Super Meat Boy
I have every bandage, every level completed, i have every achievement in the game.
I feel dead inside. buy this game.
– Real player with 193.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Platformer Difficult Games.
this game has taught me a lot. it taught me that if you try and try again, you’ll eventually succeed.
it also taught me taught me that suicide is always an option.
11/10 would suffer again.
– Real player with 36.4 hrs in game
The End Is Nigh
A lot of people have called The End is Nigh “Super Meat Boy 2”. I somewhat agree. It definitely has a similar aesthetic and certain elements are reminiscient of SMB. It’s closer to Super Meat Boy than Edmund’s other games, with its precision jumps and retro stages, certain obstacles and collectibles. It will certainly keep you busy for a few days, and far longer if you aim for some of the more ridiculous challenges or achievement hunting.
Sitting at 99% completion on my main save file, I think it goes without saying I’ve enjoyed the game quite a bit. I like the level design and hunting down secrets. I’ve both adored and loathed the retro stages and I don’t think I can leave this game unfinished, even if some of the iron man challenges are sure to give me a hard time.
– Real player with 61.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Platformer Indie Games.
Updating this review now that I’ve played through a lot more of the game, now that I’m at 75% completion, now that I got most of the collectibles (including secrets), and now that I made a “friend” (which is the objective given to you at beginning of the game, so no real spoilers there). Unless you’re some sort of platforming deity, two hours is not enough to get a good feel for the game.
Okay, first off, this is a hard game, especially if you’re going to be going for collectibles. The levels get quite unforgiving quite quickly, even in the first area, and the difference in timing between success and failure can sometimes be measured in tenths of seconds. Additionally, the controls are really precise, so when you screw up, you don’t have anyone to blame except yourself. Therefore, it’s not for everyone.
– Real player with 47.4 hrs in game
Dustforce DX
I should have written a review long ago. After all, I’ve played this game for 1,000+ hours and idle’d in its level editor for a few hundred more.
Dustforce DX is the deepest and most technically demanding 2D platformer ever made. It has a momentum based engine where all actions have real weight and consequence, attacks have start-up frames, things are jump and dash-cancellable, and there are tricks measured in how many frames they save. Every level has leaderboards both for score and for raw time, and the community is fiercly competitive and still very active. More importantly, every run on the leaderboards also has a replay embedded. Being able to watch your run (or anyone else’s) is not just fun, it’s a fantastic learning tool. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, then keep reading.
– Real player with 1670.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Platformer Great Soundtrack Games.
TL:DR, My absolute favorite platformer ever, please buy this game, its fantastic.
Below is my history with the game and how I came to know it as my personal favorite platformer of all time and a contender for being my favorite game ever.
At first, I didn’t really like Dustforce. I found a lot of the gameplay to be a little too difficult, even in the early levels of the game. It felt like the game didn’t want me to play, like it wanted to keep me out. But me being who I am, was stubborn, and wanted at least the 100% completion on Steam. So I grinded and grinded and grinded. Through all of the levels that technically meant almost nothing to the only achievement in the game. The S+ Achievement, which is given to you on completion of a SS run of Giga Difficult, one of the levels in the game that is so far in, that it keeps anyone who doesn’t have the true mentality to push, to improve, to keep playing, from ever reaching it.
– Real player with 153.3 hrs in game
Slime-san: Superslime Edition
This game puts you in the shoes, or lack thereof, of Slime-San, trying to escape after having been swallowed by a huge worm in this retro-styled linear platformer. It’s a long worm at that; At 100 Main stages (400 rooms), the main game is pretty sizable.
The game mainly focuses on the morph ability, which makes the player translucent and able to pass through certain blocks and enemies, as well as slowing down time. It’s a fantastically simple mechanic, being only one button you need to hold, and it never changes. In fact, Slime-San’s entire move-set remains the same through the entire game. The real diversity comes in the myriad of obstacles and enemies that get introduced over the game, making for an overall very nice easy-to-learn-hard-to-master progression.
– Real player with 65.5 hrs in game
Slime-san is an unassuming 2D pixel platformer that looks pretty retro. The graphics recall the NES era, and the game intentionally uses a sharply limited color palette – blue, green, red, and white – to further reinforce the retro feeling. Most of the levels consist of four unmoving screens, with each quarter of the level starting you back over at the beginning of it, while a timer runs in the background to measure how quickly you perform.
But the graphics belie a pretty solidly constructed platformer. This is no cheapo indie game, but is rather a platformer which is reminiscent of Super Meat Boy – very solid, but very compact, level design, with simplified graphics designed to call attention to what really matters in the levels.
– Real player with 48.6 hrs in game
iZBOT
Everything you expect from a platformer in a neat little package. This definitely isn’t a big game. Completing it, getting all gems (although the achievement didn’t unlock), and optimizing my time in a few levels took me around 4 hours — and I’m probably somewhere between mediocre and decent at precision platformers.
