Before we can even discuss the games that are solely on platforming, we need to discuss what the platform genre really is. Don't worry, I'm not going to give a long essay! I'm simply going to tell you what platform games are as briefly as possible so that we can start to the chase.
Ok..so what are platform games?
See the background that has question marks and some other blocks? Well, imagine what happens when the blocks form together? Its three blocks now together right? But now imagine a coin being there right at the top of the blocks and the blocks are on top of you. If you want the coin, how can you get it?
You can't run over it and there isn't a way to use a ladder since there isn't a block on top of those blocks to help you climb to get it...but wait..what if you just jumped on the platforms and then jump to get the coin?
Well ghee that's swell and guess what? You got it! And that really is what platform games are. The three blocks combined is called a platform and the process of making progress through the use of platforms is called a platform game.
That's really all there is to platform games. Platforms are needed to reach areas and obtain collectibles. Without platforms being there, you aren't playing a platform game. Hence why Super Mario games always have block structires so that the platforming remains.
There are several types of platformers out there. Many that I have played are generally easy to play. Some might have challenge in them but the challenge in platform games is making progress through the use of platforms and this is my favorite genre because of how simple it is and how fun the games in it can be.
In my opinion, there are of three types of platformers. The first one is side scrolling. These platformers are often straight forward and always have the goal at the end of the level which is mostly by going to the right. There are some secrets that make you want to explore the level a bit to get the reward in them and when done right, it can be very fufilling to have found something that got you to curiosity.
These platformers mostly have lives and health. Lose all health and you lose a life and lose all lives and you get a game over and start the level all over. Now to ensure this isn't tedious, these platformers have checkpoints that ensure that when you lose a life, you don't have to start all over and you instead start at the last point where you got one checkpoint.
And the levels generally are generous enough for you to get bonus sections and secret areas that let you get more lives and health. So these types of games while not challenging are still fun to play.
Action-Adventure games otherwise known as Metroidvania games are those that generally have large areas that focus on getting upgrades to explore areas that were previously not accessible inorder to make some form of progress. Now these aren't always platformers because you're tasked to do more than just jumping on platforms such as talking to other characters and getting equipment to learn new moves which normally, you don't do on straight forward platformers.
And then we have 3D platformers which are similar except that they are often designed in manners that the environment is the actual platforming sections and are the ones that encourage you to explore areas to collect various goodies as means of reaching the goal.
While side scrollers have collectibles, many of the collectibles are not as well hidden as how they can be on 3D Platformers and plus, getting collectibles on straight forward platformers is an optional(although there are some exceptions) thing while 3D platformers require you to get collectibles to go to newer levels mostly. Now there can be 3D Platformers that do have straight forward levels that have point A to point B sections but most of the time when people refer to 3D Platformers, they refer to ones like Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Jak and Daxter and Spyro.
So with that out of the way, let's get into platform games!
Ok..so what are platform games?
See the background that has question marks and some other blocks? Well, imagine what happens when the blocks form together? Its three blocks now together right? But now imagine a coin being there right at the top of the blocks and the blocks are on top of you. If you want the coin, how can you get it?
You can't run over it and there isn't a way to use a ladder since there isn't a block on top of those blocks to help you climb to get it...but wait..what if you just jumped on the platforms and then jump to get the coin?
Well ghee that's swell and guess what? You got it! And that really is what platform games are. The three blocks combined is called a platform and the process of making progress through the use of platforms is called a platform game.
That's really all there is to platform games. Platforms are needed to reach areas and obtain collectibles. Without platforms being there, you aren't playing a platform game. Hence why Super Mario games always have block structires so that the platforming remains.
There are several types of platformers out there. Many that I have played are generally easy to play. Some might have challenge in them but the challenge in platform games is making progress through the use of platforms and this is my favorite genre because of how simple it is and how fun the games in it can be.
In my opinion, there are of three types of platformers. The first one is side scrolling. These platformers are often straight forward and always have the goal at the end of the level which is mostly by going to the right. There are some secrets that make you want to explore the level a bit to get the reward in them and when done right, it can be very fufilling to have found something that got you to curiosity.
These platformers mostly have lives and health. Lose all health and you lose a life and lose all lives and you get a game over and start the level all over. Now to ensure this isn't tedious, these platformers have checkpoints that ensure that when you lose a life, you don't have to start all over and you instead start at the last point where you got one checkpoint.
And the levels generally are generous enough for you to get bonus sections and secret areas that let you get more lives and health. So these types of games while not challenging are still fun to play.
Action-Adventure games otherwise known as Metroidvania games are those that generally have large areas that focus on getting upgrades to explore areas that were previously not accessible inorder to make some form of progress. Now these aren't always platformers because you're tasked to do more than just jumping on platforms such as talking to other characters and getting equipment to learn new moves which normally, you don't do on straight forward platformers.
And then we have 3D platformers which are similar except that they are often designed in manners that the environment is the actual platforming sections and are the ones that encourage you to explore areas to collect various goodies as means of reaching the goal.
While side scrollers have collectibles, many of the collectibles are not as well hidden as how they can be on 3D Platformers and plus, getting collectibles on straight forward platformers is an optional(although there are some exceptions) thing while 3D platformers require you to get collectibles to go to newer levels mostly. Now there can be 3D Platformers that do have straight forward levels that have point A to point B sections but most of the time when people refer to 3D Platformers, they refer to ones like Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Jak and Daxter and Spyro.
So with that out of the way, let's get into platform games!
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