These would have to be the best platformer game franchises ever created. It is a shame these games are only seem to appear on the Nintendo Wii, but that is understandable as they are intended primarily for children.
One of the most interesting classic games around. The game seems to use sprites that look 3d (pre-rendered) that move along a 2d plane which wraps around hillsides/etc in 3d. An intereting game, a fun game, and a somewhat-challenging game at that. This first came out on the Playstation One, and there is now a remake available for the Wii games console.
An under-appreciated game series, Ape Escape combined a quirky story with solid level-design and truly innovative game-play, the first and last game on the PlayStation one to make proper use of the original Dualshock's dual-analog-stick capabilities. The game made the player use a number of interesting gadgets to traverse the strange levels and catch the escape monkeys who are being mind controlled by an evil ape named Spectar, via mind-control caps which have lights on top that flash a certain color to help the player interpret various conditions.
The most successful first-party game ever, Mario has been Nintendo's golden goose in the industry. Before the Wii Nintendo's success was largely accredited to Mario, with no controller swinging games to entice middle-aged moms. Even to this day Mario is still loved and has many excellent games on both the hand-held and console, and is still capable of bringing back some of the original Nintendo fans who are core gamers, back to the mostly casual console.
Without-a-doubt one of the most loved PS2 games series, with the first title coming out at or during the launch of the new console, it brought guns and platforming together in a kid-friendly package with plenty of great level-design and other things. It was arguably the inspiration for Naughty Dog's decision to add guns to the second Jak & Daxter game.
A playstation one franchise created by the Nuaghty Dog team, Crash Bandicoot was one of the most challenging platformers, and was very unique compared to other games. The graphics were excellent and the gameplay was made to be like a 2D platformer, except in a 3d space which would have the path different in each level. Whether it be moving forward, sideways or a transition it was no normal platformer. The 1st title used a mario-style island system for selecting levels, then the second introduced a small hub system, which had multiple level portals on a floor. Once those levels were beaten a platform would appear in the middle of the hub and the player could stand on it and be taken up to the next hub. The first two games had Indiana Jones - like levels, with boulders or polar bears chasing the bandicoot. In the third game exciting new levels were introduced, including motorbike, plane, diving, and even baby dinosaur riding games.
Some kids when they grow up pretend that they are power-rangers, well, when I was a kid I pretended I was Crash Bandicoot, and would find actual crystals, in the nearby rainforest (you collect acrystal at the end of each level in CB).
Playstation 2 franchise created by Naughty Dog, the creators of Crash Banicoot, featured one of the very first large open worlds with seamless progression and constant-loading or streaming, which, instead of splitting the world into different levels that had to be loaded differently, were all sewn together so that there were no loading screens and the game was constantly loaded off ofthe disc. While the first title in the franchise was meant for kids, the game took a bizarre and awesome turn second time around. This time the game's two protagonists were propelled into the future. It was an adult game, it was dark, it was not a blood fest however, and was kid-friendly. The game combined Grand Theft Auto (with hover cars), a platformer, and a third person shooter. The third game included the same city from the second, while adding a massive desert filled with mad-max style dune-buggies and raiders. Kinda post-apocalyptic don't ya think?
One of the first awesome platform franchises (when it was made by Insomniac), this franchise was unique in its use of hub worlds filled with level portals and loot to collect. The hub levels really were levels in themselves. The great thing about Spyro was that its' dragon protagonist could glide, and even fly on certain levels. The sound effects and colored gems were also addictive and just made you want to play more.
While simple enough in concept, this new gaming franchise is revolutionary because it lets the players make their own levels, rules, and use the PlayStation network to share content, download content, and buy bonus content. A lighter version of the PS3 game came out on the PSP with different level theme sets and pre-loaded level designs. A second title from developer Media Molecule has just been announced, and a kart-racer game with the same sort of player creativity has also been released recently.
Not that great of a platforming franchise, but is close to many gamer's hearts for having large levels and interesting characters.
Castlevania is not only awesome because it is hardcore, metroidvania, and expanisve; but it also has castles, vampires, skeletons and anything else you can think of along those lines ;)
Awesome game series with exciting level design that forces you to explore. The main character, a female supersoldier/bounty hunternamed Samus aran, takes on various alien threats in distant planets. Samus can shoot Left, Right, Up, and down when in the air. She can also roll up into a ball and 'boost' under certain ledges etc. Certain powers must be collected before they are available for use. This game in particular is the blueprint/concept that many other excellent sidescrollers borrow from, such as last year's Shadow Complex; such games are called Metroidvania titles, named after this game (Metroid), and Castle Vania, which both use the style.
Hmm... I don't particularly like MegaMan's game's presentation and awkward platformer game-play, but there is no denying that it is the most popular hardcore platformer game series and definitely deserves a place on this list.
The original games of this franchise are critically aclaimed around the world, for the fast paced level design (a technical achievement back in the day), and having unique features (which are always fun to have), like looped paths, spring launchers and a health system based on collected rings. When you take a hit you lose your rings, and you have a very short amount of time to collect them again before they disappear. While many four-year olds managed to beat the games back when they were released this is a fairly difficult game to play nowadays, since it is so different and the upcoming obstacles are pretty much impossible to predict. It becomes a game of luck or trial-and-error. A welcome feature of this game is the two-player mode that enabled two players to play through the main game together and compare scores. Sadly in present times, Sonic Team, cannot make any decent Sonic games. As flawed as shadow the hedgehog was, it was probably the last half-interesting sonic game made in recent times.
Rayman is a great platforming series, which hasn't made too bad a transition from one console generation to the next. Too bad the owner Ubisoft decided to stuff that up by releasing a spin-off series of stupid party mini-games called 'Rayman Raving Rabbids'. All Rayman games have had a kind of goofy-cartoony presentation to them, with the protagonist not having any actual limbs, just floating hands head feet.
A free one-man-indie title on the PC, has been ported and improved upon for re-release (for a fee of course) on the wii-ware channel. A platformer for the core-gamer, this game has metroidvania level-design, an interesting story, and a wonderful art style (regardless of which version you play).
Originally released on flash gaming site Newgrounds as a fairly simple platformer with hardcore difficulty, a different game is coming to the XBLA, PC, and Wii. Well, not completely different game anyway. The game has lots and lots of levels, all small in size, but challenging in their own right. The player will not be able to breeze through this, it will be hard. But it will be a quick and painless death. When your character dies he instantly reappears at the start of the level for another go. There is no delay and this is good because it does not make the player frustrated, they are free to try again immediately. This game isn't entirely child friendly, as the protagonist is actually a living block of meat that bleeds on every surface it touches. The blood remains even after a death and reattempt. At the end of each level the game replays all of the player's attempts at beating the level at the same time. The game has leaderboards, and even has remakes of every single level. The remakes are made even more difficult when beaten than the original levels. So if the game has 150 levels, the total including hardcore variations would be 300.
One of the greatest platformers from the PSX era, this game is much more difficult than it looks.
