Tag Archives: platform game

Flicky, Arcade

Originating in arcades in 1984, Flicky is a super cute bird-collecting platform game by Sega that relies heavily on gravity, inertia, and jumping to provide the challenge.

The aim of the game is simple: you play a blue bird who must collect up the small, yellow chicks (the “PioPio“), and avoid contact with the cats (the “Nyannyan“) on your way to taking the chicks home (the door you came in through). The quicker you do this, the more bonus points you get.

Simple. Or at least you might have thought so…

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Bubble Memories, Arcade

Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III was released into arcades by Taito in 1996, and – as the subtitle makes clear – this is a canonical Bubble Bobble sequel. It has been described as “Bubble Bobble on steroids”…

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Mario Bros., Arcade

Released into arcades by Nintendo in 1983, Mario Bros. is a one or two-player platform game featuring Mario and Luigi as the main characters. Incidentally, this was the first time Luigi ever appeared in a video game.

Mario Bros. was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi – two of the lead creators of Donkey Kong, of which this game is a follow-up.

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Popeye, Arcade

Nintendo‘s 1982 arcade game, Popeye, was somewhat ahead of its time, and also in some respects as archaic to play as a Game & Watch.

It was ahead of its time in the way that it used a relatively high screen resolution (512×448), which results in quite detailed, high res sprites that are unusual for the time.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said of the background graphics, which look like something designed on an Atari 2600… In fact: Popeye is a weird mix of graphical resolutions, but this weirdness doesn’t affect the gameplay at all.

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SegaSonic the Hedgehog, Arcade

SegaSonic the Hedgehog is an arcade game from 1993 starring Sega‘s famous blue mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. It features beautiful isometric graphics and trackball-based multiplayer gameplay.

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Summer Camp, Commodore 64

Summer Camp is an old school platform game that came out towards the end of the C64‘s life – 1990 to be precise.

It’s a cartoony collect ’em up in the style of Manic Miner, although in this you play Maximus Mouse trying to collect pieces of a blueprint.

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Creatures, Commodore 64

Also known as “Clive Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly Repulsive Earth-ridden Slime“, Creatures is a beautifully-realised platform/puzzle game with colourful graphics and challenging gameplay.

The game was programmed by John Rowlands, with graphics by Steve Rowlands, and was published by Thalamus in 1990.

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Retrograde, Commodore 64

Developed by Apex Computer Productions, in association with Transmission Software, and published by Thalamus in 1989, Retrograde is a side-scrolling, progressive weapons shooter written by the same guys who made Creatures.

Retrograde came before Creatures, though.

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Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy, Neo Geo

Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy was first released on the Neo Geo by SNK in 1994. It is a side-scrolling arcade platform game, sometimes referred to as a “predecessor to Metal Slug“, and featuring two playable characters… Yes, you guessed it: Roddy and Cathy.

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Rex, ZX Spectrum

Rex is a very enjoyable platform shooter, created by Neil Harris, John Anderson, and Richard Allen and published by Martech in 1988. Some describe it as a ‘Metroidvania‘ type game, although it reminds me more of another Spectrum classic – Starquake. Or maybe a Monty Mole game, crossed with Cybernoid.

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