What Is Your Favorite And Least Favorite 2D Platformers and Why

[oldgamerz]

My favorite 2D platformer is Duke Nukem 1 and 2. On the MS/DOS PC computers. Duke Nukem 1 and 2 lets you destroy almost anything like some walls, crates, and most of the enemies can be destroyed but not all of them.

This game is vary fair, while still giving you enough challenge, you have unlimited lives and chances to win this game, and you can literally fall from the top of the level and hit the ground without dying.

 If you run into lava or spikes you only lose 1 unit of health off your health bar every second you stay in most hazards. there is no time limits either. The bosses in the 2nd Duke Nukem game are tougher then the first games boss fights were.

But once you kill the enemies they stay dead. (in both games) and will not re-spawn again. Until you start the level over again.

there is save points, (at the beginning of each level). However you cannot save on either game, during the levels.  The first game will remind you to save your game. In a hallway. Before moving onto the next level. the 2nd game does not have a save hallway, but still lets you save at the start of each level. regardless

If you have a copy of Duke Nukem 3D the physical game CD. Then you have both of these 2D platformers The Full Version of both Duke Nukem 1 and 2 can be found inside the "goodies" folder on all of the CD based Duke Nukem 3D copies.



My least favorite is just about all console platformers, for example I think Metroid would have been a fun game on the NES IF you could destroy the enemies, instead of having no weapons and needing to jump over the enemies, and Megaman 1 and 2 is just too tough of a 2d platformer game, in order to have fun with it

What makes a good 2D platformer in my opinion. Is allowing you to shoot duck, and blow stuff up, just like in Duke Nukem 1 and 2 and even in duke nukem 3D.

I Believe if you are ever limited in any of your combat, jumping, crouching, shooting, and heath and life capabilities. And on top that off the enemies constantly come back to life after you kill them and attack you

and you have a timer it makes me wounder why, I mean Duke Nukem 1 and 2 is just non-stop action and all systems go and you are not timed either

[kamikazekeeg]

Favorite would probably be like Super Mario World or Shovel Knight.  Super Mario World was the pinnacle of 2D Mario games, I never was drawn into the 2D Mario games as much as that one afterwards, they all felt like they just wanted to mostly rehash stuff like Super Mario 3.  Shovel Knight is this huge re-emergence of the 2D platformer, by being an incredible retro throwback to so many games from back in the day, while also being a very good modern game with its own fun ideas and the amount of content they released for the game was great with the three extra campaigns, bonus features, and its own arena fighter mode.




Really not sure what I would put for worst, there's too many terrible 2D platformers out there, but if I had to pick something notable, I'd say Sonic the Hedgehog.  I love the style, attitude, and music of Sonic games, I think they are absolutely terrible games to play, even the new throwback with Sonic Mania.  Most of those games are just you blindly rolling into stuff you can't see or react or too and while they do have some okay platforming stuff in between, I've generally found the games to be one of those "Enjoy, but also hate" things, in that I never really beat most any of the old ones, because I'd just get to a point in the games where I would just get fed up with the game and stop.  I didn't like 2D platforming in Sonic till most Sonic Generations, where they pulled the camera back more and you can kinda react to stuff better.

[98dgreen]

Yoshi's Island would be my favorite but I don't know which would be my least.

[thewelshman]

I suck at platformers, but I really enjoy the Shantae games. I have really fond memories of the Super Mario games and remember watching my brother play through Super Mario Bros. 2 and trying to figure out why it's so much different than the first release. Of course, we all know now why it's so different.

I don't really know what my least favorite would be since I don't play them that often. I can say that I hate it when non-platformer games try to add it into their games. I absolutely hated the Pitioss Ruins dungeon in Final Fantasy XV.

[Cartagia]

Favorite would probably be like Super Mario World or Shovel Knight.
[...]
I love the style, attitude, and music of Sonic games, I think they are absolutely terrible games to play, even the new throwback with Sonic Mania.

Get out of my head.

[wartoy]

Super Mario World is my Favorite even though I was never into platformers this game won me over.And any Sonic game is my least favorite I loved the Genesis but hated the sonic games I just couldn't get into them.

[byron]

I'm going to tell you about a game called Magical Pop'n. It's a Super Famicom game released in 1995 which was developed by some no-name company which also produced a few dating sims and a Famicom RPG called Adventure in the Otaku Galaxy. It features a super kawaii magical girl. I hate anime and that goes triple for bug-eyed magical girls. The whole aesthetic is irritating. The protagonist makes shrill anime squeals every time she jumps and attacks. Voice clips which, as a full quarter of the box is devoted to telling prospective buyers, were provided by a popular porn star.

