Best Platformer Franchises (consoles)
These would have to be some of the best platformer game franchises ever created.
Note: I think I wrote this in 2010. With some minor updates since. Excuse the painfully bad grammar.
List items
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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.
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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 escaped monkeys who were 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. Whoa that was a lot to say.
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From 2D days of old to 3D, and everything in between. Mario is an awesome franchise.
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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.
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In response to Nintendo's Mario, Sony had Naughty Dog create a platforming franchise that used a linear path for each level, like older platforming games. The twist however, was that the world was in 3D and you ran forward most of the time. Memorable levels include running away from boulders, and riding a jungle pig.
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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 of the disc. While the first title in the franchise was meant for kids, the game took a bizarre and awesome turn second time around. The game's two protagonists were propelled into the future. It was meant for a slightly older audience, it was dark, it was not a blood fest however, and was still 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.
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One of the first awesome 3D platformer franchises, 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.
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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.
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Not that great of a platforming franchise, but is close to many gamer's hearts for having large levels and interesting characters.
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Castlevania has castles, vampires, skeletons and anything else you can think of along those lines. It also has a 'metroidvania' style level design that encourages revisiting areas with new abilities.
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Awesome game series with exciting level design that forces you to explore. The main character, a female supersoldier/bounty hunter named 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 games are called Metroidvania titles, named after this game (Metroid), and Castle Vania, which both use the style.
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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.
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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.
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Rayman is a great platforming series, which hasn't made too bad a transition from one console generation to the next. After a mediocre spin-off series titled "Rayman Raving Rabbids," Rayman has been revived as a quality 2D platformer. The art style has been executed exceptionally in the new games (as of 2014).
All Rayman games have had a kind of goofy cartoon presentation to them, with the protagonist not having any actual limbs, just floating hands head feet.
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A free one-man-indie title on the PC, has been ported and improved upon for re-release (for a price of course) on PC and Mac. 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).
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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.
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One of the greatest platformers from the PSX era, this game is much more difficult than it looks.
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What's better than sucking things up and then floating around? Nothing, that's what.
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