ago. It's kind of short, but I'm sure any feedback I get will help motivate me to put together some more levels.

Ghosts n Goblins was an absolute classic.
My favourite though would have to be the original arcade version of Rygar - great weapons, great music, great graphics and great gameplay :)
Shame they re-made it in 3D :(

I think Out of This World was probably one of the best PC platformers ever made... it was something of an action/adventure hybrid though. I'm not really sure you could classify it as a platformer at all. Anyway, the rotoscoped animation was amazing, and it was one of the first PC games to truly make use of the SoundBlaster's amazing 8-bit (!!!) digital audio!

I believe Flashback was the sequel... or at least made by the same people after OoTW.

Originally posted by Pyabo
I believe Flashback was the sequel... or at least made by the same people after OoTW. [/B]

Agreed. OOTW was a true classic. I'd play another game just like it in a second. There's also fade to black which was a 3d sequel. I enjoyed that too.

Originally posted by Pyabo
I think Out of This World was probably one of the best PC platformers ever made... it was something of an action/adventure hybrid though. I'm not really sure you could classify it as a platformer at all. Anyway, the rotoscoped animation was amazing, and it was one of the first PC games to truly make use of the SoundBlaster's amazing 8-bit (!!!) digital audio!

I believe Flashback was the sequel... or at least made by the same people after OoTW.

never heard of it. although I did like "Another world", which i spent hours and hours to finish. never made it.
it had great "cinamatics", even for 16 colors.

anyone knows what happened in the end?

Out of this world was the US name for it, Another World was like Europe, and i think they had a seperate name for japan (like outworld or something)

Keith

For the PC my favourite is Prince of Persia, followed by Out of This World. I liked Impossible Mission too, but I played that on the NES. On the consoles Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is my fav hands down. It's cool to see Rygar and Ghosts 'N Goblins mentioned too. Rygar arcade is my favourite arcade game of all time. I love Ghosts 'N Goblins too, but that has to be the most difficult series ever. (Satan was quite impossible to beat in the first one.) While we're at it, Black Tiger and Rastan are masterpieces as well. The music was so avante garde in Black Tiger and I loved the music in Rastan. Of course, the games were great as well. I have a stand up cabinet and arcade boards of all four.

I have a stand up cabinet and arcade boards of all four.

Very, very jealous!

@Hydroaxe/Rygar Fans - http://www.rygar.info/mainmenu.htm

The "unsolved mysteries" section is great :)

yeah, Ghost n Goblins has to be one of the most memorable! There was just somehting about that medieval atmosphere that kept me coming back for one more go.

But, I'd have to say the platformers that really stand out in my mind (arcade ones anyway) are the Wonderboy series and a game called Wardner. Both were Capcom games I think.

Anyone like Black Tiger?

Another World was fantastic
(Fade to Black was the 3d version btw)

Mario (All of them 32bit and below)
Most platformers on the Nintendo 8 bit were lots of fun.

Contra
Commander Keen
Duke'nukem

Abuse was cool as well.

I like Black Tiger! A coworker had one set up in the lunchroom years ago at Mpath. I got to where I could finish the game on one credit.

Then I got a coworker interested in the game, and he started beating my high scores. I never understood that--if we both finish the game, how come his high scores were 30k larger than mine?

His classic one-liner on the game, revealed to me as I watched him slog his way through level... 3, I think:The key to Black Tiger is skeleton management.

Runs great in MAME. I have configured it so that "shoot" is on the trigger button on my analog joypad. Lots less finger cramping that way.

As far as "favorite sidescroller platform game", Black Tiger might be it. Though Super Mario Brothers 3 left a lasting impression on me.

Platform games for the PC have always been way behind compared to console games. At that time when you could play great console games like Mario and Sonic, most PC games still had 16 colors and crappy scrolling. Now the PC hardware is finally good enough to write decent platform games and everyone started making 3D games instead!

The first good game I played on the PC was The Lost Vikings (but later I saw that it was converted from the SNES version which looked much better!)

A game that I enjoyed playing pretty much was Jazz Jackrabbit I (unlike Jazz II, which was actually kind of boring IMO), but it still didn't have that "sphere" found in some good console games. Some details give evidence of total lack of inspiration. For example, why is this rabbit collecting these blue floppy disks???

I think the platform games I've enjoyed most were: Super Mario, Donkey Kong Country, Mickey's Magical Quest and Sonic. One of my goals is to make PC games with the kind of quality found in these games.