"Wow Byron," you are likely saying to your screen right now, "Your least-favorite 2D platformer sounds like insufferable fan service trash." But no, gentle reader. This is one of my favorites.

Yes, despite being thematically anathemic to every atom of my soul, I love the gameplay of Magical Pop'n so much that I paid hundreds of dollars to own it. I can't explain what makes it so satisfying to play. The difference between a clunky game and a polished one comes down to subtleties in programming difficult to quantify. Who can look at a code block and know if the collision detection and gravity and what have you hits that sweet spot? I think it must have been an accident. The programmers slapped out some code and through sheer lottery-like chance it just happened to be perfect. The controls are crisp and smooth. It combines the precision of movement of Super Mario World with omnidirectional attacks. I was always a little annoyed with games that restrict your abilities arbitrarily. There's no reason for Mega Man not to be able to shoot up. But he can't. Just lift your arm you stupid robot. In this game though, you feel completely unfettered. You can jump around and attack however you want with poise and responsiveness and it just feels good to do it.

The level design is uninspired. Just blocky platforms mostly. And there is the fact that the magical girl herself is incredibly obnoxious. I can't actually say that this is my favorite 2D platformer. Actually, it would be incredibly difficult to argue against Yoshi's Island not being the best platformer ever made. So I didn't really answer the question.

My least favorite platformer is the Smurf one for Colecovision.

[jce3000gt]

1. Super Mario World
2. Bonk’s Adventure
3. Bonk’s Revenge
4. Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Keith’s Courage in the Alpha Zones
6. Super Mario Bros 3

In that order.  I suck at platformers as a general rule but these 6 I am good at and love. 

[kamikazekeeg]

Favorite would probably be like Super Mario World or Shovel Knight.
[...]
I love the style, attitude, and music of Sonic games, I think they are absolutely terrible games to play, even the new throwback with Sonic Mania.

Get out of my head.

[byron]

Bonk and Keith Courage above Mario 3? Not saying you're wrong, but that is bold.

[ferraroso]

Favorite: Alex Kidd in Miracle World
I am not saying this the best 2D platformer ever, but since its the one I grew up with, it definitely is my favorite and the one I keep coming back to.

Least favorite: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Same thing as before. It isn't the worst platformer, but since it was so different from what I was expecting when I first played it and it was able to kill off the Alex Kidd franchise, this game is definitely among my least favorites.

[stealthrush]

1. Super Mario Bros. 3
2. Mega Man 2
3. Kirby Super Star
4. Silhouette Mirage
5. Mega Man X2
6. Kirby's Dream Land 3
7. Super Mario World
8. Gunstar Heroes
9. Shubibinman 3
10. Dynamite Headdy

HM: Astal, Blaster Master, Rocky Rodent, Bonk's Adventure, Mega Man 7.

[burningdoom]

Won't be counting Metroidvanias, as that could be a whole other large list.

Great 2D platformers:
-Bionic Commando
-Donkey Kong Country
-DuckTales
-Mega Man 2
-Rayman Origins
-Shantae series
-Shovel Knight (so damn good. I want a sequel, a SHOVEL Knight sequel. Haven't been as fond of the other characters, besides the scythe knight guy)
-Sonic the Hedgehog 1-3, Sonic & Knuckles & Sonic Mania
-Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Super Mario Land 2, Super Mario World & New Super Mario Bros. games

[Cartagia]

Won't be counting Metroidvanias, as that could be a whole other large list.

Great 2D platformers:
-Shovel Knight (so damn good. I want a sequel, a SHOVEL Knight sequel. Haven't been as fond of the other characters, besides the scythe knight guy)

Yes!  I love the original campaign, and the follow-ups are fine, but none anywhere close to that first transcendent campaign.

[burningdoom]

Won't be counting Metroidvanias, as that could be a whole other large list.

Great 2D platformers:
-Shovel Knight (so damn good. I want a sequel, a SHOVEL Knight sequel. Haven't been as fond of the other characters, besides the scythe knight guy)

Yes!  I love the original campaign, and the follow-ups are fine, but none anywhere close to that first transcendent campaign.

Yeah, it was that damn good. It was like it took everything that made Mega Man, DuckTales, and Castlevania great and mashed them together into a masterpiece love letter to 2D platforming.