Platform games

[repoMan]

All we know that the amount of Shoot'em up games of all kinds available is absolutely overwhelming, there're also a good amount of RPG/ARPG games; but, what about most classic platform games?, I'm not talking about "Manic Miner"-like games (it would be great to find them in X68K tho :-D), I'm more into games like Rockman/Megaman or with a bit more exploring component, like the good old MSX "The Maze of Galious" or the recent "La Mulana".

The best example I know is of course the great Castlevania; but are there any other examples?, maybe between the extensive Doujin catalog?

I can't find them!

[gojirien]

Buster is a good one,  or the famous Genocide 1 and 2

[neko68k]

There seem to be almost none. Making SHMUPS is relatively easy :/ Etoile Princess is a top down action hack n slash, it's so-so. Genocide 1 and 2 are not very good IMO. I like Mad Stalker but it's got majorly OP bosses. Geograph Seal has really big areas and it's 3D but the framerate and controls make that game pretty tough.

[kamiboy]

Japanese PC platforms generally suffer from a severe platformer deficiency. I don't think ease of development is the cause of there being such a lopsided balance towards shooters on those platforms. I think shooters were just seen as being more of a hard core genre, whereas platformers were something for the console plebs.

Tis a shame too, seeing what Konami could do with Castlevania on the X68000 I wonder what other fantastic action/platformers we might have had on the X68000, FM Towns and PC98 if only the developers had been a bit more balanced in their development focus.

At least PC98 has Rusty, which is its answer to Castlevania on the X68000. The closest we got to a proper quality platformer on the FM Towns was Splatterhouse.

I wish I had had the wherewithal to stick to my own X68000 action/platformer project, then the platform would have had one more platformer to offer. But hey, it is hard to keep up motivation when going it alone, without a graphic artist or musician to round out the ensemble.

Also, for shame, sir, Etoile Princess is fantastic, worth playing for the music and charm alone.

[repoMan]

Buster is a good souped-up "Wonderboy in Monsterland" clone, very well accomplished indeed. That reminds me of "Dragon Buster", another classic. Of course I forgot to mention great games like Daimakaimura; but overall, the X68000 really need more games like Castlevania, how strange that Konami created only one episode of the saga for the Sharp machine, maybe Nintendo was involved in such decision? 

I'm looking through my BASIC magazines looking for good XBASIC examples, I'm tempted to try something simple. Seems that there's also a XBASIC compiler so it could be feasible to create decent games.

Or maybe a C toolchain I've found over the net...:-) 

[vanpeebles]

Manic Miner would be ace Platform wise, what about stuff like Chelnov Atomic Runner, Rygar and Strider?

[skpstmgs]

Try "Aquales" by Exact - it's a good platformer (Exact's other games are good as well). Only catch is you need to write it to floppies for it to work past the second level. If you try to mount it using 2hdboot, the first level will work but it will crash after.

[LowDefAl]

New Zealand Story must count? Hardly an original game but it is a platformer.

[ShootTheCore]

There's also Rygar, Strider and Ghouls N Ghosts.