The Ten best Action Platformers of all time

[lithium]

The Genesis Castlevania game is extremely underrated, it's like an NES Castlevania game on steroids. No 8 way whip, pure old school Castlevania. 2 different characters with branching paths.

Yeah, and Dracula X is all that done 100 times better. And since we're talking best of the best, Drac X beats Bloodlines.

[SpoDaddy]

Does anyone remember that Capcom wrestling game, I forget the name of it but it was on Genesis and it had Haggar in it? Digita1's avatar just made me think of it out of nowhere, I loved that game. I rented it once and that was the only time I ever saw or heard about it before or since....

[digita1alchemy]

Saturday Night Slam Masters. I actually came across and bought the SNES version recently, but the slowdown really kills it. I was lucky enough to find an old 4-player arcade cabinet of it at a campground not too long ago, which is obviously the definative version. They also made a sequel that as far as I know never came to consoles, but it plays completely different. Instead of being able to roam around in the ring, it was turned into straight side-scrolling a la SF, pretty much rendering it a 2D fighter. Not horribly bad, but nowhere near as good as the first. The arcade roms are pretty easy to come across...

[Tain]

I don't have much of a list, but Gunstar Heroes, Yoshi's Island, and Ghosts n' Goblins would be on there.

~MDK2 (DC)

But this is pretty much a WASD FPS through and through...

[xS]

1.Dracula X
2. Gunstar Heroes
3. Alien Soldier
4. Shinobi 3
5. Metal Slug 3
6. MS X
7. Contra: Hardcorps
8. Castlevania 4
9. Shinobi(Arc)
10. Megaman 2

[SpoDaddy]

That's it! Saturday Night Slam Masters! I'm not suprised the SNES version had slowdown, I don't recall the Genesis version having much trouble with slowdown although it has been over 10 years since I played it....

[NeoZeedeater]

All these different platformer definitions are confusing.

Here are mine not including mascot/cutesy stuff or more adventure-oriented stuff(Metroid, SoTN, ActRaiser) and only taking one game from a series-

1. Shinobi III - Better than Revenge in almost every way and easily the best ninja game ever.

2. Dracula X - No other traditional Castlevania game compares.

3. Gunstar Heroes - The most unique and well designed run 'n gun game.

4. Kenseiden - I suppose the non-linear nature makes it borderline adventure-oriented but I think it fits here. It's superior to its closest rivals, the NES Castlevanias.

5. Strider

6. Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Megaman's good but Strider and Ghouls are definitely Capcom's best platformers.

7. Contra III - The top of this series. Hard Corps is close.

8. Ninja Gaiden 1 or 2 - I can't pick between these two. After Shinobi, these are my favourite 8-bit ninja games.

9. Alien 3(Genesis) - Kick ass Euro action.

10. Ninja Spirit

[SpoDaddy]

NeoZeed, a few questions:

Dracula X is only available as an import TurboDuo game right? (not including the SNES one, which sucked)

Which Ghouls N' Ghosts game are you referring to?

Are you talking about the American Alien 3, I was under the impression they were all the same?

I've never heard of Kenseiden or Ninja Spirit, what are they?

[lithium]

6. Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Megaman's good but Strider and Ghouls are definitely Capcom's best platformers.

Ghouls 'n' Ghosts is definitely very good and I'd likely include it in my list except I was trying to avoid more than one per franchise. But I always found Ghosts'n'Goblins to be more pure. It's like they got the formula perfect the first time and everything afterwards just added needless stuff on top.

[NeoZeedeater]

NeoZeed, a few questions:

Dracula X is only available as an import TurboDuo game right? (not including the SNES one, which sucked)

Yes, I'm referring to the import Duo one.

Which Ghouls N' Ghosts game are you referring to?

The arcade version of Ghouls, not Ghosts 'n Goblins or Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.

Are you talking about the American Alien 3, I was under the impression they were all the same?

Yes, it was released in North America. By "Euro" I meant European developed. The Genesis one is a different game than the SNES one although they're similar.

I've never heard of Kenseiden or Ninja Spirit, what are they?

Kenseiden is a Master System game by Sega.


Ninja Spirit is an arcade game by Irem that got an excellent port on TurboGrafx. Here's the arcade version -