The controls are tight and responsive, the speed is good, and the levels are well-designed, so you can mostly go as fast as the game allows and not have to wait for moving parts of the level to let you through. And most important of all, it’s fair. While you may have to play a level a few times to become familiar with it, the game never just kills you for no reason, and there’s mostly no blind drops or anything of the sort. You’ll still die probably thousands of times just because you know you can do a level just a liiiiittle faster.
– Real player with 105.2 hrs in game
At just a single dollar (as of writing this review) this game is a steal. I got pretty addicted to this one for a bit of time. It’s a short but difficult game. I still haven’t beaten it. It’s a prescision platformer among the likes of Super Meat Boy, with a dash of Bloody Trapland. I wish the back drops art style varied from section 1, 2, and 3, but regardless, the art style is easy on the eyes and I enjoyed it. The difficulty curb is wild but I had a good time burning through 50-100 iZBOTs on the harder levels. Again, I still haven’t even beaten the game.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
1001 Spikes
Disclaimer: If you inherently can’t stand timing-based platforming and a certain level of trial-and-error/memorization, this game is not for you.
Mario really changed platforming huh? I mean he pretty much created it with his appearance in Donkey Kong, but it was Super Mario Bros. that defined core platforming mechanics for years to come. Chief among these is the jumping itself: SMB added a momentum based system as well as variable jump lengths depending on how long you held down the button. Put these together and you had a game that just felt better than any other game at the time. Fast forward to today and we’re in a resurgence of the genre, with a new SMB, Super Meat Boy, taking its place as king with the most refined Mario controls to date.
– Real player with 60.1 hrs in game
Did you think Super Meat Boy was hard? Did They Bleed Pixels make you break out in hives? Masocore platforming wonders though they be, both of these games prostrate themselves before the blood-splattered feet of Aban Hawkins and the 1001 Spikes. It’s hardcore!
But it is far from unfair, and that is a big portion what makes the game so good. Yes, 1001 Spikes demands some of the most nitpicky platforming precision in all of neoretro gaming, and it will frequently cheapshot you as you stand, exhaling pent-up breath, before the level exit – but it can be mastered, and the controls are both sensitive and simple enough for you to smoothly handle any challenge it throws at you. You never run out of chances to triumph, either; though the game pretends to give you 1001 lives, that is nothing more than an arbitrary counter to increase the feeling of tension as you watch it decrease by the hundreds. You’ll actually get a few extra automatically whenever you run out (not that this ever happened to me, I am proud to say). Funny thing is, even knowing this, you still get nervous watching those lives dwindle. I’m sure Philip Zimbardo could do a study on that . . .
– Real player with 26.7 hrs in game
Blade Crusade
Blade Crusade, the mysterious game originally found on Osama Bin Laden’s hard drive, is now available in the west for the first time!
It is the year of our Lord XX06. Legions of skeletal warriors have risen at the behest of an unlicensed wizard in the Mirabi desert, threatening the civilized world once again. Infiltrate and ascend the wizard’s mountain fortress level by level, slay his vile menagerie of minions, and put an end to the dance macabre once and for all!
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS
Spikes, saws, lava, automatic crossbows and all sorts of OSHA violations await you, but fear not! Weighty physics, tight controls and time manipulation let you jump, bounce and glide past obstacles with deft precision.
HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS
Fight your way through waves of enemies and unique bosses! Use your movement skills to your advantage as you outmaneuver and juggle your foes. Slide, slash, dash and parry your way to victory!
ONE DEATH IS A TRAGEDY. A MILLION DEATHS ARE A STATISTIC.
A single missed step, mistimed jump or slow reaction can mean the difference between life and death. And rest assured, there will be plenty of death!
TIME IS MONEY
Find and perfect the fastest route through each level, making sure to gather every collectible. Race against other players and work your way up the leaderboards!
COSMOS
EDIT: Since posting my original review, the developer has gone in and addressed some of my issues. I originally did not recommend this game, but I have updated my review to reflect those changes.
Here’s what you do:
You play through vertical scrolling stages, climbing, jumping, and shooting enemies. You can aim freely of your movement with either a mouse cursor or right stick on a controller. There are six world with up to 20 short levels in each (each world varies). There are no boss battles. One hit will kill you, restarting the stage. The goal is to get to the top of each level while taking out all the enemies (and surviving).
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Fun platformer run and gun game. Short, but enjoyable. The only thing I would change, though, is more customizable controls. The aiming is much easier on mouse and keyboard, but I ended up playing on controller because I prefer not using the space bar to jump.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
Crazy Gravity
I really liked the game, a very nice graphic, a gravity mechanic that brings a differential to the game, and the increasing difficulty making the game challenging.
Congratulations to the developer!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
I really liked the game, I’ve seen some gravity games, but this one explores this mechanics very well and has a very well done level design. The game is very well polished and very worth buying. I recommend!
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja
Great game ! The difficulty is well adjusted so that it’s pretty challenging and rewarding without ever being too frustrating.
Kudos on the boss fights, they felt pretty epic :)
– Real player with 18.3 hrs in game
At first I thought it was a normal game. But when playing and can’t put it down, it’s very fun. I want to try to play together very good skill.
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game