Originally posted by Mike Wiering
I think the platform games I've enjoyed most were: Super Mario, Donkey Kong Country, Mickey's Magical Quest and Sonic. One of my goals is to make PC games with the kind of quality found in these games.

Check the PC platform game Disney Tarzan, very good gameplay and art quality. The combination of 2D and 3D environment perspective in the levels is an amazing experience. Only some whole levels of the game are in 3D FPS environment, which I didn't like. But the combination of 2D/3D levels is an extremely nice experience. I can never develop a game like that, because I don't have the resources for it. Like 3D modeling, toolkit to develop 2D/3D worlds, high quality 2D art. So the only side scroller I can develop is a Mario or Jazz Jack Rabbit game style. Which isn't b.t.w. not as easy as it may sound. Creative and challanging level and game design is one of the difficults jobs in the game industry. That is the real reason why most (indie) people only finish a platform game with two or more levels, but not a compact complete game.

I can't believe noone mentioned Double Dragon!?!?!? Am I the only one here who felt this was one of the greatest console side scrolling games of all time? I havn't played too many pc side scroll games, none that I really liked anyway. There were some good ones for commodore 64. But my all time fav is the Double Dragon series for NES, I just wish they would make another sequel for PS2 or Xbox, but keep it in the same side scrolling fasion... But that will never happen. They are making another Ninja Gaiden however, that looks amazing! :D

Originally posted by Mickey Crocker
I can't believe noone mentioned Double Dragon!?!?!? Am I the only one here who felt this was one of the greatest console side scrolling games of all time? I havn't played too many pc side scroll games, none that I really liked anyway. There were some good ones for commodore 64. But my all time fav is the Double Dragon series for NES, I just wish they would make another sequel for PS2 or Xbox, but keep it in the same side scrolling fasion... But that will never happen. They are making another Ninja Gaiden however, that looks amazing! :D

I played the PC version of Double Dragon and I agree it's a good game. The gameplay was really good and addictive!

Originally posted by Mickey Crocker
I can't believe noone mentioned Double Dragon!?!?!? Am I the only one here who felt this was one of the greatest console side scrolling games of all time? I havn't played too many pc side scroll games, none that I really liked anyway. There were some good ones for commodore 64. But my all time fav is the Double Dragon series for NES, I just wish they would make another sequel for PS2 or Xbox, but keep it in the same side scrolling fasion... But that will never happen. They are making another Ninja Gaiden however, that looks amazing! :D

Speaking of which, what about Golden Axe I, II & II? and Shinobi?

Originally posted by gilzu
Speaking of which, what about Golden Axe I, II & II? and Shinobi?

Yes, I know those titles. Golden Axe look a bit like Barbarian. Which was a great title of spending some nice weeks playing it. On the title screen, the digital voice over screaming "BARBARIAN" was incredible to hear your PC speaker "talk" in the '90 :)

Yoshis Island is a textbook example of a platform game. It has received very little attention due to it's unfortunate release time (at the end of the snes era), but it is without doubt the colmunation of the mario team's efforts.

Originally posted by johnson
Yes, I know those titles. Golden Axe look a bit like Barbarian. Which was a great title of spending some nice weeks playing it. On the title screen, the digital voice over screaming "BARBARIAN" was incredible to hear your PC speaker "talk" in the '90 :)

lol, i remember playing that and prehistorik 2 for hours...

Originally posted by Karukef
Yoshis Island is a textbook example of a platform game. It has received very little attention due to it's unfortunate release time (at the end of the snes era), but it is without doubt the colmunation of the mario team's efforts.

Coincidence - I actually just started playing this a few days ago. It's really cute, and very well designed, although so far I prefer SMW1 by a nose.

On the PC - I mentioned this in another thread - a must-see is Heart of Darkness (I believe by the people who made Another World). (although it doesn't scroll)

Originally posted by Wozza
I'm eagerly anticipating 'Gus The Grey' by Screaming Duck!! Ha! Not half as much as I am. Luckily all my other projects are now winding up and then This sping/summer will be Pure Gus development time (Firstborn due in 8 days notwithstanding).

As for being more on topic. It amazes me the Number of underrated good ones there are out there. Many that didn't become famous but were still quite fun.

I'm playing Brian the Lion at the moment (WinUAE). It's pretty fun. Gods had it's moments too (By far the prettyest 16 colour pc game ever too). I really wished that John Carmack's EGA tricks could have been used to make prettier games, EGA didn't have to have the default palette. If you put the Bitmap Brothers Artist into ID, Amazing things could have been done.

