The Ten best Action Platformers of all time

I've been playing tons of Mega Man lately via the Anniversary Collection, and I'd forgotten just how much I love 2d action platformers. I started thinking about which ones were the best ever, and I've narrowed it down to these 10 in no particular order:

Gunstar Heroes
Viewtiful Joe
Contra: Hard Corps
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Ristar
Aladdin (Genesis)
Vectorman
Sonic 1
Strider
Shinobi 3


I can't bring myself to single out a Mega Man game, since they're all great and feel the same so I guess you can count them as one big game. What are your 10 all time favorite 2d Action platformers?

Mario?

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Originally Posted by Green

Mario?

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Or more specifically Mario 3?

I love Mario and Mario 3, but I don't think it quite fits into the genre. It's more of a pure platformer than an action platformer.

But Sonic is ok?

I'm a Castlevania whore and partial to most of that series, if you want a pure action, level-based Castlevania, Rondo of Blood is up there, as is Castlevania III and Super Castlevania IV (ooh the music...).

Contra III: The Alien Wars came to mind after reading Hard Corps on there.

In no particular order:

Super Castlevania
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Rolling Thunder 3
Mega Man III
Ninja Gaiden II
Super Metroid (does this count as a platform game?)
Bionic Commando
Strider
Revenge of Shinobi
Batman (NES)

Ooh Bionic Commando, good call. That's definitely in my top 10.

And if Super Metroid counts, then I'd add Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, or at least one of those. Metroidvania is great.

NoFace: You're right, Sonic doesn't belong there either. I guess it just felt more action oriented because of the speed but yeah, it's not really an action platformer.

I always thought Revenge of Shinobi was overrated, because it's perpetually brought up as the definitive Shinobi game wheras Shinobi 3 is the better game and an all time classic IMO.

I also think the SNES Konami games (Castlevania and Contra) are overrated, they're fantastic games but I think their Genesis counterparts are better. I think they're overrated because they came out so much earlier and blew everyone away with the scaling/rotation and music.

I thought about the NES Batman, I loved that game even though I could never beat it (even with a game genie). I almost named Bionic Commando, except I wasn't sure if it qualified considering there's no jump button but what the hell, it's an awesome game so it counts. I forgot about Rolling Thunder 3, that game ruled. Some other games I thought about: Ranger X, Comix Zone, Splatterhouse 2/3, Blackthorne, Code Name Viper, Sunset Riders (all of them), the Xmen games on Genesis, Super Star Wars games, Greendog, Midnight Resistance, Robocop vs. Terminator, Predator on NES (I loved that game as a kid), Blaster Master, and one I can't believe I forgot about, one of my all time favorite games, Street Fighter 2010 on NES!

This thread plus Melf's new Genesis site has made it painfully clear that I need to go play Revenge of Shinobi, something I've never done. I never see anything bad said about that game... so I'll make a point to play it sometime this week, I wonder how it holds up without any nostalgia value.

NoFace: Have you ever played Shinobi 3? I don't understand why it's not more celebrated, it's not only the best Shinobi ever but it's one of the best games ever