Check the PC platform game Disney Tarzan, very good gameplay and art quality
I just played through the demo and it sure is a nice game. I like the way you can sometimes go into a new dimension. I must have missed something, since I couldn't find the second letter (A).

Eventhough this effect is very nice, you'll probably get used to it soon and what remains of the gameplay is pretty standard (just like Alladin and Lion King: beautiful graphics, but only avarage gameplay IMO). But then, I've only played the demo, so I can't really know (it's a pity they don't show screen shots of other levels).

Oh, I forgot to add these to my list: Yoshi's Island (one of the best platform games ever!) and Mr. Nutz (SNES).

Originally posted by Addictive 247
Very, very jealous!


Heheheh. I guess I shouldn't tell you how cheap I got them then. ;) I like the Rygar page too. I remember when he had guides of other games too like Rastan.

@Carrot and Larry: Were you ever able to get over 1,000,000 points in Black Tiger? Just recently I revived the game again and learned how to do it. -skeleton management just like you said.

This thread could go on and on. Barbarian was cool too. I'll never forget the intro screen. I love the first Double Dragon, and Shinobi too. How about Rolling Thunder? -excellent use of color in that game and great graphics.

Check b.t.w. the side scroller Akimbo: Kung-Fu Hero, released in 1999/2000 by Iridon Interactive. There is demo available on http://www.iridon.com/games/akimbo/ Also you can check some nice screenshots.

Originally posted by Hydroaxe
@Carrot and Larry: Were you ever able to get over 1,000,000 points in Black Tiger? Just recently I revived the game again and learned how to do it. -skeleton management just like you said.


Ah, the Zenny coins!
Can't remember the score, but we definitely bet the game.

I lost most of a Summer break to this game.
Eventually reached what we thought was an impossible jump (a few levels after the flying fire imps), only to find out later that the cabinet joystick was a bit dodgy!

We eventually finished it (though we were a bit paler than most going back to school!).

Originally posted by Pyabo
I think Out of This World was probably one of the best PC platformers ever made... I believe Flashback was the sequel... or at least made by the same people after OoTW.

Is it 'Another World' that you're talking about?
That was made by French developers called Delphine, I think.

Didn't they do 'The Little Big Adventure' too?

Originally posted by Carrot
Is it 'Another World' that you're talking about?
That was made by French developers called Delphine, I think.

Didn't they do 'The Little Big Adventure' too?

Delphine Software International is indeed the developmentstudio who developed "Another World". Check there titles at http://games.ign.com/objects/025/025381.html

I think Delphine also did "Future Wars" which was a cool adventure game.

Originally posted by BarrySlisk
I think Delphine also did "Future Wars" which was a cool adventure game.

Yes, they did. Delphine is one of the best developmentstudio's. They also did Operation Stealth ala 007 "John Glames" :)

Originally posted by Hydroaxe
Were you ever able to get over 1,000,000 points in Black Tiger? Just recently I revived the game again and learned how to do it. -skeleton management just like you said. Good lord, no! My high scores were, I think, in the mid-high 200k range. My friend's were more like 350k.

What is the method? You just stand there and whack skeletons until time runs out?


larry

Originally posted by Larry Hastings
Good lord, no! My high scores were, I think, in the mid-high 200k range. My friend's were more like 350k.

What is the method? You just stand there and whack skeletons until time runs out?


larry

Well the very first time I saw Black Tiger was about the time it came out. Nobody was good at the game, yet I'll never forget the high score I saw was just over 1,000,000 points. I never saw that person play it and I never realized how high that score actually was until I was able to finish the game many months later. (These were the days when you only had one quarter or two to and couldn't play all the time.)

I always thought you just had to kill as many skeletons as you could and the thought wasn't that fun to me, plus you could also screw up your game and die. I was usually satisfied to just get to the end of the game with 700K.

Then recently, I was playing it at home and remembered the million point score. At first I was just killing as many skeletons as I could and then finishing each level like that before the time ran out. That still didn't get me a million, so I tried playing without getting killed and then using the extra lives to kill as many skeletons as I could. My last life was used to finally kill the black dragon. That didn't really work either. There had to be another way.

I thought maybe I had to kill more purple skeletons because they gave you more points, but I was already doing that by using the extra lives at the end. Then I noticed that it depends on how close the skeleton is when you kill it. Very clever Capcom! There seemed to be 3 point ranges. If the skeleton is far away when you kill it, you get the least amount of points. If it's right close to you, the points are double. If it is somewhere inbetween, you get medium points. This makes it much more addictive to whack skeletons. You also have to manage your time properly and even use some extra lives at the end of the game. Give it a try! :D